Inconsistencies in the messaging
Aug 7th
I don’t mean to pick on anyone in particular, only to use certain people, companies and situations to illustrate my points.
Tonight I was at Chase Field watching the Arizona Diamondbacks take on the San Diego Padres. As anyone who has been to a D-backs game can tell you, Fry’s Food Stores are a major sponsor of the Diamondbacks, and each game they have a contest; most nights fans are told to hold up their Fry’s “V.I.P. Club Cards” as the “cameras scan the crowd,” with one lucky winner picking up a gift certificate to Fry’s.
(Behind-the-curtain time: while the winners aren’t pre-selected, the section that the winner will be in is. The cameras aren’t scanning anything except one particular section. Next time they announce it, look around and see if the Rally-backs and a cameraman are around. If they’re not, you’re not winning. Sorry.)
But every once in a while a fan is picked to play Fry’s Rapid Recall, a game where a video is shown of one of the in-game hosts at the checkout counter and four items are spotlighted during the check-out process. The contestant is then asked something along the lines of “what was the third item scanned?” If they give the correct answer, they win a gift card to Fry’s.
Now usually I don’t pay attention to this stuff — I go to enough games that I’ve seen it before, and I’m aware that it’s just a marketing gimmick used to keep the attention of those people who aren’t that interested in the game. Plus, because I keep score during games, I’m usually totaling things up in my score book during the inning breaks. But tonight something caught my ear.
I didn’t watch the video, but I heard the contestant being told she got the answer wrong — then one of the in-game hosts deliver the tag line, something along the line of “Fry’s – fresh food, low prices.” Maybe I got it wrong, but I’m pretty sure that’s what he said.
Rewind just 15 seconds or so, and what were the foods in the video being purchased? Fruit Loops and Pepsi were the two I remember, while a previous episode had Gatorade and other processed foods.
I’m willing to bet that not many people in the crowd of 22,000 or so caught that – but I did. And I hope more people start catching this kind of thing in the future. It’s amazing how inconsistent messaging can be — make your tag line one thing but then show something completely different. I think the more you pay attention to it, the more you find it.
Keep your eyes open for times when a person or company says one thing and then does something else — and see if you can tell which one they’re really committed to.
Thoughts about Brain Rules
Jun 19th
Having been turned onto this book by one of my uncles who absolutely raved about it, I was intrigued to see if i would live up to his hype.
Thankfully, it did. Well, most of it did…
The premise, at least as I saw it, is that the way we use our brain today is largely incongruous with how, in theory, we should be using it when looked at in the context of evolution. When you consider that we went from tree-dwellers to land roamers and lived that way for thousands of years, only to rapidly evolve into desk jockeys and production line workers, it makes a good deal of sense. We have abandoned many of the stimuli that our species evolved to deal with, replacing them with email, reality shows and classroom based education, all of which are fairly inadequate substitutes for the mental exercises of evading four-legged predators on the savanna or migrating across continents in search of more fertile land or simply for the sake of seeing what else is out there.
Medina dives into a decent amount of research to show what we know and don’t know about the brain and how it functions, but other than the medical terms for the various parts of the brain and some of its processes, it never gets so academic that you get lost or feel like you’re in a med school class. Besides, knowing some of the basic terminology about how we work is something every one of us could benefit from.
Divided up among 12 chapters – or principles to improve your brain function, as they are positioned – almost all of them really caught my attention.
The chapter on vision really piqued my interest, as it provides an explanation for how we see what we see that made me appreciate the relationship between our eyes and brain and the work that goes into turning the world around us into the world inside our head. Likewise, the early chapters on exercise, survival and wiring get the book off to a hot start that should have you hooked almost instantaneously.
The author does an amazing job at taking post-doctorate level concepts and research and putting it into layman’s terms that gives you both an incredible appreciation for your brain and insights into just how much and how little we know about this three-pound mass between our ears. Given that he is an affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine and directs the Brain Center for Applied Research at Seattle Pacific University, as well as a highly decorated academic and instructor, it would be easy to imagine this book getting out of the mental grasp of most of us pretty easily – but it never does. In addition to being an incredibly informative book, it’s an incredibly well-written book.
After reading the book, of course, Medina puts the challenge back on each one of us to improve our own brain function, as well to collectively rethink the ways we’ve approached school and the workplace and what could possibly be gained from a change in approach. He’s not timid about taking on the educational system or the gender differences that exist in society and the workplace, and he has some valid points and interesting challenges that could, if proven true and widely implemented, could be a major jump start for our civilization.
I recommend you read it. Your brain will thank you.
Thoughts on Sarah Palin’s book
Mar 3rd
After waiting several weeks to get a copy of Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue from the Phoenix Library, I wasted no time diving into its over 400 pages.
The first question you may be asking yourself — why didn’t I just go out and buy it? Truthfully, because I didn’t want to feel like I wasted my money in case it was a bad book. Second, I truly believe in supporting our public libraries as much as I believe in supporting bookstores. Third, I always have a ton of stuff to read, so it wasn’t like I was really yearning for something to read. Fourth, I never had the suspicion it would turn out to be one of those great works that would earn a place on my bookshelf.
Given the magnitude of the 2008 presidential election, it’s kind of hard not to go into the book with some kind of bias – either for or against Mrs. Palin. I admit, I wasn’t her biggest fan going in, and I had seemingly learned more about her from Tina Fey and Saturday Night Live than through any other source. I knew she had some political accomplishments under her belt – it’s no small feat being elected governor of any state. Certainly there had to be substance to this woman beyond how she was portrayed, right?
In fact, there is.
She certainly positions herself as such in what I found to be a fairly well-written, albeit somewhat shallow, autobiography/memoir of her work up to this point. Not being an Alaskan, it’s tough for me to verify or comment on her political accomplishments, so we will leave that out for the moment.
Thinking about what would draw a reader to the book, I figured that someone is either already a fan of her work and wants to know more about her, or they are worried that she’s becoming the voice of a political movement that they’re not fond of, or that they want some kind of inside scoop as to the 2008 presidential election.
The first group should be relatively satisifed – like similar books, Going Rogue starts at the beginning and works its way through her childhood and career. Was I floored by anything? Not really – the book never gets overly deep or detailed, and for me never seemed to show the major life decisions that generally alter someone’s course and outlook on life. Of course, one could argue that going into politics was one, accepting the VP nomination was another, and choosing to have her fifth child, Trig, who was born with Downs syndrome was a third – and I certainly wouldn’t disagree. While the third seemed to get the most attention, I would have gladly entertained more words on the first two.
The second group will likely be disappointed, unless you know absolutely nothing about Mrs. Palin and her political work up to this point. While I’m not sure she is exactly as portrayed by many during the ’08 campaign, she is fairly close in many regards. I will say that I have a better appreciation for Alaska and the way of thinking that got her into office. The United States is an incredibly diverse place, and my big-city reality is certainly different than Mrs. Palin’s small-town experience. It’s not something to dwell on, but rather a point to acknowledge and use as a way to look at shared problems from different perspectives.
The third group might be the ones to get the most out of the book. Frankly, I doubt that this book would be as popular as it is had Mrs. Palin not been on the GOP ticket in 2008 and the subsequent attention that has come upon her. The campaign is what thrust her into the spotlight and public consciousness, and as such is what gets the most attention in the book.
While I would like to say that the pages are filled with juicy details, that’s only part of the story. Again, I don’t think Mrs. Palin wants to throw everyone under the bus, possibly because she knows she might need them down the line. However, she is quick to point out places where she feels the McCain-Palin campaign fell apart, and how she thinks she was mishandled. It’s certainly interesting for those who like to read about political strategy — I am not one of those people so I don’t know how Going Rogue would compare to other books on the topic. It is clear though, while the campaign was not favorable to Mrs. Palin in regards to getting into the White House at the time, it clearly set her up for a different life which she manages to tee up in the closing chapters.
As many would agree, government is broken and in need of repair – but finding people who are willing to fight to get to a point of having influence only to be put through the wringer of public opinion and what can be an endless assault through the media and allegations makes it clear to see why a career of elected public service is such a turn-off for many people. I know that I wouldn’t even consider running, no matter how much I believed in the good I might be able to do, simply because the process is torture. Mrs. Palin stresses that point several times, and leaves the book encouraging people to find ways to fix it – including setting up the tea party idea.
Certainly this isn’t a new concept, but one that has returned to the public light after many years in relative seclusion. The notion of “the tea party” confuses and worries many individuals, as it should if you don’t know anything about what they stand for and what they are seeking from government. I readily admit that I haven’t familiarized myself with their platform, but it will be something I will keep an eye on as things continue to move forward.
Having resigned from the governor’s desk in Alaska, Mrs. Palin is clearly at a different place than she has ever been in her personal or professional life – she is unbound by elected official duties and seems to be dipping her toes into new waters, the end point of which is still yet to be seen. Some believe a run for president, others don’t. Personally, I’m not sure, although it certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
Going Rogue certainly doesn’t lack in volume, coming in at 413 pages, divided up among just six chapters. This can make for some fairly long hauls if you like to read a chapter at a time, although each chapter is subdivided to give you mile markers at which to pull over and rest.
But while the pages are plenty, I kept feeling that the waters were shallow. The book feels right, maybe even a bit light, for a “Sarah Palin 101″ class – but there is so much more to discuss on her policy and views on issues confronting our world that never get mentioned in practical detail. She stands proudly on the GOP planks as she admits several times, and often cites her admiration for Ronald Reagan and his policies that shaped the 1980s and beyond. She doesn’t hold back criticism on the GOP for straying from the path she thinks they should be on, and while often critical of Democrats, is kind enough to speak a few generous words at times.
For me, truly liking Sarah Palin remains a difficult task. While I’m sure she’s someone who would be great to know, and probably is fairly normal and would be a blast to have some conversations with, Going Rogue didn’t do much to convince me that she is someone I want at the front of a political campaign. Maybe this is just a introductory book with another to follow that will get deeper into issues and look at the country and the world with a more contemporary eye, in which case Going Rogue did its job of being a segue from Sarah Palin, former VP candidate to as-yet-to-be-revealed political force.
