Friday, 27 May 2011
Dan Ariely on marketing and advertising:
Consider for a moment a world without marketing hype. One in which there’s nothing you really desire beyond what you need to live. There’s nothing your kids want; they don’t bug you every time you’re in the supermarket. How hard would you work in such a world? What would motivate you to work harder?
Now consider our current consumer environment: Multiply the desire for Respirer by thousands of products of varying levels of utility: iPads, leather couches, crystal martini glasses, cars, garden gnomes. It’s like having thousands of little motivational speakers hovering around us.
…
Let’s be clear. I don’t mean to say that marketing will save our economy. Or that marketing things we don’t need is the key to a prosperous planet. The line is narrow, indeed, between being motivated to work and mortgaging the future (both your own and society’s) to get stuff like bottled air.
Still, as we continue to redefine capitalism, let’s not discount the role of aspiration and the desire for incremental luxuries–things we want but don’t necessarily need. They can fuel productivity and thus have a valuable function in our economy.
Although not a response to it, this is an interesting counterpoint to Walking Ads.
Leo Babauta on the negative impact of marketing and advertising on human interaction:
We’ve lost sight of the simple truth that we need none of these products being pushed on us by marketers and advertisers.
We’ve forgotten that we need very little, and so we buy so much.
And we are oblivious to the fact that corporations use us as advertisements and marketing tools.
Mesmerizing video of a series of pendulums moving in an out of sync with each other until at the end…
Dave Pell, of Davenetics, Tweetage Wasteland, and The Skeptical Hypochondriac, offers a delightful service for Kindle owners called Delivereads.
The service is simple. Subscribe to Delivereads with your Kindle e-mail, and every week or so, Dave will send you a neatly formatted digest of interesting articles that he finds on the web. The content is curated, the articles are high quality, and the digest is clean and easy to navigate. If you own a Kindle, you should subscribe to Delivereads.
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Derek K. Miller died on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. On May 4, his last post was published on the Internet. His words are simple and true. Go read them, and then go enjoy this beautiful world. Life is fleeting.
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
If you read one book this month, make it Patrick Rhone’s new book, Keeping It Straight. I read it on my Kindle, and I just ripped through it. The book may contain a lot of things you already know, but Patrick’s personal essays give insight and at times, a swift kick that will propel you into action.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Chuck Wendig reviews Portal 2, but also addresses an important storytelling mechanic in video games. Sometimes there need to be some unanswered questions and gaps to fill during the adventure, and perhaps even afterward.
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, wrote a well researched article on the possible toxicity of sugar in The New York Times Magazine a couple of weeks ago. While it may be a long read, the article is worth your time, and once the studies in progress are complete, we’ll know a little more about the hazards of refined sugar, fructose in particular.
I love the game, Tiny Wings, but I have to say, Garrett Murray accurately describes how I feel when I play it, too.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Merlin Mann has become an adept writer, and this piece illustrates that. It is my hope that Merlin’s eventual book is more memoir and less “how-to” because damned if he doesn’t drop wisdom in a most unique and effective way when he simply tells us the story of his life.
