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A World Without Money
I’m endlessly fascinated with non-monetary incentives. How do you motivate people, have a flow of goods and services, without monetary incentives? Well, continuations has written an excellent post about an online world that could potentially exist without money. It’s a great experiment that could prove to be useful and especially relevant for the public and nonprofit sectors. This is part of my series of posts thinking about a coming age of abundance. The main thrust of my arguments will be that abundance will be a feature of the physical world, but I would be the first to admit that we are a long way off from that. In the meantime though, we can look to the online…
The Not-So-Obvious Economy of Hollywood
The link takes you to NPR’s Planet Money podcast, in an episode where they interview Edward Jay Epstein, of The Hollywood Economist. This episode explores the strange accounting techniques that is standard in the movie-making industry in which studios have mitigated financial risk by creating a fee-based structure which ensures that they still get paid, even if a movie is not profitable. This is interesting in that what is reported on the news may not always tell the whole story.
I love this picture because sometimes the best ideas come from just looking at something familiar from a completely different perspective.
(image via ummhello)
The Rock Star Economist: Ok Go frontman talks risk aggregation. (Fangirls have one more reason to swoon.)
Refreshingly smart, articulate and thoughtful, Damian Kulash from the band OkGo wrote a great critique of the record industry in the New York Times in February. You can read it here.
In the article, Kulash discusses his frustrations with the innovation-stifling policies of big name record labels. He has publicly cited this as that reason that Ok Go decided to leave their record label, EMI.
Kulash argued that the internet was the catalyst for his band’s success. By releasing a creative video that went viral on YouTube, Ok Go built a fan base and generated an audience capacity which in turn generated massive revenue for their record label, selling tickets to their live events across the country. Yet, after their success, EMI is slapping restrictions on their songs, making it difficult for Ok Go’s fans to do exactly what made the band famous in the first place, getting the word out to a wide audience.
He also understands that it’s narrow minded to vilify record labels. They are just protecting their own interests. Moreover, they do it because they’ve invested a lot into the bands that they sign, because most of them don’t generate a profit. Labels aggregate financial risk, fronting money to promote hundreds of musicians, hoping one or two will generate profit for the company. If you listen to the podcast, the sheer costs of actually making music, touring, and promoting a band will likely make your head spin.
Read the article, and if you have the time, download the Planet Money podcast interview with Damian Kulash here. It’s fantastic. (Show #168)
Another accomplishment! I have very talented friends. My friend James (and Jason@Digs) made a movie! Excellent job!
Chemists
I am going to take a moment to celebrate a friend’s accomplishment! Way to go Scott!
Not too long ago, my brother Scott and his colleagues, Jae and Manny, completed an e-ink display concept called The Page. Just a short while ago my brother sent me the following text:
Dude! Our eReader project got featured on GIZMODO!!!
I am a big fan of Gizmodo, and I am incredibly proud of the work my brother and his colleagues have done.
You can see the Gizmodo post here.
I just love it when very complex concepts are communicated in graphic form. I get a jolt of happiness when I come across something like this, because it just goes to prove that sometimes a picture is really worth a thousand words.
This is subversion, illustrated.
(image via ummhello)
Whatever you say in print, know that you can probably say it better when you think about layout and formatting.
Layout is the difference between a reader who fully comprehends your writing, to a reader who never got past your impenetrable wall of text.
Here is an example of why layout is important. (I am using a textbook for my before example.)
Effective communication is about keeping the end user in mind and figuring out the best way to organize your information so that they can
1. read it clearly the first time and understand the material
2. quickly skim the material to reference key points
The above picture is an example of how you can do a redesign in 2 minutes or less, in Microsoft Word.
(FYI: These are screen shots, so the text box that I referred to is was actually cut off at the bottom.)
What I did:
1. Change font size, style and color
2. Add in spaces
3. Added emphasis
4. Added lines and text boxes to segment visual space.
What I didn’t do:
1. Rewrite a single word or change anything content-related.
Reorganizing your layout can sometimes make a world of difference in the presentation, readability and overall psychological impact of your work.
Think about that the next time you’re presenting a document to someone else.
Mass marketing is dead! (Or so they say.)
In a recent Time article (linked here), a representative from Oligvy cites that marketing to a wide audience is long over. (The article is written mostly in the context of the food industry and it is a very interesting read.) Just as our labor market is shifting more towards specialization and workers are required to have advanced degrees remain marketable, American businesses also have to understand that the American consumer is more diverse and sophisticated than they had previously thought. To succeed in the new U.S. economy, businesses have to segment their market, specialize, and accept that there is no such thing as succeeding through middle of the road tactics.
