Ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up. Smile at the optimism, praise the ambitions, and reminisce a little about what crazy stuff you said (unless you’re an astronaut / ballerina /professional athlete /etc. today, in which case – “congrats!”). Bob Lefsetz put a piece up last week titled “Star / … Continue reading What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
Tag: continuums
When In Doubt, Invert
How do you solve this fundamental problem: it’s hard to stand out from the group. People don’t know or understand what we do or why we’re different. Maybe they do after we explain it, but even then - we know they walk away using self-talk to convince themselves why we and/or our products are or … Continue reading When In Doubt, Invert
The (Minimal) Prep Work Required to Describe a Product or Service (With Bad Art!)
Before we attempt to describe whatever product or service we are offering / being offered, it may be helpful to place it on this graph. My inner Luddite suggests you follow these instructions to draw it for yourself: From left to right on the x-axis, we have “products” on one end and “services” on the … Continue reading The (Minimal) Prep Work Required to Describe a Product or Service (With Bad Art!)
How We Are Connected (Beyond Facebook)
The great poet/philosopher Modest Mouse once said, “My friends, my habits, my family, / they all mean so much to me” (from their song “One Chance”). This is the continuum to remember: individual / habits / obligations / systems The word selection here isn't perfect (feel free to slot your own in, and please let … Continue reading How We Are Connected (Beyond Facebook)
The Insanity of Habits
Read this question twice: Can a baseline activity, when considered over time, be considered a habit? As Einstein is often misattributed in saying, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Consider that if we think of habits as baselines, we can segment out a continuum and … Continue reading The Insanity of Habits
How to Pass Judgement Responsibly (Part 3)
This is becoming a broader arc. Start here and work your way through Parts 1 and 2. Next up in our discussion about responsible decision making and value chains is the reality of just how messy modern businesses are. However daunting it may first appear, the messiness is all the more reason we need a … Continue reading How to Pass Judgement Responsibly (Part 3)
Captain of the Upstream JV Meme Team
Think back for a moment and categorize the social groups in your life along this continuum: controlled – participatory. Examples: Family (born into, controlled), elementary school (selected for you, controlled), friends (mostly participatory, but typically formed as an extension of a controlled environment like school/neighborhood), sports (a mix of participatory and controlled), the Bachelor text … Continue reading Captain of the Upstream JV Meme Team
Bohemian Colonoscopy
A fresh for 2018 continuum for you: The Blitzkrieg / Bohemian peak-end continuum. When you’ve got to make a quick point that sticks? Blitzkrieg. When you’ve got to take someone on an emotional journey to make your point? Bohemian. And like so many roads, this one leads back to Daniel Kahneman. In a 1996 experiment, … Continue reading Bohemian Colonoscopy
Better Berger’s and Godin’s Guts
New continuum to ponder: reactive – creative. - Warren Berger was just on The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish talking about asking better questions. Full disclosure, I haven’t read any of Berger’s works previously, but he’s on my list now. So let’s ask some questions about this continuum. - Think of the extremes as two … Continue reading Better Berger’s and Godin’s Guts