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Initiative isn’t given, you take it
March 29th, 2011
The amazing thing is that unlike taking an apple or a chocolate bar, there’s no loss to the rest of us. After you take it, we all benefit.
There’s one other thing you can take at work, easily and with approval: responsibility. In fact, they sort of have to go together. One without the other is a mess.
Seth’s Blog
Accepting false limits
March 28th, 2011
I will never be able to dunk a basketball.
This is beyond discussion.
Imagine, though, a co-worker who says, “I’ll never be able to use a knife and fork. No, I have to use my hands.”
Or a colleague who says, “I can’t possibly learn Chinese. I’m not smart enough.”
This is a mystery to me. A billion people have learned Chinese, and the failure rate for new kids is close to zero. If a well functioning adult puts in sufficient time and the effort, she”ll succeed.
The key to this disconnect is the unspoken part about time and effort and fear. I agree that [...]
Faster, Better and More
March 27th, 2011
The trifecta of competition:
Faster than the other guy. Faster to the market, faster to respond, faster to get the user up to speed.
Better than the other guy. Better productivity, better story, better impact.
and More. More for your money. More choices. More care. More guts.
You have more competition than you did yesterday. I expect that trend will continue.
Seth’s Blog
“How much can I get away with?”
March 26th, 2011
There are two ways to parse that question.
The usual way is, “How little can I do and not get caught?” Variations include, “Can we do less service? Cut our costs? Put less cereal in the box? Charge more?” In short: “How little can I get away with?”
The other way, the more effective way: “How much can we afford to give away? How much service can we pile on top of what we’re selling without seeming like we’re out of our minds? How big a portion can we give and still stay in business? How fast can we get this order [...]
Impossible in theory
March 25th, 2011
A symptom of the revolution: When we state something is impossible in theory, but then change our minds when we discover that it is possible in practice.
Seth’s Blog
Originality
March 24th, 2011
I get two kinds of mail about this. One group points to organizations or individuals who are stealing my ideas. “Stop them!” they say. The other doesn’t hesitate to point out that I’ve never had an original idea in my life, and that I’m merely a promotional hack.
Lewis Hyde’s new book is about the nature of ideas, and how they improve with use. It turns out that anyone who produces a totally new idea, something completely out of thin air, is unlikely to be a productive artist and a lot more likely to be seen as a total loon. Every [...]
The triumph of coal marketing
March 23rd, 2011
Do you have an opinion about nuclear power? About the relative safety of one form of power over another? How did you come to this opinion?
Here are the stats, and here’s the image. A non-exaggerated but simple version of his data:
For every person killed by nuclear power generation, 4,000 die due to coal, adjusted for the same amount of power produced… You might very well have excellent reasons to argue for one form over another. Not the point of this post. The question is: did you know about this chart? How does it resonate with you?
Vivid is not the same [...]
Reject the tyranny of being picked: pick yourself
March 21st, 2011
Amanda Hocking is making a million dollars a year publishing her own work to the Kindle. No publisher.
Rebecca Black has reached more than 15,000,000 listeners, like it or not, without a record label.
Are we better off without gatekeepers? Well, it was gatekeepers that brought us the unforgettable lyrics of Terry Jacks in 1974, and it’s gatekeepers that are spending a fortune bringing out pop songs and books that don’t sell.
I’m not sure that this is even the right question. Whether or not we’re better off, the fact is that the gatekeepers–the pickers–are reeling, losing power and fading away. What are [...]
Idea tourism
March 20th, 2011
It’s possible for a tourist to visit Times Square in New York City, see nothing new or unexpected, and leave the city unchanged.
Same with the Eiffel Tower in Paris or a shopping mall in Dubai. Tourism doesn’t always open your mind, but when it works the way it supposed to, it sure does.
Which brings us to the notion of idea tourism.
It’s possible to do a drive-by of some of the big ideas of science or politics or technology and see only what you want to see. I don’t think there’s a lot of point in that. If you want to [...]
Better than it sounds
March 19th, 2011
Mark Twain said that Wagner wrote music that was better than it sounds.
It’s an interesting way to think about marketing. Is your product better than it sounds, or does it sound better than it is?
We call the first a discovery, something worthy of word of mouth. The second? Hype.
Seth’s Blog