People are real, but the crowd disappoints
Every crowd, sooner or later, will let you down. The crowd contains a shoplifter, or a heckler, or an anonymous boor who leaves a snarky comment. The crowd loses interest, the crowd denigrates the work, the crowd isn’t serious. Worst of all, sometimes the crowd turns into a mob, out of control and bloodthirsty. But people, people are real. People will look you in the eye. People will keep their promises. People can grow, can change, can be generous. When in doubt, ignore the crowd (and forgive them). When possible, look for people instead. Scale is overrated, again and again. ; ; ; ; ; ;
Thanks
In just two days, my new course for freelancers is the fastest-growing one of its kind in Udemy’s history. I’m thrilled to see that so many of my readers are eager to dig in and make a difference. The course has already transformed the work of thousands of people. The half-price discount expires soon, and this will be my last post about it. I hope it resonates with you, and thanks again for leaping. ; ; ; ; ; ;
Reckless abandon (is neither)
It’s not reckless, because when we leap, when we dive in, when we begin, only begin, we bring our true nature to the project, we make it personal and urgent. And it’s not abandon, not in the sense that we’ve abandoned our senses or our responsibility. In fact, abandoning the fear of fear that is holding us back is the single best way not to abandon the work, the pure execution of the work. Later, there’s time to backpedal and water down. But right now, reckless please. ; ; ; ; ; ;
Terroir
You can taste it. Heinz ketchup has no terroir. It always tastes like everywhere and nowhere and the same. A Dijon mustard from a small producer in France, though, you can taste where it came from. Foodies seek out this distinction in handcrafted chocolate or wine or just about anything where the land and environment are thought to matter. But we can extend the idea to you, to your work, to the thing you’re building. Visit the City Bakery in New York. Every square inch contains the DNA of the whole place. The planking …
To overcome an irrational fear…
replace it with a habit. If you’re afraid to write, write a little, every day. Start with an anonymous blog, start with a sentence. Every day, drip, drip, drip, a habit. If you’re afraid to speak up, speak up a little, every day. Not to the board of directors, but to someone. A little bit, every day. Habits are more powerful than fears. ; ; ; ; ; ;
Product adoption: different problems for different folks
The product adoption cycle is one of the most essential things to understand when you seek to launch a product or service, or make any sort of cultural change. Different people sign up for new ideas at different rates. Some farmers, for example, are eager to try a new type of seed or irrigation device. Some farmers will wait years, or a generation, to try the same thing. Some people start the video going viral, some are the very last to see it. What distinguishes these people? It’s worth noting that someone who might be an…
Good design (and serial numbers)
Bosch puts the serial number for its dishwashers on the side of the door, not the top. Which means that 50{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} of the time, if the device is mounted in a corner, it’s impossible to see the serial number. Most companies use 0 and o and O in their serial numbers, as well as 1 and I. If they used nothing but letters, words in fact, there’d be no confusion. Make a list of 1000 short words, use each word twice and you have a million numbers. FISHY-LASSO, for example. Easy to remember, hard…
I didn’t see it because I wasn’t looking
My friend Alan came over to dinner the other night. Unbeknownst to me, he had a few plastic scorpions in his pocket (a reminder of a recent adventure). I saw a plastic scorpion on the bowl of nuts, but I didn’t see it, I just moved it aside and went ahead preparing dinner. A few minutes later, I saw a second plastic scorpion on the counter, but again, I didn’t actually see it, didn’t pause or consider it, I just moved on. It took until the third …
The naked corn paradox
Sometimes, the thing that’s done to market something makes it worse. And so, the corn at the local supermarket is already husked, because it looks better, sells better but tastes worse. And stereo speakers are designed with extra bass, so they’ll demo better, sell better but sound worse. The market isn’t always ‘right’, if right means that it knows how to get what it wants in the long run. Too often, we are confused, or misled, or part of a herd headed in the wrong direction. It’s almost impossible to bring the mass market to its senses, to insist that you know better. What you can do, though, is find discerning and alert individuals who will take the time to…
Discovery fatigue
When Napster first hit the scene, people listened to as many different songs as they could. It was a feast of music discovery, fueled by access and curiosity. Now, the typical Spotify user listens to music inside a smaller comfort zone. When blogs were fresh and new, we subscribed to them by the hundreds, exploring, learning and seeking more. Over time, many people stopped following the outbound links. When Twitter was new, just about anything seemed worthy …
Owning vs. renting
You don’t own attention or trust or shelf space. You don’t even own tomorrow’s plans. It’s all for rent, with a cancellation clause that can kick in at any time. The moment you start treating the rental like a right, it disappears.