I’ve been listening to an interesting audio book read and edited by Seth Godin, called The Big Moo. It is a series of essays on being remarkable, written by some heavy hitters like Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point and Blink) and Guy Kawasaki (author of Art of the Start). There are over 30 chapters, each with a unique story or idea, and each by a separate author. What makes this book interesting to me is that the authors are only credited on the cover, and all the chapters are anonymous. You have to guess, or infer, or perhaps not even care who wrote each individual story.
Some of the ideas are fantastic, some are trite, some are insightful, and some are silly. But it’s still worth picking up for some ideas on how to change the way you think about doing things: especially in advertising or marketing, which is usually the slant to Godin’s work.
My favourite idea so far (I still have 10 or so essays to go) is the thought of thanking everybody. For some reason this resonated with me. If you hear a song that you love, write the musician and thank them for it. If you read a great book, write the author and let them know how it affected you. If a politician changes something for the better in your neighborhood, send them an email of support. If you read a great blog entry, put your appreciation in a comment.
Every day we consume TV, movies, books, podcasts, blogs, games, art, music, and more. We often take for granted that this stuff exists, even the mediocre or crappy varieties. Wouldn’t it feel good to connect with the people who made you feel good and give them some positive reinforcement? If we all did this, I think there’d be a lot more good shit to go around.
SIDEBAR: I just wrote a quick email to Seth, thanking him for making this book happen. It felt a bit weird, but also pretty good.
D bought a little IKEA bathroom mirror. Inside the package (it’s a mirror, but you still have to put it together) was a paper with a dire warning. I decided to apply my atrophying 10 Ideas in 10 Minutes™ to come up with titles for this wonderful work of paranoid and litigious art:
Not To Be Confused With Pink Floyd Album Art
How to Brainstorm Right Now (republished)
1. DISTRACTION IS OK
In fact, it’s preferred. (Right now I’m trying to give my daughter a bath!)
2. USE AVAILABLE MATERIALS
Don’t wait for the perfect set-up, it won’t happen. Don’t pine for your ’special pen’. Use lipstick on a napkin or fog a window with your stinkin’ breath and draw with your finger. Just get it out!
3. DRAW PICTURES
You don’t always have to write words. Use colours, faces, shapes, dots, musical notation, semaphor, morse code, fruit, animals, IKEA furnature.
4. CONNECTIONS DON’T MATTER
Don’t try to be smart. Don’t care if you’re daft. The solution does not have to relate to the problem. Your brain works in strange ways so you might as well get used to it. Let it go.
5. PANIC!/RELAX…
Panic! See what comes out. It might be crazy or shakey or too garbled to read. Then close your eyes, take a deep breath and hold it. Shut out the world. What do you see in your mind’s eye? Write it down fast because you’ve got less than a minute. Panic! Repeat as necessary.
6. WRITE THROUGH THE GAP
If you have a block or a moment or synaptic silence, just barrell through it. Write down anything so long as it’s something. The first word in your head is a start. If there is nothing in your head than look around you. Make associations or just plain obvious observations (”That man has grey socks”). You made it across!
7. MAKE NOISE
Talk, yell, laugh, screetch, whistle. Pretend you are on a game show. Or not. Just vocalize.
8. SHED YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC
Pretend you’re a dog, or an autistic, or a circus clown, or an astronaut, or a teenage Britney Spears fan, or a tree. What would they come up with?
9. STEAL FROM THE ENVIRONMENT
Read over that guy’s shoulder. What’s on the bottom of your shoe? Look up. Look down. Look over there. What is that woman wearing? Who’s driving that car? What type of clouds are those? Is it really this late? Keep looking around until something clicks (or your minute runs out).
10. LET GO OF YOUR EGO OR SOMEBODY’S GOING TO GET HURT.
You can be a genius later, right now you don’t have the time. Try to come up with a terrible idea. Try as hard as you can to come up with the worst idea you’ve ever had. If that doesn’t work, then just be obvious.
11. THERE IS NO BOX™.
Fuck it. Break the rules. Do what you want. See if I care.