“God created man in order to tell stories.” – Hasidic saying, quoted by Franz Kafka
Where did stories start?
In The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker charts the history of stories and where he believes that they have gone wrong in the last 200 years, after outlining seven archetypal plots in detail with a rich array of examples. It’s a long and fantastic read, despite some flaws, which will enrich anyone interested in stories in any form (for example, there are many movie examples). Read more »
Questions, questions
After watching the world go by for a while, you may still have some unanswered questions which means it may be time to start a conversation with your customers. Although more than 90% of communication is non-verbal, there is a huge amount to be learnt from listening to consumers (and asking the occasional question), especially when this is done in the right way. Read more »
“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” - Herbert Simon
Do you need more information?
How much can information can the world use? It can certainly create a great deal of information according to a study by Martin Hilbert at the University of Southern California, but the ability to create and even store more and more information is not the same as the ability to understand, synthesise and communicate the information. I believe this is one of the most important issues we face today, both as content producers and as content consumers with increasing competition for our limited attention. Read more »
Pulling the trigger
Have you ever had the experience that something was on the ‘tip of your tongue’ but you couldn’t quite remember? That’s likely because you know the information exists, but you can’t quite find the right connection to trigger its recall. That’s why such memories sometimes come back later when triggered by a more relevant (but often random) stimulus. Read more »
To perceive is to act
Perception is all about action. What we perceive is not just based on input from our senses, but also based on our expectations in a specific context or situation. Our senses work very well, but our brain integrates, interpolates and interferes with the information coming from the senses to fit the data to pre-existing models of what it thinks should happen (based on a vast databank of previous experiences). For example, our brain expects that two towers going up into the sky away from us should converge following the laws of perspective, and when they don’t (as above) this can cause unintended effects in how we perceive the world. Read more »
I can’t think why
After facilitating two fun-packed days on consumer psychology last week, I picked up the latest edition of Newsweek which had a lead article on the very same topic written by Sharon Begley (link below). Sharon Begley focuses on the impact of the ‘Twitterization’ of culture, arguing that our brains are sometimes so overloaded with information that they simply freeze. The story is backed up by neuro-imaging studies of brian activity during decision making, which show that when overwhelmed with information our conscious brains sometimes literally ‘switch off’. More importantly, with too much information, our decisions can make less and less sense. Read more »
The sweep of history
In A History of the World in 100 Objects, Neil McGregor offers a fascinating and inspiring sense of the progress of man and the sweep of history told through the individual stories of 100 objects from the British Museum (I saw many of the individual exhibits myself in two visits to the UK last year). Although the scope of the series was vast, starting with a stone chopping tool from the Rift Valley in Tanzania, dated at around 2 million years old and finishing with a credit card and solar powered lamp and charger from today, it’s power lies in the unfolding of the individual stories of each object, placing them in their appropriate context and vividly capturing a moment in time. I would strongly recommend anyone to listen to the podcasts which are still available at the BBC website (link in the first line) or to read the book. Read more »
We have written at DoctorDisruption.com about the trend for innovation to be increasingly driven by emerging markets and recent articles at trendwatching.com and blogs.hbr.org provide some great examples of Asian innovation. Here are some of the most inspiring examples from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Read more »
Is Market Research the iceberg that keeps the Titanic afloat?
At the APRC and JMRA annual conference in Tokyo yesterday, Hatsunori Kiriyama of Procter & Gamble gave a thoughtful keynote speech on “My expectation from research”. Although Kiriyama-san comes from a sales background, he clearly values research, as do his company, placing it at the heart of the business he runs in Japan, or as he described it, “our brand stories always start with the consumer”. Read more »
“Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.” - Denis Diderot Read more »
