1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
Via @bornsandy
My interest in the 80′s/90′s industrial scene was recently rekindled after coming across a lively Sound Opinions interview with Chris Connely and Paul Barker. S0 I spent the last few months obsessively collecting all sorts of undustrial pop curios, which naturally resulted in this mix.
It is an attempt to channel the poppier industrial tendencies of the last 30-years without being too obvious, but I think you’ll find that the usual suspects (KMFDM, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Ministry, NIN, etc) are practically inescapable. Cover image is by the ever excellent Mickey Duzyj, and it’s got something to do with anxiety… On a separate but not entirely unrelated note, I am considering telling Soundcloud and their automatic content protection system to go fuck themselves. Their piracy paranoia has reached absurd heights – they now take down tracks whose copyright owners aren’t even known! What utter nonsense.
A lot of what I do for a living is dedicated to creating appropriate, relevant and profitable user experiences. The prevailing logic in experience design (or at least in the wild west that is digital experience design) is that friction is bad. The most effective user experiences are those which present the least obstacles between the end user and the task we want them to achieve. I have always found this to be too neat for the real world and too dogmatic to fit the pace of technology and the behaviours it creates.
User experiences which simply work are rare, but rarely enough. Interactions which win have to be meaningful and remembered, they need to have texture and context, which brings me to the subject of friction and how the right kind of challenges, hurdles and stories can deliver user experience magic.
The most recent People’s Planning nominee – molecular gastronomy pioneer Heston Blumenthal – has proven that he can be as counterintuitive in thinking about the experience as he is in the kitchen (or lab.) What’s more , he has managed to flip the issue of usability friction right on its head.
High customer demand and the amount of work required to meet it means that the fabled Fat Duck has a two-month advance booking policy, which poses a considerable user experience barrier for bookings. Rather than issuing desperate apologies for it Mr Blumenthal has turned it this two-month waiting period from a user experience hurdle into a virtue by creating an entire time-coded interactive narrative around it. The story is fantastic, and best described by the man himself: I have always been amazed by the courage, imagination and persistence that are required to run a successful restaurant. Being presented with the opportunity to plan, produce, deliver and assess the effectiveness of your product on a very tight timescale and within a tight feedback loop is the very definition of ‘lean.‘ What’s best is that this happens in the real world and not on navel-gazing industry blogs. And on that note…
Islington institution Tommy Miah’s Raj Hotel recently tickled my planning fancy with this genius re-framing of what would otherwise be a rather stale proposition (free Wi-Fi.) Planning hats off to Mr. Miah!
Ever cared to look closely at your Pret porridge lid? Look now. Did you know that the mark on the 11:00 indicates the expiry time of the porridge? An idea that’s useful for the team members, reassuring for the customer, and low-fi enough to earn that coveted PPA. This is just one example of Pret’s masterful application of small thinking on a large scale. More importantly, though, it emphasises the power of detail in setting customer expectations. If that’s the amount of attention a mere lid receives, then I can completely trust them with my porridge. And I truly do.
So there is a lot of outrage at the impending SOPA vote, but why black out your website without giving people a chance to take meaningful action? Why can’t people simply unlock all the blacked out content by signing an anti-SOPA petition, rather than having to stare at a blank screen in an outrage? I’m looking at you, Wired. Just a thought.
It’s been ages since I generated some pixels on this blog, so what better way to get back into the game than to celebrate another example of planning excellence. While it might appear grandiose compared to your average PPA, Loius CK’s recent self-publishing experiment has earned my dubious commendation because its generosity and commercial success runs so diametrically counter to the miserable, SOPA-enamoured entertainment industry.
The story’s all over the net: the rabblerousing comedian wrote, promoted, produced, recorded and distributed his most recent stand-up without the ‘help’ of any industry intermediaries. He decided to charge a rather nominal $5 per download — 15 bucks less than what you’d pay for a traditionally distributed DVD after all parties involved name their fee. Best of all it’s DRM-free, internationally available, and ‘humanely’ distributed (read: a well-designed and stable online experience.)
Yesterday (12 days after the experiment went live) it reached a gross $1,000,000 in revenue – more than enough to cover the $170k production cost. Were he not the top man he is he would have pocketed nearly 600k in profit. He decided to donate most of it to charity and give his team a ‘big fat bonus.’
While his entrepreneurial zeal can appear naive, it is ultimately a winning move, not least because of the exposure it has generated. Even if this publicity doesn’t entirely obviate the need for an intermediary with a fat marketing budget, it gives Louis a strong negotiating position, were he ever to face one. More importantly, it is a valuable asset when dealing with those who claim that fame (and the costs associated with building it) is a necessary pre-condition for the disintermediated (and unmitigated) success, that Radiohead and NIN recently enjoyed. Prove them wrong – buy the thing.
Does exactly what it says on the tin. A comprehensive collection of different scenes from Seinfeld exemplifying key economic principles. Full of econ and of Seinfeld — impossible to improve in other words. A must for any econ nerd and nerds in general. Also on the signaling properties of nerddom – check out this fab NYTimes article.