*Rubber Ducking*
For anyone who knows me, you’ve probably heard me talk about this before.
Software engineers have an exercise they do when they are stuck and can’t quite figure out the problem. It’s called rubber ducking.
Essentially, it is common practice to keep a rubber duck on your desk. If you are having a hard time with something, explain the problem to the duck. Ducks aren’t super smart so you have to keep it simple. The result is, more often than not, the act of explaining the problem in simple terms uncovers the solution.
Which is why Strategists so often get the best insights/truths/strategy direction coming out of a casual conversation on it. Obviously a real person is better than a rubber duck, so start there. But if nobody is available, talk to the duck (or really anything).
Here’s an explainer someone wrote on Medium
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Unrelated:
Any time a study comes out that challenges the effectiveness of advertising, you are bound to hear that quote
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half”
Here’s the thing. There was more to the quote. Just like most common idioms have been cut, so was his. He followed up by saying “But I do know that I need both halves for it to work.”
(I can’t find the source for where I read this, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t make it up. Sentiment is true regardless. Wastage is what makes advertising work.
But instead of aiming to maximize our impact, we aim to minimize our waste…
Uncategorized Scraps
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This list of 100 Simple Truths.
A lot of it is motivational poster bullshit, but there are some gems in there. A few favs called out below
Most traditions are solutions to forgotten problems.
Stop trading time for money, start trading value for money
What separates creators & consumers isn't the ability to create, but the willingness to publish.
People don't care what you can do, they care about what you can do for them
Food fuels your brain, information fuels your mind. You are what you consume.
Read to find new ideas, write to understand them, implement to learn from them.
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The Declaration of Enchantment.
15 articles in total, here is one of my favorites:
Article 13:
Without enchantment and fantasy, we face no mysteries, only static things we have not rationally explained yet. Without mystery, there is no humility; and when humility shrinks, societies rot from within and topple like trees hollowed out by disease. The cure is found in networked pockets of flourishing imaginative community.
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Here’s a car commercial I’d love to see:
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The 31 Laws of Fun
This is less fun to read than it is interesting. It is a list meant for writers who are constructing fictional utopias– giving advice on pitfalls and misconceptions of what a utopia is and what makes people happy within one. Tons of obvious crossover to the wonderful world of advertising though.
Law 20: Telling people truths they haven't yet figured out for themselves, is not always helping them.
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This is fascinating to me…
Essentially this person is selling a list of failed ideas. And he’s not wrong that there’s value in a list like this. Too often we only look at the winners. I’m super curious to know how long aggregating this all took, and how much he’s made to date.
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Slouching is the essence of enlightened mediocrity; the recognition that you’ll live longer overall if you don’t try to be 100% alive all the time. Slouching is a good thing. I attribute many good things in my life to my ability to slouch well.
“Why We Slouch,” Ribbon Farm
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New Favorite Website:
https://www.readsomethinggreat.com/
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