The Validation Generation

We are the Validation Generation. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Dribbble and endless other sites are powered by intoxicating feedback loops. We don’t lack for confidence, but it’s a shallow confidence built on the shifting sands of social approval, a temporary high. The pursuit of ego gratification is addictive, but unsatisfying. I know this from experience, from counting comments and checking my site traffic over the years to comparing Twitter followers.

Constantly looking for validation and approval through likes, tweets and feedback will stifle your ability to create and explore new ideas.  You should fight the urge for validation just like you would procrastination or fear.

Well said Brian Bailey.

Permalink

Hidden habits of ineffective people

All five of these habits are easy to pick up but will squeeze out every bit of your effectiveness.  The first negative habit really stands out, and I have to constantly remind myself to create more than I consume.

Consuming more than you create 
Effective people tend to create a lot of content. Content can mean a lot of things - but the rule is always the same, create more than you consume. Ineffective people, on the other hand, spend the majority of their time consuming the fruits of others’ labor. They are consumate lurkers.

Read the rest on Chris Wake’s Quora post

Permalink

Technology Is The New Smoking

We’ve all been there; You’re at an outing or a dinner table with friends but itching to check your email or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Google+ or Yammer or what ever digital hit of serotonin you prefer. Have you ever “gone to the bathroom” in order to check email or come up with a socially appropriate excuse to pull out your smartphone just so you can check your @ replies on Twitter?

Spend a little bit of time looking around at any big tech gathering or conference and you can see this in action.  Everyone is walking around with their eyes locked into their phones, oblivious to the crowds around.  It’s an easy habit to pick up.  Resist the urge.

Permalink

The Burning House Part Things Organized Neatly and part “OMG my house is burning!”, the new Tumblr blog The Burning House interviews people asking them what would you grab on your way out if your house was burning. If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It’s a conflict between what’s practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question. Found on Holiday Matinee

The Burning House

Part Things Organized Neatly and part “OMG my house is burning!”, the new Tumblr blog The Burning House interviews people asking them what would you grab on your way out if your house was burning.

If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It’s a conflict between what’s practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question.

Found on Holiday Matinee

Permalink

Taking on the crazy job interview questions

Giles Turnbull of the Morning News takes on the “20 Craziest Job Interview Questions” list that CBS Money Watch recently published.

Facebook: Twenty-five racehorses, no stopwatch, five tracks. Figure out the top three fastest horses in the fewest number of races.

The fewest number of races is one. Just keep those suckers running round and round and round until they collapse from exhaustion. The final three make it through, the rest end up as dog food. Actually, I thought that’s how they make dog food.

Nailed it!

Found on Kottke.org

Permalink

“Good designers must always be avant-gardists, always one step ahead of the times. They should – and must – question everything generally thought to be obvious. They must have an intuition for people’s changing attitudes. For the reality in which they live, for their dreams, their desires, their worries, their needs, their living habits. They must also be able to assess realistically the opportunities and bounds of technology.”

Dieter Rams

Permalink

We All Want to Be Young

Looking at the current Millennial generation and how they compare to the Baby Boomer and Generation X generations Brazilian research company BOX1824 created the short film “We All Want to Be Young” as a part of their 5 year study into behavioral sciences and consumer trends.

Today being normal has become boring, and in spite of neutralizing differences it is cool to express them.  It is possible to be a surfer, dj, rocker, nerd, cinephile, designer at the same time.  We’re talking about the most plural youth generation in history.  It is a plurality which guarantees that the young can simultaneously recognize themselves even with their personal differences. 

Permalink

“People think that design is styling. Design is not style. It’s not about giving shape to the shell and not giving a damn about the guts. Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing.”

Paola Antonelli

Permalink

Is Consumerism Killing Our Creativity? How much time do you spend consuming knowledge, inspiration, or creative stimulation in a day?  This drive to consume comes at a price, and research shows that satisfaction found in the search and consuming process stimulates the brain in a similar manner as acting on real creative activity. Are you getting your “creative rush” by simply searching and consuming, or are you creating which rewards you in the long term? Go ahead and take a few minutes to consume the full article at The 99 Percent.

Is Consumerism Killing Our Creativity?

How much time do you spend consuming knowledge, inspiration, or creative stimulation in a day?  This drive to consume comes at a price, and research shows that satisfaction found in the search and consuming process stimulates the brain in a similar manner as acting on real creative activity.

Are you getting your “creative rush” by simply searching and consuming, or are you creating which rewards you in the long term?

Go ahead and take a few minutes to consume the full article at The 99 Percent.

Permalink

“It’s not rocket science. It’s social science—the science of understanding people’s needs and their unique relationship with art, literature, history, music, work, philosophy, community, technology, and psychology. The act of design is structuring and creating that balance.”

Clement Mok

Permalink

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Recent research in the area of economics, sociology, and physiology have uncovered surprising findings into what motivates our actions.  Businesses, schools, and even parents have primarily relied on a system of rewards and punishments to trigger behavioral motives—reward good behavior and punish bad behavior.  The research has found that although rewards and punishments work well for mechanical tasks it fails miserably for cognitive (critical thinking) tasks actually producing opposite behavioral results.  

The three key findings in Daniel Pinks book Drive (and covered in this illustrated talk) focus on the intrinsic motivations vs. the extrinsic reward/punishment motivators.

  1. We are purpose maximizers not only profit maximizers
  2. We care about mastery a subject deeply
  3. We want to be self directed

Earlier this year I read Drive, and I highly recommend the book… especially if you find the illustrated talk above interesting.

Permalink

Pattern Recognition Brand expression agency Black Coffee posted an article on the science of pattern recognition and how it relates to our perception of any brand through visual, sound, taste, touch, smell or action signals.  Our mind has an incredible way of interpreting abstract symbols into meaning. Rereahsrecs at Cbamrdige Unevistiry hvae porevn waht trpyeapoghrs have kownn for yraes. We dno’t raed ecah letetr iuilndaivdly, rhaetr we see ecah wrod as a whloe. We tehn eqaute ecah wrod to a gievn mneaing. Our aitilby to raed wdors is besad on our frmilaiatiy wtih the lungaage. It dnoes’t meattr waht oedrr the leetrts are in, so lnog as the wrod froms are ricagenzolbe. Continue to read Black Coffee’s full post on Pattern Recognition *Illustration by Black Coffee 

Pattern Recognition

Brand expression agency Black Coffee posted an article on the science of pattern recognition and how it relates to our perception of any brand through visual, sound, taste, touch, smell or action signals.  Our mind has an incredible way of interpreting abstract symbols into meaning.

Rereahsrecs at Cbamrdige Unevistiry hvae porevn waht trpyeapoghrs have kownn for yraes. We dno’t raed ecah letetr iuilndaivdly, rhaetr we see ecah wrod as a whloe. We tehn eqaute ecah wrod to a gievn mneaing. Our aitilby to raed wdors is besad on our frmilaiatiy wtih the lungaage. It dnoes’t meattr waht oedrr the leetrts are in, so lnog as the wrod froms are ricagenzolbe.

Continue to read Black Coffee’s full post on Pattern Recognition

*Illustration by Black Coffee 

Permalink

“Cognitive fluency is simply a measure of how easy it is to think about something, and it turns out that people prefer things that are easy to think about to those that are hard. […] Fluency is implicated in decisions about everything from the products we buy to the people we find attractive to the candidates we vote for - in short, in any situation where we weigh information”

Cognitive Fluency—Easy = True

Although some of the results of cognitive fluency studies are somewhat as predicted, the studies have also produced interesting findings around the disfluency of a product, message, concept or design.   Often by creating an element of disfluency in marketing a product, potential customers are more likely to view the product as less familiar (a positive in many instances) and far more innovative.

Read the full article discussing the research findings of cognitive fluency (and disfluency)—Easy = True | The Boston Globe.

Permalink

The Science of Menu Design William Poundstone, author of Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) explains the techniques and tricks that restaurant menu designers use to draw people to the dishes with higher profit margins (stars) and downplay the popular but unprofitable items (plowhorses). 1. The Upper Right-Hand CornerThat’s the prime spot where diners’ eyes automatically go first. Balthazar uses it to highlight a tasteful, expensive pile of seafood. Generally, pictures of food are powerful motivators but also menu taboos—mostly because they’re used extensively in lowbrow chains like Chili’s and Applebee’s. This illustration “is as far as a restaurant of this caliber can go, and it’s used to draw attention to two of the most expensive orders,” Poundstone says. Read the full article as he points out the remaining design & marketing techniques of menu design. via Signal vs. Noise

The Science of Menu Design

William Poundstone, author of Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) explains the techniques and tricks that restaurant menu designers use to draw people to the dishes with higher profit margins (stars) and downplay the popular but unprofitable items (plowhorses).

1. The Upper Right-Hand Corner
That’s the prime spot where diners’ eyes automatically go first. Balthazar uses it to highlight a tasteful, expensive pile of seafood. Generally, pictures of food are powerful motivators but also menu taboos—mostly because they’re used extensively in lowbrow chains like Chili’s and Applebee’s. This illustration “is as far as a restaurant of this caliber can go, and it’s used to draw attention to two of the most expensive orders,” Poundstone says.

Read the full article as he points out the remaining design & marketing techniques of menu design.

via Signal vs. Noise

Permalink