I am a fan of Ira Glass, who has hosted This American Life for the past 16 years on public radio. He and his team have an incredible knack for compelling storytelling. While his creative wizardry is admirable, it is important to note it is a skill set he has spent 30 years honing.

His advice for creativity: abandon crap (video link).

By killing, you will make something even better live. Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.

Basically anything that you put on tape, from the moment you put it on tape, is trying to be really bad. It is trying to be unstructured. It is trying to be pointless. It is trying to be boring. It is trying to be digressive.

Pretty much you have to prop it up aggressively at every stage of the way if it is going to be any good. You have to really be like a killer to get rid of the boring parts and go right to the points that are getting to your heart. You have to be ruthless if anything is going to be good.

Things that are really good are good because people are being really, really tough. And you are going to be really tough in doing it. And you are going to know also that failure is a big part of success. You are going to run a lot of stuff, and it is going to go nowhere. If you are doing that, you are doing it right.

If you aren’t failing all the time, then you are not creating a situation where you can get super lucky. People don’t talk about this that much. That you have to go into it knowing that you have to record and get rid of a lot of crap before you are going to get to anything that is special.

The goal is not to avoid crap. It is to abandon crap after you have created it.

Avoiding crap breeds the mundane. It is fearing imperfection so much that you just avoid creating. At its best, it is manufacturing something old, something safe.

Crap is a natural byproduct of creating. Do not be afraid to fail. Do not be afraid of creating crap. You will. But in the midst of your failure, you will also have remarkable successes. And it is when you abandon the crap, that the successes become even greater.

If you want to be great, don’t play it safe. Create uninhibited and then abandon the crap.

Mathematician Des MacHale did the math:

The average human has one breast and one testicle.

MacHale’s statistic is true, but it is also absurd depending on your perspective when you read it. Statistics are bad when people think they mean something else. Imagine how professionally devastating it would be for an organization to blindly believe in MacHale’s average human and create for that target audience.

If math is an exact science, then why do statistics have a reputation for rubbish? I blame human nature. Many of us treat statistics as straightforward and easy to understand nuggets of truth that mean whatever we first assume they mean. Unfortunately, with stats our initial perspective can be wrong and the data over-generalized or even manipulated.

Personally, I love statistics. I think they are wonderfully good. But I also recommend the following tips for healthy stat consumption:

1. Understand the data.
   For credibility, look at the research’s parameters (e.g., sample size, methodology, who was surveyed, how they were asked, and who did the asking). For knowledge, look at the raw data, the scope of responses, and the individual percentage of each response.
2. Understand the context.
   Most statistics are skewed by cultural biases. Online polls are skewed by the psychographics of the Website’s audience (plus they exclude the preferences of non-computer users). San Francisco is different from Memphis. USA is different from China. Lifestyle surveys from lad mags will naturally usually have different statistics than those of First Baptist Church congregations.
3. Understand the generalization.
   Statistics are flawed generalizations that make the complexities of life simple. Our minds aren’t strong enough (or sometimes we don’t have the time required) to grasp the full scope and depths of something. Statistics bend the truth by simplifying the complex into simple bite size statements. The greater the generalization, the greater the ease of understanding. The greater the generalization, the greater the lie? For example, 84% of Americans are satisfied with their personal life. But these numbers change by state and city and even city block. They change by race, religion, politics, income, and marital status. They change for you and for me. It changes by the year, day, and hour. The true answer is a complex moving target. The question is how much “truth” are we willing to sacrifice to make it easier to understand?
4. Understand the agenda.
   Everyone has a bias. Some are malicious. Some are in the unconscious mind. Whether for good or evil, a person’s bias will influence how they convert raw data into statistics. Understanding the researchers behind a statistic can offer great insight into the statistic itself.
5. See it as a limited insight.
   Obviously, statistics have their limitations, but that is certainly no reason to give up on them. Statistics are far better than blind assumptions. They are limited insights that create a loose framework for reality. Don’t make statistics the law, but don’t ignore them either.
6. Mash it up.
   One of the best things you can do with statistics is mash them up. Cross-analyze statistics. By having a constant intake of stats, you will gradually see a clearer truth. By comparing similar stats, you can better identify what is true and what is false. Most importantly, you will begin to see the big picture.
7. See the big picture.
   Although bite-size statistics can be quite myopic, hundreds of them overtime can help you begin to see the big picture. In great numbers, over-simplified generalizations can reveal complex truths. Don’t miss the opportunity to see the big picture.

So tell me…
Are statistics good or bad?
What percentage of statistics do you believe? (Me: 90%)

Consider this:

Failure can be divided into those who thought and never did and into those who did and never thought.
- W.A. Nance

Now ask yourself:

• What am I procrastinating that I should be doing?
• What is a priority that I am not prioritizing?
• What should I stop doing so I have time to do what is most important?
• Do I have a wise plan for each goal?
• Do I think about the big picture?
• Do I think about the little details?
• Am I failing? If so, why?

However, the biggest question is – What is failure? The answer is subjective. And it depends on your priorities.

One man’s failure may be playing video games while another man’s failure might be not conquering a video game. If you’ve been dreaming about writing a book, failure may look like playing golf, going to the lake, or watching football instead. If you are dreaming about being a better parent, going to the lake with your kids is probably a wise choice.

To minimize failure:

Identify your goals. Prioritize them. Think and strategize. And then do them according to what’s most important.

Once we have tasted success for a season, we tend to become bored with the fundamentals that made us successful. We become increasingly excited by innovation and pioneering. We become eager to expand.

This happens to rockstar solo acts and to monolithic corporations. Size doesn’t matter, and neither does longevity. This zealous drive can be a good thing, but it becomes dangerous when the basics are forgotten.

Forgetting the basics is the opposite of getting stuck in a rut (i.e., on course but no progress). You are making progress  but not in the right direction. The basics keep you on course, but enthusiasm gives you speed.

A History of Lego

Once upon a time, Lego forgot the basics and almost never recovered. For almost 7 decades (1932-1998), Lego was all profits. Then they lost money and more money to the point that private-equity firms were lining up to buy the remains in 2004.

What happened?

Years of success made Lego complacent, financially inefficient, systematically inefficient, and very overstretched. As The Mail puts it:

The problem lay not with the product, but with the company’s attempts in the Nineties to make itself more modern and relevant in the age of video games. It had attempted to broaden its appeal to the young female market; it had tried to become a lifestyle brand with its own lines of clothes and watches; it had built more theme parks. But in doing so it had neglected its core business.

The Solution

Lego went back to the basics. Essentials were simplified, guarded, and emphasized.

Nonessentials were sold, scraped, or overhauled. Theme parks and video games were sold then licensed. Buildings were sold then leased. Staffing was downsized. Processes were outsourced. And manufacturing was streamlined, including a 60%+ reduction of Lego brick types.

Lego went back to the basics and is growing again because of it. In fact, today Lego is thriving despite the global financial crisis.

The Lesson

As your organization grows and succeeds, be mindful of the basics. Guard your brand, your goals, your core values, and what made you successful in the first place. There may be fast-paced seasons that naturally cause you to focus on something else, but always return to the basics as quickly as possible.

In computing, force quit is a command that forces a computer to abandon its current operation (often because the system locks up and is producing nothing). After all, it’s pointless to keep a stalled program alive if it is producing no results.

However, life is not so black and white. Life gives you more choices than simply quitting.

When faced with a stalled project lacking results, you can choose to continue letting it waste away, to force quit it, or to force start it. There is no absolutely right choice. It all depends on the circumstances surrounding a project’s context. Because time is a limited resource, you will always have to quit one thing in order to start another. The question is not What is important? but rather What is most important?

After a season of strategically stalling this blog, it has come time for me to choose between force quitting and force starting. I have chosen to force start KentShaffer.com and celebrate the relaunch with a redesign.

Please come celebrate with me and subscribe to the RSS feed if you have not already!

It is well known that it is more efficient to keep an existing customer than to attract a new one.

Marketing is expensive and inevitably necessary if you are frequently losing your clients. However, new research has identified a psychographic trait that increases brand loyalty.

Millward Brown recently analyzed BrandZ’s 2008 database and discovered that digital consumers (online buyers/information searchers) have stronger relationships with brands than non-digital consumers. In other words, make it easy to find and research your brand online, and you will increase your chances of getting loyal followers.

This loyalty trend proves true in all categories whether airlines or grocery stores. However, the strength of loyalty varies depending on the category. Examples include:

• 93% stronger for Airlines
• 48% stronger for IT Hardware
• 45% stronger for IT Software
• 22% stronger for Body Care
  
• 17% stronger for Cars
• 12% stronger for Fast Food
  
• 9% stronger for Banking
• 7% stronger for Grocery Stores
  
• 5% stronger for Soft Drinks
• 5% stronger for Motor Fuel

So if you want to likely increase your customer loyalty numbers, target Web users. Invest in a good website. Leverage social media.

The creative folks at Cramer-Krasselt were kind enough to assemble the words for 2009’s Cultural Dictionary. There are nine sections of cultural lexicon to learn, and here are some highlights to give you a sip of today’s culture.

POLITICS
Sheeple (n) – Submissive citizens.
Slacktivism (n) – Activism without all the activity.

ETHICS
Spitzer’d (v) – Getting caught in an amazingly epic feat of hypocrisy. Such as being a married government official who publicly champions family values and anti-corruption reforms while simultaneously spending ridiculous sums of money on prostitutes.

THE ECONOMY
201(k) (n) – What’s left of a 401(k) after a recession.
Cashtration (n) – A person who is cash poor, possession rich, but not wanting to sell those possessions until their value returns in the market place.

ENVIRONMENT
Ecoflation (n) – The increased cost of doing business due to the rising concerns over eco-consciousness.

TECHNOLOGY
Blackburied (adj) – The feeling of being overwhelmed by the constant flood of emails and work from your mobile device.

SOCIAL NETWORKING
BlackBerry prayer (n) – The hunched over posture common amongst those absorbed in mobile device usage, reminiscent of the pose of one deep in prayer.

PERSONALITIES & RELATIONSHIPS
Framily (n) – One’s circle of close friends who feel like family.

STRESS & LIFE
Retox (v) – To consciously go back on your promises to quit drinking or smoking.

STREET SLANG / OTHERS
Commit suey (v) – To eat way too much Chinese food that results in a queasy feeling.

Learn how to speak the rest of 2009 by reading the complete dictionary.

Back in 1964, 75% of U.S. adults read the Sunday newspaper. Forty-three years later (2007) only 55% of adults read the Sunday newspaper. According to The New York Times, daily newspaper subscriptions dropped 31% from 63.3 million to 43.7 million during 1984 to 2006.

More people are going online for news. And this trend is causing industry leaders to reconsider how they do business. Arthur Sulzberger, owner of The New York Times, has even gone as far to say,

I really don’t know whether we’ll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don’t care either. The Internet is a wonderful place to be, and we’re leading there. (source)

The Newspaper Association of America reports Internet ad revenue grew 18.8% for newspapers in 2007. But despite this online success, total advertising revenue (including online revenue) still decreased 7.9% in 2007.

The newspaper recession is a good reminder that when culture and economies change, industries may have to change their methods, as well.

[via Editor & Publisher & TechCrunch]

NEC recently commissioned the University of Utah to research how a computer monitor’s size affects productivity. According to their findings:

• Using a 24″ monitor rather than an 18″ monitor can save you 2.5 hours per workday or equivalent to 76 workdays per year.
• Widescreen is best for text editing tasks.
  >> Two 20″ monitors were 44% faster at text editing than one 18″ monitor.
  >> One 24″ monitor was 52% faster at text editing than one 18″ monitor.
• Dual monitors are best for spreadsheet editing tasks.
  >> Two 20″ monitors were 29% faster at spreadsheet editing than one 18″ monitor.
  >> One 24″ monitor was 26% faster at spreadsheet editing than one 18″ monitor.
• Overall, increasing screen size increases productivity. However, these productivity gains max out and begin to decline once the screen becomes too large. The research shows a 30″ monitor as less efficient than a 26″ monitor but more efficient than a 24″ monitor.
• Screen space also affects the amount of satisfaction obtained from the work.

For a PDF from NEC with research highlights, visit their website. NEC also offers a free online tool to calculate how much you or your company can save by changing your monitors. Their research shows that a company of 250 employees can potentially save $2.3 million per year by upgrading their 17″ monitors to 24″ monitors.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

With age comes wisdom. At least, it should. It is the wisdom of experience and the wisdom of learning from others’ experiences. I like how Oliver Wendell Holmes eloquently put it:

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.

Knowing the rules does not guarantee greatness. It only rescues you from failure (assuming you follow them). But when you reach the point when you know the exceptions to the rules – that is when to break the rules or go against tradition or trends – then you are likely to achieve greatness (assuming you have the guts to pursue the exceptions).

Attaining such wisdom has nothing to do with age but everything to do with the maturity of your knowledge. And such maturity is gained by passionately pursuing opportunities to learn from the wisdom of experience. Continually read books, blogs, and articles so that you might learn from the failures and success stories of others. Find a mentor. A good mentor can give you a lifetime of experience in a matter of months. If you do, you will gain wisdom beyond your years.