Persuasion and Social Proof Thresholds
May 14, 2007, 2:42p - Communication
The art of persuasion is a fascinating topic. Persuasion happens on both a small-scale (getting your child to eat her broccoli) and large-scale (getting a majority of people to vote in favor of a certain candidate). On its most basic level, persuasion is about instilling a specific opinion or belief in a person. It's about getting someone to "know" something. ... more »
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An Exceedingly Odd Book
Dec 27, 2006, 1:49a - Communication
Jason, Becca's brother, gave me an exceedingly odd book for Christmas. It's called Arboretum, written by a man named David Byrne. After flipping through a bunch of pages, my initial reaction was "Wow, this is definitely on the hardcore side of weird."
When I first picked up the book, what struck me was the cover and binding: it's got ... more »
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Jason
- Dec 27, 2006, 10:12p
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Byrne_(musician)
http://www.davidbyrne.com/
Apparently David Byrne is actually an accomplished musician/composer. That may have something to do with his organizational patterns. Most books I've seen by non-composer artists tend to be very rough and loose unlike Byrne's Arboretum which is loose but exact somehow. Anyway, the links above go into a deeper scope of his work that I knew nothing about when I bought the book. I also haven't seen the last emperor but I do remember it winning an Oscar.
Evan
- Dec 29, 2006, 12:41a
David Byrne was the lead singer of Talking Heads. He is also something of a PowerPoint buff lately: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/03/08_byrne.shtml
Jon
- Dec 31, 2006, 9:30a
This seems somewhat similar to a blog to which I recently became addicted: http://indexed.blogspot.com/
Storytelling (according to Seth Godin)
Apr 26, 2006, 3:02p - Communication
I came across this interesting post on Ode magazine's site. It seemed worthwhile enough to reprint here. Here's the original article. I think I agree with most of what he's saying.
Great stories succeed because they are able to capture the imagination of large or important audiences.
A great story is true. Not necessarily because it’s factual, but ... more »
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omar
- Apr 26, 2006, 4:08p
this is a bunch of nonsense!
what exactly is meant by "great"? in what sense? in the feel good sense? for instance, the last bullet about great stories agreeing with our world-view is essentially about "great" meaning "reinforcing." i would actually agree.. if great means something that moves people, then i'd say that the best stories are those that mostly agree with your audiences world view, but give small changes to push them in the direction that you want them to go in.
i also think that the swift boat veterans for truth put up a "great" story about john kerry last election, and that story contradicted itself at many turns, but happened quite fast. and it certainly wasn't true in any of the senses listed above.
BUT
it achieved its purpose.. to smear kerry. what a great story they pulled over us!
great stories do some of the things listed here, and also contradict some of the things listed here.
great is a word that is so vague as to mean very little.
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