I bought my daughter a Kindle for Christmas. Maybe I should have saved up for an iPad...
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/12_technologies_brink_disappearing
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sometimes you just have to follow your instincts
In 1998, Alvin and Pam Ross bought the town of Tortilla Flat, Arizona. They bought it from Jerry and MaryJo Bryant. It's been a 'Ma and Pa owned' town for decades.
It wasn't a big town but it had a big history as a former stop on a Stage Coach route on The Apache Trail, America's oldest roadway. The town, consisting of a restaurant, museum and gift shop has a voting population of 6 and could easily have disappeared into history... but the couples who have owned the town shared a vision. They believed a character restaurant serving hearty portions of memorable food could grab people's attention, and they were right. Somewhere along the line, they stumbled upon another idea to get customers 'involved': they invited people to write their name on a dollar bill (or currency from their home country) and they began to wallpaper the place 10 square inches at a time.
When they began to fill the walls with money, the owners guaranteed they would fill their cash register with money, too. I'm guessing the owners would not have articulated it this way, but they stumbled upon two key ingredients that marketers take for granted now. First, people want to be heard; they want to have their moment in the spot-light. Having their name stapled on a wall for hundreds of thousands of visitors to see is a kind of immortality. Plus, they had formed their own virtual community. People love to belong to exclusive clubs and the proprietors of the town of Tortilla Flat provided that.
They aren't the only people in the world to come upon this idea, and they probably weren't the first, but they instinctively knew it would generate a buy-in from their patrons and today they are legendary for it.
Not every instinct should be followed, but they shouldn't be disregarded either. Some of the best ideas sound crazy when they're first spoken out loud. I'll bet when that restaurant in Tortilla Flat had five bills on the wall, no one believed they'd eventually cover every square inch of wall. If the idea had never been voiced, the thriving metropolis of Tortilla Flat (population 6) might just be a dusty photograph in an Old West Museum.
It wasn't a big town but it had a big history as a former stop on a Stage Coach route on The Apache Trail, America's oldest roadway. The town, consisting of a restaurant, museum and gift shop has a voting population of 6 and could easily have disappeared into history... but the couples who have owned the town shared a vision. They believed a character restaurant serving hearty portions of memorable food could grab people's attention, and they were right. Somewhere along the line, they stumbled upon another idea to get customers 'involved': they invited people to write their name on a dollar bill (or currency from their home country) and they began to wallpaper the place 10 square inches at a time.
When they began to fill the walls with money, the owners guaranteed they would fill their cash register with money, too. I'm guessing the owners would not have articulated it this way, but they stumbled upon two key ingredients that marketers take for granted now. First, people want to be heard; they want to have their moment in the spot-light. Having their name stapled on a wall for hundreds of thousands of visitors to see is a kind of immortality. Plus, they had formed their own virtual community. People love to belong to exclusive clubs and the proprietors of the town of Tortilla Flat provided that.
They aren't the only people in the world to come upon this idea, and they probably weren't the first, but they instinctively knew it would generate a buy-in from their patrons and today they are legendary for it.
Not every instinct should be followed, but they shouldn't be disregarded either. Some of the best ideas sound crazy when they're first spoken out loud. I'll bet when that restaurant in Tortilla Flat had five bills on the wall, no one believed they'd eventually cover every square inch of wall. If the idea had never been voiced, the thriving metropolis of Tortilla Flat (population 6) might just be a dusty photograph in an Old West Museum.
After a lifetime of 'creativity on demand', I still consider myself a poser.
That was my first thought when I set out to write a blog on creativity. In my opinion, every person on Earth is endowed with a dollop of creativity (yes, it's measured in dollops) so why should I feel entitled to coach anyone on how to unleash it?
Why indeed. And even if I thought I should, how would I start?
The logical thing to do would be to define creativity so we're all on the same page. But if that's the logical thing to do, is it creative?
Ergo, I'm not going to attempt to define creativity other than to say it's the art of living life differently. For people like Steve Jobs, it's recreating the way the world listens to music and how complete industries are financed. Yes, world changers walk among us.
But, there are also people who are only interested in changing their own worlds. I met a person on twitter who engaged me with her upbeat outlook on life. She often tweeted about her customers and the interesting interactions she had with them, but when I asked her where she worked, she was hesitant to tell me. Ultimately I discovered that she worked in the drive-thru window at McDonald's, a job that could easily be described as an unchallenging, dead end position. Not for her. The flexibility of the job suited her immediate needs and she had decided to make it bigger than it was. On certain days she would bring homemade baked goods as a thank you to her many regular customers. On other days she would ask customers the name of their favorite recording artist and when they pulled up to the window, she would sing them a few lines from one of that artist's latest hits.
As you may guess, she had a lot of regular customers and I'm sure many stopped in even if they didn't really need a coffee. Her creativity was infectious.
Creativity is different for every person. But I believe the creative process has triggers and disciplines that can be utilized 'on demand' to make your life more interesting.
The world is on the verge of a communication explosion through which every person with access to a smart phone can touch millions... but with all this technology content is still king.
Content is king. It's a cliche. I could have phrased it in a more creative manner but I didn't because A) there's a reason it has become a cliche - it deserves to be a cliche - it's uber-important, and B) even if you are the world's fast marathon runner, sometimes you prefer to walk.
Content is king. But, creativity is the guy who makes the big bucks because he makes the king look even more regal.
And before you can point it out, I'll throw myself on the sword and confess that this isn't the most creative blog format I could use. It's a process for all of us and I am a student as well. If you choose to follow and read along, we'll learn together.
After all, creativity thrives in collaboration and sharing does not diminish the giver.
Now... what will tomorrow bring?
Why indeed. And even if I thought I should, how would I start?
The logical thing to do would be to define creativity so we're all on the same page. But if that's the logical thing to do, is it creative?
Ergo, I'm not going to attempt to define creativity other than to say it's the art of living life differently. For people like Steve Jobs, it's recreating the way the world listens to music and how complete industries are financed. Yes, world changers walk among us.
But, there are also people who are only interested in changing their own worlds. I met a person on twitter who engaged me with her upbeat outlook on life. She often tweeted about her customers and the interesting interactions she had with them, but when I asked her where she worked, she was hesitant to tell me. Ultimately I discovered that she worked in the drive-thru window at McDonald's, a job that could easily be described as an unchallenging, dead end position. Not for her. The flexibility of the job suited her immediate needs and she had decided to make it bigger than it was. On certain days she would bring homemade baked goods as a thank you to her many regular customers. On other days she would ask customers the name of their favorite recording artist and when they pulled up to the window, she would sing them a few lines from one of that artist's latest hits.
As you may guess, she had a lot of regular customers and I'm sure many stopped in even if they didn't really need a coffee. Her creativity was infectious.
Creativity is different for every person. But I believe the creative process has triggers and disciplines that can be utilized 'on demand' to make your life more interesting.
The world is on the verge of a communication explosion through which every person with access to a smart phone can touch millions... but with all this technology content is still king.
Content is king. It's a cliche. I could have phrased it in a more creative manner but I didn't because A) there's a reason it has become a cliche - it deserves to be a cliche - it's uber-important, and B) even if you are the world's fast marathon runner, sometimes you prefer to walk.
Content is king. But, creativity is the guy who makes the big bucks because he makes the king look even more regal.
And before you can point it out, I'll throw myself on the sword and confess that this isn't the most creative blog format I could use. It's a process for all of us and I am a student as well. If you choose to follow and read along, we'll learn together.
After all, creativity thrives in collaboration and sharing does not diminish the giver.
Now... what will tomorrow bring?
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