It’s been a rough week. (1)
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Pets that Stick (1)
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Dan Heath (15)
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Made to Stick (15)
1 week, 2 days
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From a Chris Gourlay article on the rising popularity of the mini-cow — i.e., one ”that stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog, gives 16 pints of milk a day that can be drunk unpasteurised, keeps the grass “mown” and will be a family pet for years before ending up in the freezer” — comes this sidebar of other trendy pets: African pygmy hedgehog: Only a quarter the size of wild British hedgehogs, ...
A 23.3 trillion banner-ad bailout. Better start hitting refresh. (3)
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Dan Heath (15)
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Made to Stick (15)
2 weeks, 1 day
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Over at Slate, Juliet Lapidos asks, how much is $700 billion? Let’s say Slate charged its advertisers $30 per 1,000 ad impressions, a common industry rate. And let’s imagine for a second that the federal government decided to nationalize Slate in order to pay for the bailout. We’d need our readers to rack up enough page views to see 23.3 trillion banner ads before the feds were satisfied. For historical perspective, consider that the Marshall ...
Johnny rotteni, trilobite. (1)
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Dan Heath (15)
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2 weeks, 4 days
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Do not miss this very funny NPR piece by Robert Krulwich on some of the liberties taken by scientists in naming species. (The audio is great — don’t stop at the text.) Preview: The rule is that anytime someone finds an animal, vegetable or mineral new to science, the discoverer, like Adam, has the privilege of giving it a name. Most of the time, this is done soberly, responsibly and carefully — but not always. ...
Obama and the missing slogan (1)
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Dan Heath (15)
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2 weeks, 5 days
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Jacob Weisberg thinks Obama needs a good catchphrase for his economic plan: If you go to the economy section on Obama’s Web site, the banner that greets you proclaims, “Responsible Tax Cuts for Ordinary Americans.” It’s accompanied by an image of two piggy banks, a small one labeled “Taxes” and a big one labeled “Savings.” The fat piggie is overflowing with pennies. What, exactly, is the concept here? That we should save less to feed ...
Hands-only CPR (2)
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Dan Heath (15)
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1 month
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Chip 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 team have created.) So here’s the simple idea: You can save a life just by pumping on someone’s chest. ...
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Bryan said:
Wow. SNL does non-Political skits too :-)
Outstuck (1)
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Dan Heath (15)
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1 month, 2 weeks
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Reader Greg Miller has made one of our book concepts stickier. Here’s the relevant passage of our book and then Miller’s improvement… Another way to bring statistics to life is to contextualize them in terms that are more human, more everyday. As a scientific example, contrast the following two statements: Scientists recently computed an important physical constraint to an extraordinary accuracy. To put the accuracy in perspective, imagine throwing a rock from the sun to ...
Explanation before information (3)
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Dan Heath (15)
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1 month, 2 weeks
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This American Life recently ran an episode called “The Giant Pool of Money,” which explained the subprime mortgage crisis, and since then it has become the most-downloaded episode of all time. By a margin of 50,000 downloads and counting… Jay Rosen at Pressthink calls it “the best work of explanatory journalism I have ever heard.” And, in the course of praising the piece, he says something absolutely brilliant: “Explanation leads to information, not the other ...
Scenes from American Express (4)
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1 month, 2 weeks
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1. From a letter sent to me by AmEx: “Dear Cardmember, We are pleased to notify Cardmembers that the $1,000,000.00 Prize in the Super Million Dollar XV Sweepstakes presented by American Express Publishing is still available and could be yours to win. The Prize Entry Number that decides the person who will win the $1,000,000.00 Prize has already been preselected. That person could be you, DAN HEATH.” Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. ...
Google and memorization (2)
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Dan Heath (15)
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1 month, 4 weeks
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Here’s Google CEO Schmidt, in response to a question about whether Google is “dumbing down” kids: Kids use [Google] all the time because it’s a new way of learning. When I was growing up, in Virginia, they made me memorize the names of all the capitals of every county in the state. Completely useless information. So kids today are going from knowing everything to being able to search very quickly. The kids need to learn ...
Brawndo: From Satire to Reality (5)
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Dan Heath (15)
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Brawndo. A fake sports drink brand in a satirical movie (Idiocracy) becomes real, and now it’s a real brand but it’s still satirical, and it seems to be satirizing a RabidMacho kind of sensibility, and people who drink it must be mocking that sensibility, right?, except that RabidMacho people will almost certainly love the brand too, so ultimately, no one is distinguishing themselves from anyone else, and what’s the point? Well, the point is the ...
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Carl Fyffe said:
If you haven't seen Idiocracy... you are missing out.
GM’s Self-Refuting Ad (3)
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Dan Heath (15)
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2 months
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You know that one GM Olympics ad? The one that’s seemingly stuck on repeat, the one with the uplifting song that starts, “All of these lines across my face…” Well, I adore it, because it seems to be a rare specimen: the self-refuting argument. First, there’s the primary argument, made via the titles: “…goes for miles and miles on every gallon,” “hybrid,” “biofuel,” “clean diesel,” “fuel cell.” I.e., GM is Rainforest Pure. GM = Green ...
Lords of Memory (2)
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Dan Heath (15)
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2 months
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The UK Open Memory Championships will be held next weekend in London. From the Times Online story: To put it into perspective: on average most of us can recall between five and nine numbers in a row. The eight-times world memory champion Dominic O’Brien, 50, can remember the order of 54 randomly shuffled decks of playing cards - an astounding 2,808 cards. Most amazing of all, several of the participants claim they’re not savants, they ...
Well-intentioned brutality (1)
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Dan Heath (15)
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2 months
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I have mixed feelings about this series of spots from the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board in Ontario. (And if the “Safety & Insurance Board” sounds boring, well, you’re in for a surprise.) The spots show regular workers — a sous chef, a forklift driver, a welder — who suffer rather dramatic and painful calamities due to improper conditions at their workplaces. Positive spin: The topic of “workplace safety” puts us to sleep. It sounds ...
Fast Company columns (3)
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2 months, 1 week
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Here are our last few Fast Company columns — hope you enjoy: - Get Laziness on Your Side: How to sway people’s decisions with the gentlest of nudges - A Dirty Shame: How marketers create disgust and embarrassment — and why we shouldn’t put up with it - Anchor and Twist: How to get your audience to understand — and care about — your innovation - Coming soon in the September issue: Lots of people ...
