After 16 years without a drink, Jim Atkinson confesses that the urge is still strong at holiday times. How can an alcoholic describe to a non-alcoholic what it’s like to crave that drink? Atkinson uses analogies:
There’s something in the alone-in-the-crowdness of the holiday party circuit, the forced pleasantries and laughter, the charge to be friendly [...]
Archive for the 'Simplicity' Category
What it’s like to be an alcoholic
Published by December 9th, 2008 in Concreteness, General and Simplicity. ClosedThe collapse of AIG in 10 min
Published by October 28th, 2008 in Concreteness, General, Simplicity and Story. 0 CommentsYou can learn what ”credit default swaps” are, and how they brought down AIG, in 10 minutes, thanks to Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch. What’s particularly clever is the car insurance analogy, which buys us some quick intuition into a complex topic.
In the book, we discuss the simple trade models that teachers use in Econ 101 — e.g., [...]
You’ve got to know when to Fuld ‘em
Published by September 18th, 2008 in Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion, General, Simplicity, Story and Unexpectedness. 6 CommentsNicholas Kristof has a sticky piece today on the grotesque overpayment of CEOs who fail. Case in point: Richard Fuld, chief of the now-flushed Lehman Brothers, made a half-bil between 1993 and 2007. Good investment.
This story, and others like it, run the board on the traits of a sticky idea: They’re simple (Too much money!). [...]
Hands-only CPR
Published by September 11th, 2008 in Concreteness, General, Simplicity and Unexpectedness. 5 CommentsChip and I were thrilled to work with the AHA on their new campaign promoting “Hands-only CPR.” (Our role was limited: We led a workshop early in the process as the AHA team contemplated how to talk about the new technique. But we had nothing to do with the ingenious commercials that Jerry Potts and his [...]
The myth of mutual funds
Published by August 19th, 2008 in Credibility, Emotion, General, Simplicity and Unexpectedness. 5 CommentsThe evidence says that people who buy mutual funds retire a lot poorer than if they’d simply bought index funds. So why do mutual funds keep growing? In our latest Fast Company column, we explore why it’s so hard to get the truth to stick.
Deconstructing The Girl Effect
Published by July 18th, 2008 in Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion, General, Simplicity, Story and Unexpectedness. 10 Comments[Via a friend at McKinney] If you want some practice at making ideas stickier, I have a great case study for you. Rope aside 30 minutes and follow along with the process below. It concerns the work of a group called The Girl Effect. Here’s the game plan:
1. Start here. It’s a pdf document with [...]
A Girl Like Me
Published by July 15th, 2008 in Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion, General, Simplicity and Unexpectedness. 3 CommentsI recently did a workshop with a group that’s working to remind people that racism still exists in America and must be actively fought. They pointed out that many people have, in a sense, declared victory on race — after all, haven’t the racist elements of the law been expunged? Haven’t most of the overtly [...]
“Choice” video
Published by March 11th, 2008 in Concreteness, Emotion, General, Simplicity and Unexpectedness. 12 CommentsCheck 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)
“Canoe Man”
Published by December 20th, 2007 in Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion, General, Simplicity 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 [...]
Triggers and water conservation
Published by December 20th, 2007 in Concreteness, General, Simplicity and Unexpectedness. 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 [...]
