Consumer Confidence

I hear about the consumer confidence number on the radio and read about it in the paper. Maybe you do too? For the most part I glaze over it. What does it really mean on a practical level? Do you know? So... we have a number that represents... what?

I think I've found a metaphore that helps make some sense of it to my mind.

I live in the Twin Cities. Hwy 94 runs between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The "powers" have been shutting down lanes and shifting lanes around all summer. It all makes for a nasty experience driving between both downtowns. Nearly every day something is different about the drive. You can have no confidence that your drive will go smoothly or awefully. I've had times where passing through the "zone" is no different than if there were no construction - better even. I've had other times where the bridge accross the Mississippi might as well have collapsed. I've had all the kinds of drives inbetween but never in a predictable fashion. There is no normal on the route. 

I often try to affoid driving the section, period. The office is on the other side so it makes this goal a bit difficult. So... now I've changed my behavior dramatically to accomidate for my lack of confidence in the ability for the Hwy to get me to where I want to be as I expect it to get me there, as it's performed in the past. I leave early. I leave late. I stay for a little bit of time. Or... i just don't drive it at all. 

My Hwy 94 confidence level is low and going lower. It's changed my behavior. On some level the consumer confidence level is the same way it seems. It's a reflection of changed behavior.

Data. People.

[Previously posted on a blog that has been deleted.]

It's not hard to argue that the beginning of the internet was focused on data. Google has championed this phase as the organizer of the world's information. Data is not going away. It'll stretch your mind to think of how cool all this data is when approached in certain ways. 

It's also not hard to claim that this current phase of the internet is about people. Facebook has championed our current phase as the social network. It's not going away. In-fact it's growing in reach, importance and function daily.

The next phase seems, to my mind, to have a lot to do with bringing data and people together. As companies go forward and others startup in this environment its interesting to note how many more of them seeming to prioritize data over people rather than the other way around. It seems they overwhelmingly want to figure out the data about the people rather than what the people think/say or do regarding the data. 

Adjacent Possible

It's first a biological concept from what I understand, "The Adjacent Possible." Stuart Kauffman proposed the theory. I read about it in Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson.

Johnson argues the theory suggests that the proximity between ideas is a key component to their forming new ones similar to how biological functions of formation occur. 

It was a little like a "well duh" moment when I first thought of this. However, the mental construct of space and parts and proximity as it relates to ideas has been and I suspect will continue to be powerful for me. It's caused me to look at the various buckets of raw materials I have and can draw from in an objective way. For instance some of the buckets of raw materials for ideas I can easily draw on include: Construction, Philosophy, Swimming, Teaching, Technology, Marketing, and Aeronautics.

I've been wondering about what kinds of ideas I am predisposed to make because of the buckets I already have, because of the idea parts that are around to work with. Further, I have been assessing what kinds of ideas I'd like to make and what raw materials I will need to amass in order to do so. This has been a very positive exercise to use the metaphor of space and buckets of idea parts thus far. 

Opportunity Parade

 

I might be addicted to the Opportunity Parade. I might. I've only come to call it that because I've not been to one in awhile. I noticed it was missing. I noticed withdrawl. 

As a strategist in an agency the opportunities for change, new things and adjustment to problem/potential areas in client work come at an alarming rate. I've been on other adventures of late.

So... what I am doing to solve for the reality of my addiction of the Opportunity Parade? I am reading - A TON. 

Don't Blog for the index?

I was talking with someone about not blogging for the audience. His assertion was that blogging is for the author.

I agree with a major qualification. 

If the satisfaction the author recieves from writing (read: blogging) is less than the satisfaction the author anticipates getting (or has received) from the result of writing then they won't.

I think most people don't enjoy the act of writing. They never have. Writing has, for the most part, been a chore. It's been something to do to get a grade for almost all of us. It's not been a behavior to partake in for the sake of betterment and therefore, to the degree that one holds a dislike of the notion of writing, so also they don't/won't blog.

BTW... this is what I think makes part of what Twitter and Tumblr have done so brilliant. Twitter reduced the threshold for "successful" creation by limiting post size. It is much easier to write small than big (read: blog). Tumblr, for the most part, empowers people to build collections of other content as one's own collection thus changing the reason to "blog" from creation to curation (often a lower perceived "pressure" behavior).

Anyway... back to why people don't blog for themselves. My contention is that they don't have a construct for being able to honestly support believing that the act of writing for a blog could be an enjoyable or beneficial behavior standing on it's own. So, they don't blog for themselves.

As someone who has posted a number of times recently... I've only sort of enjoyed the act blogging. I think, among other things, walking the golf course, going on a peddle bike ride or even mowing the lawn still seem more enjoyable than behavior of writing/blogging. But you can't do those things all the time. So maybe there is still hope for blogging?

However, come to think of it, I have enjoyed the higher degree of clarity I have around the ideas I have blogged about. So... there you go, maybe that is the goal. Maybe blogging is just a tool, a utility, for crisping up ones thoughts and it just happens to have a "publish" button. After all... who would say they don't want crisper thoughts? Stated this way... everyone wants to blog, right? Everyone would, if given the choice, choose crisper thoughts?

Does it work for you? Does increasing the idea that writing and therefore blogging has the potential to bring clarity to your own thinking make it worth doing? Do you value clear thinking and therefore partaking in the act of blogging? 

Holding clarity as the core reason to blog might just make it a sustainable behavior... at least for me. Might. Might not. 

4Square and Chicago

I still don't know what to do with all these social icons sprinkled among marketing materials like special spices. Most of the time it seems, to my mind, that the brands are building these social brands more than their own.

Example:

The company that will go in that space has their logo in micro on the white sign in the middle. Squint. I understand the desire to be social. I've seen the power of social to change opinion and to drive sales for clients I've worked with. I guess, I wish brands were as confident or more confident in the social space than the social brands.

Anyway, one of those icons (the checkmark - on the right) is for a service called Foursquare. On Foursquare the main goal is to "Check in" at locations. Many of these locations are restaurants and stores. Many of these can and do now offer deals to newbies and to the "Mayor", a.k.a. the person who has checked in the most, most frequently. Cool right? It is. Action based rewards are nifty. 

Check this sign that I assume Foursquare smartly made for companies to download and place at their business. It's a solid way to explain what to do with Foursquare and why from a users perspective.

To my mind... the Mayoral deal needs a little more juice. That way maybe the act(s) of obtaining the role of "Mayor" and maintaining it would be more of a sustainable behavior. After doing all the work to become mayor, checking in diligently, it is not reasonably feasible that the "Mayor" could use their deal everyday. So... if you know the Foursquare Team... please pass this on to them... I wish that in good ol' Chicago style you could "Blagojevich" your mayoral deal on days you did not anticipate using them (it).

What do you think? Can you see a secondary market for Mayoral deals? Could be fun. Could be really cool. Sure you might not and likely would not brand it that way but... it could/would be fun - eh?

Two iOS requests

It'd be great to have a "Call Back and Delete" button in the Visual Voice Mail area on iPhone.

I wish you could rotate the orientation of a photo or movie in the Photos app and have it save it and export/share that way.

Blogging takes to much time.

Really? Or... is it more about all the time you have to put into making it bulletproof. I mean... this post is going to be live forever or so it seems. You can't be wrong so... you put a TON of time and effort into making the post bulletproof, right? I mean... at any time in the future someone could conceivably pull up the post you're writing and do so for any reason. Are we more afraid of the ever-present past and the potential of critical comments in the present than the act of writing and sharing our thoughts?

The TV is on for an average of 5+ hours in an American Household every day. It it really about time or is it more about the fact that blogging is public and to be in public you want to be as tidy as possible and that takes all the time?

What would it look like if everyone of your posts had a disclaimer at the top that went something like:
"[this is a thought experiment not intended to be taken to seriously.]" 

What would it take for you to blog more? Can you afford yourself that opportunity?

Don't blog for the audience?

Hum... I've heard a pile of people talk about how important it is to blog on a regular basis. Most of them say it is important to keep your audience involved among a bunch of other things. I am wondering if that is the most important thing.

I wonder... could it be more important to blog in order to be part of the index at the search engines? That is, after all, how others will find and offer you opportunities to meet them and share your interests.

I wonder... could it be more important to blog in a way that keeps you the blogger motivated to write the next post? What keeps you motivated?

Why do you blog? It seems having a clear goal has the potential to bring the clarity of motivation to your efforts. It is also a great way to do what you think versus what you think other people think you should do. 

Blogging like giving a speech to an empty room.

Does that title excite you? Not me. Why give a speech to an empty room? For the most part... blogging is just that... an invitation to speak to an empty room. I don't know about you but I'd stop accepting the invitation after maybe the first but defiantly the second time I prepared a speech and showed up to find the room empty.