Check out this video. Don’t want to give anything away. It’s got quite a visceral punch. (via one of Chip’s students at Stanford)
Archive for the 'Concreteness' Category
“Choice” video
Published by March 11th, 2008 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness and Emotion. 11 CommentsMercy Corps’s thoughtful use of concreteness
Published by December 20th, 2007 in General, Concreteness and Emotion. 1 CommentWhen you give to Mercy Corps, they follow up with an email that gives you a concrete vision of how you’ve helped. For instance: “Your support of $40 provides a Zimbabwean family clean drinking water for two years.”
Lots of charities have figured out that, in soliciting donations, they need to anchor abstract amounts of money in […]
“Canoe Man”
Published by December 20th, 2007 in General, Simplicity, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion and Story. 0 CommentsThere are 6 principles of sticky ideas, and folks, Canoe Man has all 6. It’s no wonder why this bizarro tale has captivated the UK public.
Robert M brought it to our attention with this introduction: “Man vanishes at sea in 2002, only his battered kayak is found. Wife and two sons mourn, then wife claims life […]
Triggers and water conservation
Published by December 20th, 2007 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness and Concreteness. 0 CommentsPark Howell saw our column about “Triggers” in Fast Company and wrote us with a great story:
In 1999, we created the “Water - Use it Wisely” conservation campaign that was completely built on environmental triggers. I think we were simply more intuitive (lucky) in our approach than brilliant (good) when creating the campaign, but it […]
The Partition of Africa
Published by November 1st, 2007 in General, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Emotion, Story and Teachers. 2 CommentsHere’s a story we received from Peri Chinoda, an AP & Honors World History Teacher at Hume Fogg Magnet High School in Nashville:
Background Information: In 1885 the Chancellor of Germany, Otto Bismarck, convened a meeting attended by 13 European colonial powers including the USA and the Ottoman Empire. The Africans whose land was to be […]
Wyoming Libraries Mudflap and Idea Judo
Published by November 1st, 2007 in General, Unexpectedness, Concreteness and Emotion. 0 CommentsCheck out this very clever campaign for Wyoming’s libraries. (One bumper sticker offers a more literate twist on a classic: “You can have my book when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.”) And the mudflap girl is a must-see (and, while it would be stretching it to call her a must-buy, she is indeed […]
Tammy Is a Quitter
Published by October 23rd, 2007 in General, Simplicity, Concreteness, Credibility, Story, Curse of Knowledge and Teachers. 3 CommentsHere’s a story from Dave Rendall, who has a blog called the Freak Factor. (I love his post that argues that if you’re getting rejected, you’re doing something right.)
I hadn’t seen Tammy in almost a year, when she approached me in the hallway. I was there to teach an evening class for non-traditional students. She told me […]
The lightning and the lottery
Published by October 19th, 2007 in General, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility and Teachers. 2 CommentsI almost spit up my coffee when I got to the punchline on this one.
From Tony Pratt:
I’m a first year teacher (4th Grade) in the New Orleans Recovery School District. The one common thread that I’ve noticed between the lessons that have stuck was a relation to something the kids were familiar with or interested in. […]
Digital signal processing, made to stick
Published by October 17th, 2007 in General, Simplicity, Concreteness, Story, Curse of Knowledge and Teachers. 4 Comments[Preamble] If you ask someone to think of a sticky idea, a lot of times they’ll blurt out a slogan. ”Wassssup!” ”Just do it.” And, no question, these are sticky ideas. But because people tend to associate the notion of “stickiness” with things like slogans — i.e., short, punchy, cleverisms — they have a hard time imagining […]
The Screaming Man in the Four Stroke Engine
Published by October 12th, 2007 in General, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Emotion, Story and Teachers. 2 CommentsHere’s one of our favorite stories so far from the “100 books for 100 stories” contest. There are still plenty of books to giveaway, so make sure to tell your teacher friends: Email us — heaths@fastcompany.com — a story of a lesson that stuck and we’ll ship you a free signed copy of our book. […]
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