Martha Stewart - The Next Bill Gates?

I could not help but comment on the recent Wired magazine interview with Martha Stewart. My initial reaction after seeing her on the COVER was to curse obscenities and plan my subscription cancellation.

However after a few days I got bored in the bathroom one day and decided to read it anyway. I ended up getting so much entertainment out of the interview, I just had to share my favorites excerpts with the blogger world.

So here we see the first question:

Wired: What can geeks learn from Martha Stewart?

Stewart: First of all, they can learn to prioritize, and they can learn how to make things beautiful. It's about using your hands and your mind to make things work better. Whether you're a programmer or a seamstress, it's all about new techniques, simplifying old techniques, and consolidating steps. Making things go faster — but not worse. Better.

Before I read this, I really was kind of clueless about what it took to write good code. I mean, four years in the Computer Engineering program at U of M, and no one ever mentioned simplifying, consolidating and making things work better.

And don't get me started on the quote "Making things go faster - but not worse. Better". Ahhh, so that is how it all works. My shit always was always rocket fast but didn't work. Now I know. Thanks Martha!

On to the next question:

Wired: You've just relaunched your Web site. Will your readers become content
contributors?

Stewart: I'm working on Marthapedia right now, which is my version of Wikipedia. If you know how to take red wine out of a white cloth napkin better than I do, that's good to know. We'll be editing user content, and it won't be as freewheeling as Wikipedia. Because a lot of this — you have to really monitor it.

Hmmm. Let's see. Wikipedia... freewheeling... editing user content... you have to really monitor it. She is really on to something here. I bet the folks over at Wikipedia could learn a thing or two from the new Martha Stewart website.

Speaking of... let's take a walk on over to MarthaStewart.com and see how things are going... Well, we are still waiting... the site is loading kind of slow. It has been about 45 seconds now and all I see is this:

Oh...wait... it finally loaded... some where during the time it took me to photoshop the above image her site responded. Perhaps she could trade her online community management secrets with Wikipedia for some tips on server resource management?