Monday, February 18th, 2013

The Rock Is Gonna Fall On Us

The Sky is falling…The Sky is falling…

Move over you investors in Social whatever…the next big thing is coming…maybe even here…

So get your faces out of your smartphones – look up and get ready to monetize the heavens.

7,000 tons of space rock crashed down in Russia and suddenly Bruce Willis is in great demand…not really but fits my story line…but if you don’t recognize my pseudo cultural reference check this out…and see the movie…

Now – I don’t know about you – but I have been obsessed with the story.

First of all…thankfully…no one was killed…but to give this some perspective the force of the explosion was equal to 500 kilotons of TNT – when put into nuclear blast language Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by bombs with a 13-22 kiloton force – 500 – depending on where and how it landed would be devastating.

Read the story – it is the stuff of movies – flash of light – sonic booms – shattering glass – light pouring through the windows of a Church in mid-service – all it needed was Bruce – but this was real life.

And…of course…to quote Edward Lu, once an astronaut and now a Google Executive: “Wouldn’t it be silly if we got wiped out because we weren’t looking?” and – surprise – “a group of young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who helped build thriving companies like eBay, Google and Facebook has already put millions of dollars into the effort and saw Friday’s shock wave as a turning point in raising hundreds of millions more.”

Let me be crystal clear – I am not making fun – to the contrary – in fact I am amazed that the story hasn’t trended; that there seems to be little serious interest in it and that after tomorrow it will be mostly forgotten.

Interestingly only a few months ago a group of scientists took it upon themselves to debunk the “science” behind Armageddon – the Bruce Willis movie – and they concluded that it was all bunk – Bruce could not have saved us.

Now – I don’t know how that makes you feel – but after the Russian story I’d be more impressed to know how they would save the world…

Seriously – I am not writing this to be apocalyptic or suggest survivalist activities – au contraire — I am seriously suggesting that we start looking up and around and realize that there is more going on in our world than how to monetize social activities or whether or not a disappearing photo will replace Facebook…COME ON!!!

What we call technology is simple application of technology applied to evolutionary human behavior. There are people out there trying to cure disease; end hunger and save us from the dangers of the universe – and therein maybe resides our human quest – our raison d’etre– make the world a better place to live…longer – Yes, I know we can use Twitter to do all those things…and no doubt make better latte too…

So there you have it – a real story – a real tragedy averted – and real people trying to figure out how to avoid the fate of our Dino predecessors…

So to those scientists who doubted my hero Bruce – I refer them to another hero of mine:

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.”
Arthur C. Clarke

So who knows…

And for those of you who don’t believe any of this:

“Look for the stars, you’ll say that there are none; Look up a second time, and, one by one, You mark them twinkling out with silvery light, And wonder how they could elude the sight!”
William Wordsworth

And finally a thought from one of my favorites: See here.

Sadly – one final thought – it’s easy to see how jaded we can get – a story of “scores” killed in a market in Pakistan barely registers…so it goes…

What do you think?

 

Posted by David on 02/18 at 01:50 PM
  • what if? What if we could have stopped the rock - or at least slowed it down enough to allow it to orbit instead of crash? with enough preparation maybe we could have salvaged it... what was on it? in it? what is it made out of? Deep space exploration is extremely costly, but what if we just put something heavy enough ...
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    Posted by Opher on 2013-02-18 14:59:49
Monday, February 11th, 2013

When Numbers Speak Only of Numbers

34-31

4-1

Numbers. Meaningless on their own.

Yet both sets – when put in the proper context – elicit passion, desire, rage, hope, belief and more…the full and deep range of human emotion.

Therefore, if I tell you that 34 to 31 refers to the final score of this year’s Super Bowl – the annual US Football Championship gladiator blowout – between the Baltimore Ravens (34) and the San Francisco 49ers (31) – the story behind the numbers starts to bubble…wild swings in quarterly scoring, electrical blackout, Beyoncé and half time, a struggle between brothers – the numerals start to live….

4 to 1 refers to the recent match between Real Madrid and Sevilla in the more global game of football (soccer in the US) where Cristiano Ronaldo – one of the world’s best players – scored his 20th (I believe) hat trick (that is, scoring 3 goals in one game) – and clearly is now poised for World Cup play. Again numbers become living entities and in this case, even take on a seer-like presence as the story they tell unfolds.

Bottom line…with stories, meaningless digits take on deep meaning and sets and sequences of figures come alive.

As Rav Yair (who inspired this and thanks Will) said – it’s never about the numbers – it’s always about the story.

Try this one:

5 stars

3 stars

2.5 stars

Depending on the context – the story – this could be anything – but sometimes even the context isn’t enough.

For example, here I am referring to hotel ratings – stars – in and of themselves there is a context – a level of quality (sort of) agreed to by the hotel industry around the world.  However – we all know that the swings of what they really mean are erratic at best – and without the full story behind the ratings – the right recommendations from people you trust who have been and are in the know – disappointment and often anger are fairly common in the sector.

In fact I will go deeper on this one – using the ratings alone in a computer auction environment like Hotwire – is akin to gambling.  You know the ratings are “guidelines”; you know their choice sucks – and worse, there is poor customer service to solve your dilemma – so not only isn’t the story of the hotel there – neither is there a story around service and customer support….

A number of weeks ago I wrote about the US elections and the mistake of thinking that somehow “Big Data” won the day.  In fact all sides used similar tools – it was in how they used them – the stories they created and told with them, the difference they made with them – that won the day….

Joel Benenson said it best in his New York Times piece after the election:

“The president’s victory was a triumph of vision, not of demographics. He won because he articulated a set of values that define an America that the majority of us wish to live in…”

Brands are created in the same way – it’s the stories behind them and around them that make us buy them – not the retargeting – and it amazes me that some still don’t get it.

Don’t get me wrong – numbers are powerful entities – understanding them, controlling them, manipulating them can teach us a lot and give us an edge – but in the end, without the stories in front, behind and on the sides, they simply remain numbers.

Patrick Rothfuss, in The Wise Man’s Fear, wrote:  “I am no poet. I do not love words for the sake of words. I love words for what they can accomplish. Similarly, I am no arithmetician. Numbers that speak only of numbers are of little interest to me.”

So try these….

$15; $30; $75; $100

If you thought the context was mathematical you looked for a pattern; if you thought it was about shopping you looked for a product – truth is, I took them from UNICEF and the story attached to each number is mind numbing when placed in the context of the lives that so many of us have…:

$15 – 12 packs of high-energy biscuits for starving children

$30 – antimalarial treatment for 33 kids

$75 – 128 polio shots

$100 – 357 measles vaccinations

And as you see, each number has other numbers associated with it – meaningless on their own – devastatingly powerful when coupled with a story.

I’d argue that stock markets have crashed and financial institutions crumbled because we fixated on numbers – we lost the stories behind them – and when the stories finally see the light, we ask how come we didn’t know, why weren’t we told – and I might add – why didn’t we ask….

Let me end with two great thoughts…listen:

“I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.” Stephen Wright

Start with the story – always start with the story – it makes the numbers so much more powerful by giving them meaning and life.

And finally – from one of my favorite sources…listen:

“Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself anymore.” Albert Einstein

And there you have it….

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by David on 02/11 at 09:06 PM
  • Had no idea where you were going with this but really like how it came out. It's the letters that hold the key to our happiness. The numbers just help us measure how close we're getting ..... The stock markets crashed because we are fixated on things that hold no real value, and it is also a reflection of the collapse ...
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    Posted by Josia Nakash on 2013-02-13 17:58:50
  • I wish there would be an equal amount of 'fixation' on punctuation in stories as there is in number ;-). You are absolutely right numbers don't build brands, just like bricks on their own cannot build a building.
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    Posted by Kabelo Binns on 2013-02-12 07:10:12
Monday, February 4th, 2013

What Does It Mean To Be “Global”?

What does it mean to be “global”?

Are we talking values? Experiences? Merchandise?  All of the above???

Movies are global – in fact, many make more money outside their country of origin than they do in – which is another way to look at defining global.

Books can be global as well – with authors hoping for translations into the languages of countries where people buy a lot of books – and then if they get made into movies….

Clothing for sure and food more and more – as Starbucks from Seattle conquers the coffee world and Japanese Falafel from Abu Dhabi does the same for the Middle Eastern food world. In other words – not just McDonalds….

Sports is a clear global-generation world experience – with soccer (football) leading the way – but also including car racing, cricket and basketball.

Yet one of the most talked about events globally is the final championship game of the United States version of football – known as the Super Bowl – occurring once a year on the first Sunday in February.

The weeks preceding it are filled with hoopla and the Sunday the gladiators meet is near unto a religiously based holiday with food, drink, dress and now social media — part of the day’s worship.

As is usual with US-based world championships – there is not much of a world view – nor is the audience very global, with some 98% of its close to 100 million viewers being in North America – vs. the close to one billion who watch the World Cup spread all over the globe.

But so it goes:  US bombast – now fueled by social media – claiming exponential numbers as (primarily) the advertising gets shared and shared again.

John F. Kennedy once alluded to the notion of sports being so popular because watching them makes you feel like you are actually playing – and as we analyze and second-guess the players and coaches endlessly – he had a point.

Clearly though, his bigger point was the experience – because the game is all about the experience – and as I wrote from CES, many of the new TV screens – in size and quality – were created to enhance our involvement through enriched and heightened visual and audio technology.

And of course now that we can watch and tweet and post – beats the one phone call we used to make – and search for information and statistics to trump our fellow watchers and add more depth to the group experience – it just gets better and better.

Which is why I wonder about the obsession with social media, as if that’s what makes the game exciting, creates the experience, makes it worth watching – COME ON!!!

Social is the value add, it’s the evolution of what we always did – share our passion for the games – but its secondary – it doesn’t make the game nor does it cause the excitement – no matter how the monetizers would like to see it as such. In fact – I’d argue that kind of thinking keeps us from actually developing social uses that fully enhance vs. platforms that sell more advertising – which is fine as that is how I make my living – but I’d argue that apps that begin with a real understanding of the social need will ultimately make more money anyway.

So I posted and tweeted with the rest – and yelled and cheered in my living room with my friends – thoroughly and unabashedly enjoying the experience – the game, the people, the food – the things I could share.  So thank you all for the content you gave me – and I hope the social networks will learn that the game comes first…listen:

“Anyone can buy a ticket – but not everyone can play on the court.”

It’s the game that drives it – experiences happen in real life.  Facebook has a ticket to the event but you create the experience….

What do you think?

 

Posted by David on 02/04 at 08:48 PM
  • Thanks David for putting things in the right order of priorities and importance. The social media outlets are that -- outlets to something that humans create, to the experience itself. The experience comes first, the sharing of it via all the outles is second. BTW, Japanese fallafel? Surely the Fallafel King on the corner of King George and Agripas ...
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    Posted by Edna Kissmann on 2013-02-05 19:01:10
  • Reminds me of the great A.A.Milne quote, "A bird can fly. But a fly can't bird." Thanks DS.
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    Posted by Julian on 2013-02-04 22:05:54