There 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 […]
Archive for the 'Credibility' Category
“Canoe Man”
Published by December 20th, 2007 in General, Simplicity, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion and Story. 0 CommentsTammy 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. […]
Oceanography, amplified
Published by October 3rd, 2007 in General, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Story and Teachers. 3 CommentsI conducted a workshop recently for high school science and math teachers. We were working together to find ways to make their lesson plans stickier. My favorite example came from a couple of teachers who were trying to revamp the oceanography unit. Below is my own paraphrasing of what they said:
“We weren’t happy with how our unit on oceanography went last year. […]
Typography Testable Credential
Published by October 3rd, 2007 in General and Credibility. 5 CommentsHow do you make your idea believable? You can get an external authority (the C. Everett Koop of your field) to vouch for it. You can use data and statistics. Or you can find a way to make your idea credible on its face. One technique for doing that is to use what we call a testable credential. A classic […]
Credibility from stating the obvious
Published by September 21st, 2007 in General, Unexpectedness and Credibility. 5 CommentsFrom an article on nice-but-cheap bottles of wine in the NYT:
Let’s face it, you can find hundreds if not thousands of bottles in [the $10 or under category], down to the lowest of the low. We cannot try them all and say, “Here are the 10 best.” But we can give you some suggestions as to […]
Unsticking Baby Einstein
Published by August 24th, 2007 in General, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility and Emotion. 4 CommentsThe research is in on Baby Einstein videos: “For every hour a day that babies 8 to 16 months old were shown such popular series as “Brainy Baby” or “Baby Einstein,” they knew six to eight fewer words than other children, the study found.”
Concrete enough for ya? But if the enduring appeal of the discredited “Mozart Effect” […]
Tanzania post-mortem
Published by August 20th, 2007 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion and Story. 8 CommentsChip and I had an incredible time in Tanzania. So, let me start by saying this: You know that feeling you get when a full explanation would take 25,000 words, but you’ve only got 500, and you’re afraid to oversimplify, but you’re also afraid to give a vague “neat experience” summary, and this causes a […]
Conversation starter: Proudly made in China
Published by August 2nd, 2007 in General, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility and Emotion. 0 CommentsChip and I have been emailing back and forth with Jeff Delkin, the owner and cofounder of a startup company called Bambu, which makes lovely housewares out of bamboo and other renewable materials. He’s said a couple of things that inspired us, and Jeff gave us permission to share them with you.
A few months ago, […]
A tale of two bottled-water stories
Published by July 19th, 2007 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion and Story. 7 CommentsI previously blogged about Charles Fishman’s insightful and thoroughly sticky piece on the bottled water industry. His main point: Our embrace of bottled water “is not a benign indulgence.”
Then I got this note from Mojo Mom, who I’m a big fan of:
Today I heard NY Times reporter Julia Moskin interviewed [about bottled water] on NPR’s The Splendid Table and I […]
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