Customer Interviews No. 1

For this exercise, I chose to interview anybody that was outside in my surrounds and was willing to participate. Two of the people I interviewed were from the complex I live in. The other two were coming from varies bus stops of the places I was going to. The last person I interviewed was walking her dog in a recreation center. Everyone has unmet needs and something I thought of asking that would relate to everyone is relationship problems, either with family, friends or significant other. Here are the questions I asked each participant:

1)    What is your name?

2)    Are you a student? If so what is your major? Or are you just working?

3)    What are some of the challenges you deal with relationships whether it is with your family, friends or significant other?

4)    How does that interfere with school and/or work?

5)    Is it a daily struggle or occasionally?

6)    How do you deal with these situations?

From conducting this interview, I learned that people have different ways of expressing themselves when it comes to their relationships, whether is with friends, family or significant others. I learned that even people from various age groups have similar problems and/or situations. No matter how old you are or where you come from there is no such thing as a “perfect relationship”. Every person comes with baggage and you have to learn to either deal with it or move on. I really enjoyed doing these interviews due to the fact that it was sincere, straightforward and let me mention, challenging as well. Once I was able to convince complete strangers to open up to me about their relationships while I filmed them even if it was for only 2-3 minutes. I realize how crazy and personal it all was. Some people refused while others were more than happy to help me, I’m really thankful and proud to have put this together.

Customer Interviews No. 1

Week 4 Reading Reflection

While I was reading chapter 5 one thing that really caught my attention and made me stop and self evaluate was when the author pointed out the “the most common idea killers”. As I was going through the list I notice how often I say and hear those same words. I have always described myself as non-creative or creative enough but as the author says “its not reserve talent, but they way we look at the world”. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was when the author talked about evaluating and implementation, I understood when they mentioned evaluating yourself but how exactly would you implement? If I could ask the author two questions, it would be where do I start when it comes into looking at the world in different ways? How can I be more open to new ideas and more creativity around me? I would these questions because personally is something I have trouble doing or knowing where to start. I personally do not think the author was wrong about anything, the authors ideas and examples were really helpful.

Top 5 World Problems

Top 5 World Problems

List of Problems:

1)    Global warming

2)    Terrorism

3)    Depletion of natural resources

4)    Animal cruelty/ endangerment of animals

5)    Overpopulation

List of Solutions:

1)    Educate the public

2)    Advocate for renewable energy

3)    Placing and enforcing laws against animal cruelty/ endangerment of animals

4)    Gun control

5)    More protection in the homeland of terrorist

Global warming is my most serious problem because the earth is where us humans live. In spite of everything that is going on the universe if we do not put in our effort to improve the earth then what are we going to be left with? The destruction of our natural resources came in second because we are not only managing to currently destroy our future generations from having an abundant and fruitful earth by depleting our natural resources faster than we are allowing them to replenish themselves. We might not see it now but in a few years, future generations would not have the privilege to know what the Amazon Forest looks like, or what an animal in its natural habitat looks like. I picked terrorism as my third one due to the fact I see it as a self-destruct mechanism that unfortunately we have had to face within past years. It only seems to be getting worse and worse, there is so much anger and ignorance that has made humans go against each other and reach this self-destruct era. As my fourth topic, I picked overpopulation; this goes hand in hand with destroying our natural resources, the more people on this earth means more waste, consumption and even more, destruction of land to create space. There are more and more humans brought into this world when we are already destroying it as a whole. Last but definitely not least, as an advocate for animals, animal rights came in fifth place. This problem is one that really touches home for me; not only as being an animal lover but trying to give them a voice is something I have always worked very hard towards. I believe every animal in this earth is here for a purpose and by killing them for peoples selfish reasons is something that really impacts me.

Lack of knowledge is essentially what causes people to make poor decisions or no decisions at all, no actions towards making a difference in the world. I believe that by educating the public the chances of us humans making a difference are so much higher. If we were all in the same page and educated ourselves and spread knowledge little by little the human race can make incredible changes. This solution is one that can be done by simply passing knowledge around and it is one that can resolve a lot of problems worldwide. A solution that I believe us humans can also fulfill is being in favor of renewable energy and doing small things such as using public transportation more often, turning off appliances when they are not in use and with today’s technology going paperless is now a lot easier and most convenient. Small things like these are all possible and they make such a big impact. Another solution that has already taken place in parts of the United States has been placing and enforcing laws on animal cruelty. This is something that has finally made headlines but not so much for other parts of the world, for example in Africa, people can still get $25,000 hunting licenses to bring down beautiful ENDANGERED animals for their own selfish “sport”. To be honest, I do not understand why it is still legal to hunt in Africa; there is no other solution to prevent this than to place laws against it. Gun control is a harder solution to achieve but not impossible. Americans have the right to carry a concealed weapon but over the past decades, it has gotten out of control to the point any criminal in the streets can get their hands on a gun without a problem, making our safety very vulnerable. By having tougher laws and more restrictions on the people that can purchase weapons we can slowly try to get this problem under control. My last solution is more challenging but also not impossible if we had the ability to protect the innocent lives in the homeland of terrorists we can prevent terrorist taking control of their own base, making them less powerful and less likely to spread fear to their own people. This is a solution that is very hard to go through but it is still possible and a route that we can take.

Identifying Local Opportunities

1) Robert Knight: Law preserves status quo for polluters

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9388BE6DE2E18?p=AWNB

This article talked about Florida’s Legislature that passed the 2016 Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act and Gov. into law. The article went into detail about the misuse and pollution of water and the harm of keeping and accepting the law that was passed to preserve the status quo. People that are advocates for clean water and stricter laws on water pollution opposed the law. It calls for Florida’s voters to open their eyes on who they are electing into power with this “poisoned water bill.” It made it clear that the only people that are benefiting for this law are companies and engineers we profit from the agricultural and urban development. Stressing the importance to veto the law and implement a new law that would help clean Florida’s polluted waters.

The problem presented in the article is the 2016 Florida Spring and Aquifer Protection Act and Gov. that was passed into law.

Florida’s residents face this problem because we all live here and have to deal Florida’s waterways being polluted.

2) Woman bites off fingers of 89-year-old man

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9388BB6B90498?p=AWNB

The article talks about a women identified as Linda Kay Swift, 52, biting off an 89-year-old man fingers off. The incident happened in a group home where Swift unprovoked and punched the man in the head and chest several times. Swift was charged with aggravated battery on a person age 65 or older. The article also states that Swift had bruising on her face, as well as blood on her nose.

The problem presented in the article is Swift violently biting off the ends of two of the fingers of an 89-year-old man.

The 89-year-old man has a physical problem and Swift in my opinion has a psychological problem.  

3) Hawthorne man charged in parking garage shooting

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9388BDAC1D2B0?p=AWNB

This article talked about a fight involving 13 people that caused a man identified as Jacob Bryan Heflin to fire three shots. One of the shoots hit the ceiling and injured a witness hitting him in the torso. Heflin was arrested with multiple charges including aggravated assault, aggravated battery and discharge of a firearm in public. Another man identified as Philip Cody Vanorder, was also arrested on charges of tampering with evidence. Vanorder is said to have picked up the weapon and thrown it towards his truck. Police reports stated the weapon was found inside his truck.

The problem presented in the article is the fighting involving 13 people and the firing of a firearm hitting a witness.

Jacob Bryan Heflin and Philip Cody Vanorder have the problem because they were the ones found with the firearm.

              
4) Women cops hope to arrest sexist behavior in GPD

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9388B958D8C30?p=AWNB

This article talks about Gainesville Police Chief Tony Jones holding a town meeting where issues of sexual harassment of women officers will be discussed. The article also talks about incidents were female officers have felt uncomfortable with GPD Captain Brian Helmerson. Chief Jones hopes to change things for the better and bring more diversity to all levels including common staff.

The problem presented in the article is female cops having to face harassment and feeling uncomfortable while at work.

Anyone that has felt uncomfortable or has faced harassment in GPD has the problem because they have to deal with that while at work.

5) Editorial: Credit for a growing city

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9388BECEE4608?p=AWNB

In this article, mayor of Gainesville Ed Braddy talks about the changes Gainesville faces and his ideas of making Gainesville grow in an innovative way. He talks about the way he has changed Gainesville and the plans he has for the future. He cites the Uber ride service as an innovative step Gainesville has taken and is also connected in increasing small businesses. The article also talks about Gainesville’s income inequality problems and how Braddy and his opponents in the mayoral race would have to deal with it.

The problem presented in the article is that voters must decide if Mayor Ed Braddy deserves to take credit for the changes that have happened in Gainesville and should people reelected him again. The voters should take into account past event as well as the plans Braddy promises in the future.

Gainesville’s voters have the problem because we are deciding who we are putting in charge.

Week 3 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise from reading chapter two is the dealing with failure section and the grieving recovery process. Failure is seen as an opportunity to learn from experiences but if not taken the appropriate actions to grieve and refocus it could lead to a negative outcome. It surprised me that even someone who knows that failure is sometimes a good thing can focus only on the failure and set for a negative emotional standpoint and increase their grief. One part of the reading I found confusing was the matter of morality. This section confused me because it is a very thin line between law and ethics and it explained that the majority of legal requirements and moral standards are not aligned with each other to make it legal and moral at the same time. It also states that unethical behavior takes place in business, is this telling saying that entrepreneur’s do business more legally instead of morally? I would ask the author, is there such a thing as making it big by being both morally and legally? I would ask this question because when we talk about big names such Bill Gates, Marc Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs we are always presented with this dilemma. I would also ask, if an entrepreneur would let a failure stand in between him and the ultimate goal at hand? I would ask this because it is hard for a lot of people to get passed a really big failed event, some even get discourage and stopped trying. Would an entrepreneur have a strong enough mindset to look past it and continue to learn from the failed event? There was not a section in the chapter where I disagreed with the author. Many of the characteristics and attributes listed are things I have seen personally and have encountered.