bookmark_borderMade to Stick

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Take Hold and Others Come Unstuck

I can’t recall why I picked up this book, most likely a recommendation from the same sources through which I discovered The Tipping Point (which itself inspired this book), but I’ve been dipping in and out of it for a while and finally finished it this weekend. That’s an indication of my reading habits recently, not any reflection on the quality of this book.

Whilst most would regard this as a business focussed book it, like Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, is more about the ideas than their application. That said there are plenty of concrete examples given to reaffirm the basic premise of the book, that there are six key qualities that make an idea “sticky”:

  1. Simplicity
  2. Unexpectedness
  3. Concreteness
  4. Credibility
  5. Emotion
  6. Stories

It’s a fascinating read, including some well-known ideas (JFK’s “Put a man on the moon in 10 years”), throughout which several thoughts sparked in my brain as I started to connect some of the key qualities in a sticky idea with our profession. After all, what better way to make sure people get the most out of the information you provide than to make it sticky?!

Of course there are some parts of the book which, whilst interesting, can’t really be applied directly but I was amazed that, with a little bit of creative spin, you could probably adapt most of the ideas within to make your content stickier.

Made to Stick is very much one of those books which hold some simple truths which are well stated and analysed. Throughout the book there are many examples, so getting a handle on what each of the six qualities brings to the table is easy, and to be honest a lot of what is said you probably already know you just don’t know how to pull it all together.

There are some excerpts on the book’s website and if you enjoyed The Tipping Point then give it a look.

bookmark_borderLorem Ipsum

I knew most of this, but it’s always good to find everything you’ve picked up about something (over a few years) confirmed in one place. Lorem Ipsum.
“There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain….”

Also includes a Lorem Ipsum generator, and you never know when one of them will come in handy:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nunc condimentum. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Praesent enim arcu, condimentum in, dapibus vitae, varius ut, tellus. Ut fringilla hendrerit lorem. Pellentesque at ante. Maecenas tristique erat at lectus. Aliquam laoreet blandit magna. Nunc varius. Vivamus nulla diam, lobortis non, malesuada consequat, tincidunt ut, ipsum. Donec quis orci.

Now hopefully I’ll get more search hits from Google than the usual.

And just for kicks here are the last 10:
Yahoo: free pelvic exams pics
Google: better than kazaa
Google: ‘television coverage of JFK assasination’
Google: “murphy and the bricks” mp3
Askjeeves: where can I go when I have nothing better to do
Altavista: something
Yahoo: hicky pictures
Google: Ann Marie’s Nails
Yahoo: funny sms jocks
Yahoo: calvin and hobbies winamp skin

bookmark_borderWeekender

Not even sure why I’m sitting here, but as I am…

Weekend was very quiet – drank WAY too much on Friday night, top night though. Saturday was spent nursing a hangover, watching the football and then, finally, watching JFK.

Having just read American Tabloid (a fictional account of the events leading up to the assasination), I was in a ‘conspiracy theory’ kind of mood.

A few years ago I borrowed “The Killing of a President” from my father, and it had lain on a bookshelf, forgotten and gathering dust. Having just watched the film (in which the author of the book appears as the courtroom projectionist) I was, again, stunned and amazed that something like that can happen.

Even just flicking through the book, detailing pictures of ‘Black dog man’ ‘umbrella man’ and many revealing photo’s (Lyndon Johnson turning and smiling at a man winking at him, seconds after being sworn in as President), still fills me with a strange feeling of dread.

Unfortunately, and unfairly, I am basing my outrage and astonishment on ideas conceived in a different world. However when there is a strong possibility that some of the people behind the conspiracy to assasinate JFK, were also behind Watergate, and god knows what else… well the mind boggles.

I hope I remember to catch the news sometime in September 2029. Although I fear that, once made public, the confidential documents will contain very little useful information.

bookmark_borderReading

Ohhh and forgot to say. Finished reading American Tabloid. Very very good book. It gripped me without me realising it, and a late stint last night finished it off. Always a sign, for me anyway, of a good book. One you literally can’t put down.

If you enjoy American conspiracies, Mafia stories, FBI/CIA coverups, and JFK, or anything to do with that Hoover dominated time, I thoroughly recommend it. In fact even if you don’t know that much about that period of American history I would still recommend it, more so in fact, as you’ll never be really sure how much of it is fiction.