Oprah Gives It Away
Oprah once gave every single member of her audience a car, presumably just because she was feeling generous. The scene that it caused in the studio audience, of woman screaming with joy, became a thing of legend. It was very entertaining, and well worth every penny that she spent. (I thought it was funny that later, all those women were surprised to learn that they had to pay taxes on the value of the car....
A Great Idea For Hershey's Chocolate
"I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" has a pretty terrible name, when you think about it...there must have been a late-night caffeine-fueled session at Unilever where they really tried to think of a good name to position the product relative to butter. As the sun came up and the tequila supply was starting to run out, they threw up their hands and settled on the one idea written on the whiteboard that wasn't terrible. And...
Great Teachers Build Bridges
When we receive information, we're almost always asking ourselves one question: "Why should I care?" When you're sitting in class listening a professor drone on about the book you were supposed to read the day before, but didn't, you're asking yourself that question. In an era of infinite media and a shortage of attention spans, we all have a "relevancy index" that acts as a barometer to determine how closely we need to listen to...
Never Be a Journalist
One of my co-workers is a former photo-journalist, and when I was asking him about how he made that work for himself, he said that there was an old saying in journalism: "Never be a journalist: be a specialist." What that means is: find a niche and pursue it. In his case, he marketed himself as a photojournalist specific to the area of Panama in which he was living. This makes sense for every profession...
Kinko's and How the Mighty Will Fall
When you need to make a copy, fax something, or print up a bunch of pages for yourself, you have two options. You can try and go over to the copy machine at work when everyone else is at lunch and, with the stealth of a ninja, and try to take care of your business without anyone catching you. Or, more likely, you'll just go to Kinko's, because that's where everyone goes to do office...
Dealing with a Micro-Manager
So what if you're dealing with someone that won't let you just do your job the way you see fit? What if you have a boss that's constantly butting in to check up on how you're doing, and giving you pointers about how you should be doing your tasks? Here's how you take the offensive: ask a ton of clarifying questions about every little detail. And I mean a ton. Dozens and dozens each day....
To People Who Hate Twitter
When I was a teenager, I used to listen to a lot of Bob Dylan. Not because he can sing well, but for everything else. I'd like to open my book of Dylan and recite a page from "The Times They Are A-Changin'": "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land,And don't criticize what you can't understand." As my generation slowly leaves the realm of young adulthood and enters the age of being parents, I'm surprised...
Rationalizing a Good
Recently, I posted a status update on Facebook, as follows: "My employer offered me the afternoon off. Four hours for which I'm getting paid but doing nothing. Taking my wages for that time to the grocery store, buying that much food, and dropping it off at the local food bank. Namaste." Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of "back-patting" going on in the above statement. I was out for the maximum number of "Like"...
Learning a New Language
There is a conventional wisdom about how you should go about learning a new language. Let's say that you decide you've got a thing for German girls (or guys, as the reader's orientation may vary), and so you decide to learn German and spend a year in Germany drinking beer and getting freaky with the (hopefully) attractive locals. To learn German, here are the four things you should practice, in this order, to ease yourself...
Consistency with Little Yeses
There's a line from an old Stephen King made-for-TV movie called Storm of the Century that was mentioned by the villain in the story very early on: "Hell is repetition." There's also an old sales trick, mentioned in the classic book on persuasion, Influence by Robert B. Cialdini, that you can get people to commit to something by getting them to answer "yes" to a series of small questions that build on one another. "Do...