Archive for the tag 'eureka'
Getting heard when no one wants to listen
amit November 22nd, 2007
Lately I have come to reflect on the attention span of today’s audience and some things that we can do to get a message across. People lead busy lives, and what may matter a lot to us, or even a lot to them in our view, is probably not even worth their time spent doing their dirty laundry. And rightly so, after all you end up with clean linen after one endeavor, and a bunch of “action items” after another. So what are we to do to spread this message which is supposedly going to change the world. Let’s look at some popular messages.
The gospel of life – the Bible, the Quran, and their like. It takes thousands of practitioners, many of whom lead monastic life, to spread the gospel of love – and even they are struggling. There are people who listen to the gospel and give it up based on reason – bless you, wherever you are – but for one such person there are droves who would rather attend to their life’s laundry than pay attention to anything that does not yield immediate benefit. The presentation, packaging, is all wrong. It should not take an army of people, thousands of words of random/ ancient stories to say: “It is in your own benefit to be good and moral”. If the message doesn’t resonate in a sentence, all of the theatrics won’t get you anywhere. Let me cite an example where few words did the trick.
Do you recall a speech from President Bush when he wanted America to go to war? I am sure he made one and it was more than a sentence, but I am also positive what he said was simply “If we don’t fight them there we will have to fight them here” (best read in Jon Stewart’s imitation of President Bush). That was it, and America was at war, with the majority of the nation supporting him. For all his faults you cannot but admire President Bush for conveying what he has in mind succinctly and clearly. If you can’t say it in less than ten words, it’s not worth the listener’s time. If you don’t repeat it fifty times, why say it in the first place. If that phrase is not an answer to every related question – surely it wasn’t the right answer in the first place. If the tactic can work to convince America to decide the fate of countless lives, surely your task is simpler and so should your message. Where is your sound-bite?
I agree there are things that cannot be cramped in a sentence, so how do you get across a business plan, or a user manual, or your research – “write”? – wrong. Most people like to do things that are entertaining and easy, not read books/ papers (which I hope they did), but it simply takes too long. And honestly, even though I love reading, lately I have taken to another medium of information – videos. Not only can you express more in a shorter time, but the visuals give you another dimension to convey what you have to say. A bunch of !!! are a poor substitute for someone who has had way too much coffee, and definitely lot less entertaining. If you think most of the stuff online is crass, you are wrong and I will try to prove it in my next few blog posts. But today I would like to show you an example of what I consider to be good messaging.
I am talking about the Amazon Kindle. I am really excited about this product. I like to read many books at the same time leaving them all in various stages of completion and the next thing I read has to match my mood not the last thing on my reading list. So the ability to have hundreds of books in one place and to read them just as a book would read is a killer. Like I have mentioned before I have a lot of respect for people at Amazon, and I think they have thought this one through. Check out this video, just 6 mins and you know what it can do and how. Look at the user manual – pay attention to the fonts, the font size, the absence of colors, even the amazon logo is in grey scale – the user manual itself gives you an idea of what the real thing would be like. And finally video reviews from various bloggers and writers, recorded before the product was released to the general public. Very nicely done indeed.
Nothing I have said is new, it just escapes us when it matters. We just have to take a step from thinking about the message and pay attention to delivery.
Watch your thoughts
amit April 22nd, 2007
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; for it becomes your destiny.- Upanishads
Found this while browsing online, but couldn’t trace out the exact Upanishad this comes from.
Don’t just get to work .. commute!
amit April 3rd, 2006
Why wouldn’t one like to start a monotonous workday or end a stressful one with a drive at 80 mph, wind gushing through the windows and Led Zepplin blaring through the car stereo, is beyond my comprehension. As for me, I love my commute. It’s more often than not better part of the day, not just because of my hippie inclination to music but for the quality thinking time it affords.
Our days are increasingly occupied with friends and family, chores to run at home or work, time spent on hobbies etc. What little time is left is easily consumed by the infinite sources of media – the ever present and the cancerous tube or the addictive internet. There is hardly any time left to ponder, or introspect -except for that wonderful commute.
Good investment decisions, such as the one from this morning’s commute – to cash out of the stock market and shift to mutual funds [1]; ideas to share on my blog, such as this post itself – thought up during this evening’s commute; solutions to many seemingly intractable problems – like the best way to run outdoors at night, are all examples where my commute has made a difference. But, these are just examples that work for me now, when I drive to work, different circumstances could present other opportunities.
A few years ago I was commuting by bus, spending about an hour each way, in a few months that I had to do that – I finished reading the “Design of the Unix Operating System – Morris Bach” and the “Linux Kernel Development – Robert Love”. I haven’t finished anything as technical and voluminous since. It’s an aside, that they were completely irrelevant to my job, but that’s just poor judgment, besides I am sure they were good for my soul [2]. You just need to jump start the process the commute itself would unleash your creativity.
Commute is not a waste of time, it’s quality time like no other. Its regularity and duration are a boon, not a curse – you can bank on them and plan around them. It spares you time to your self with a minimum of distractions. A highly qualified surgeon I know, refers to the toilet seat as his thinking chair – for the very same reasons. It would be a sad state of affairs if one could not occupy/ entertain themselves with their minds for even an hour or so a day. Don’t let that happen to you.
Try to make most of this time: get podcasts you would like to hear, get a book on audio, call friends and family you should stay in touch with, read books, write papers whatever – do what works for you and switch when you find something better. I recommend dropping the windows, turning up the music, and contemplating life.
Ignore the people who talk about the cost of fuel, or the depreciation of the vehicle, or the fare, or the cost of a few speeding tickets etc. They are the kind who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
FootNotes
[1] In my opinion the economy is looking good, the housing will continue to crash and the stock market as a whole is going to rally in 2006. Better returns at a significantly lower risk can be gained by simply investing in funds rather than picking individual stocks because economic factors are going to outweigh individual performances and will be the primary factor determining the stock prices.
[2] I learned the concept of certain things being good for the soul, from Prof. Harry Perros at NC State.
