Simonds Media

“The most important and intrinsically most evident source of consumer demand is the advertising and salesmanship of those providing the product. First you make the good, then you make the market…A broad empirical relationship exists between what is spent on production of consumer goods and what is spent in synthesizing the desires for that production. None of this is novel. All would be regarded as elementary by the most retarded student in the nation’s most primitive school of business administration.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

That’s one way of saying it.

Image: source

The first 45 seconds of this video display a remarkable combination of presentation ingenuity and audience participation.

By recording the audience clapping to their demonstrated rhythm they are able to play the clapping back at appropriate times during the song. If you’re not up to speed on your evangelical worship music, this is the sort you only find in very organized establishments. The religious nature of the song doesn’t interest me though. I’m fascinated by the artists’ ability to get the audience involved without giving up control over the quality of the final product.

I’m not seeing that sort of balance displayed in many areas today.

This short talk by Don Norman is wonderful for two particular reasons. First, he is actually delighted by things. He lacks the youthful, urgent uncertainty that tries to analyze and parry. He’s at the point where he’s aware of what he knows for sure and can find joy in learning about the things he doesn’t understand just yet.

Second, I think it’s especially easy to forget just what we’re all trying to do here. Namely, to improve the lives of a few people and make online interactions more elegant and straightforward for the rest.

I won’t get into whether beauty is a use in itself or not, but I’m certain that we could all use more happiness. Norman added a bit of the stuff to my day. I hope you find his presentation enjoyable as well!

Thanks to @joshuacc for the heads up on the video & Jordan Fischer for the thumbnail.

How does one go about implementing such a storytelling formula?

Again, and again, and again. Practice sharing stories. Write stories. Sing stories. Mumble stories in your lonely drunken stupors.

Then publish them online.

Unless you live under a rock and haven’t been paying your cable bill, you know that John Mayer has recently said some things that should have gone unsaid. Now, as you can see from the video above and the excerpt below, Mayer has apologized. Check it out: