Stormy's Corner

Why do you travel?

I like Dustin Wax's reason:

I think traveling should be about something more than doing what the locals do.

I mean, don’t even think about doing what the tourists do. I’m not advocating that horror. But traveling is about experiencing things new and fresh — something the locals simply can’t do. After all, you are a local, when you’re at home. How exciting is that?

And really, going well beyond what the locals do is not only valuable for you, the traveler, it’s valuable for the locals themselves. Travelers — real travelers, travelers with a sense of derring-do and adventure, and a bit of the Tao of Travel about them — give people a chance to show off, to experience their everyday surroundings as if they were fresh and new. You can easily take that old ruin on the side of the hill for granted — it is, after all, just a place where teenagers go to drink and make out — until some traveler passing through asks you what it is. Ah, there’s a story to be told…

Traveling is about discovering how delightful something different is. And you can share that. (That said, as a teenager in Barcelona, there is only so many times you can show off the Picasso museum.)

Fun with branding

Brand tags shows you a company logo and asks you "what's the first word or phrase that comes to mind?" Then you get to see what other people said. I saw Pepsi and said "not coke" - turns out "coke" was the most common response. I hope the Pepsi brand people see that! For Pizza Hut, I said greasy - it  was the second most common response. (Pizza was first.)

It was kind of fun if you have some time to kill: brand tags. I wanted to put in our company name but I'm guessing not enough people have heard of it yet for it to be meaningful.

Can you guess what the brand at the left was?

(Pabst Blue Ribbon.)

Should we make stuff instead of watching tv?

I just read an interesting article by Clay Shirky, Gin, Television and Social Surplus. He says that we have a social surplus right now. In the early industrial revolution, people had surplus time, so they drank gin. He says we eventually figured out how to use our time with more education, public libraries and museums. We had another social surplus around World War II and the 40 hour work week and we used the extra time to watch TV. Clay Shirky argues that we are just now beginning to use some of that time more productively in producing knowledge  As an example, he says if we used 1% of our TV watching time writing content, we'd produce the equivalent of Wikipedia ever year!

The Internet-connected population watches roughly a trillion hours of TV a year.  That's about five times the size of the annual U.S. consumption. One per cent of that  is 100 Wikipedia projects per year worth of participation.

He makes a call for every content producer (like tv) to have a mechanism for users to interact, produce and share knowledge. Here's his story to prove his point:

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD.  And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen.  That seems like a cute moment.  Maybe she's going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever.  But that wasn't what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables.  And her dad said, "What you doing?"  And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse."

Here's something four-year-olds know:  A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken.  Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for.

How much of your free time do you spend watching tv? How much do you spend producing something?

Book Review: The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need

I enjoyed Dan Pink's new book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need. I was even more impressed with Garr Reynold's slide presentation of the concepts in the book. Garr is the author of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) - a style I'm trying to master. Here's Garr's presentation:

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The six tips in Dan Pink's comic style book are:

1. There is no plan.
2. Think strengths not weaknesses.
3. It's not about you.
4. Persistence trumps talent.
5. Make excellent mistakes.
6. Leave an imprint.