October 15, 2004
egofriction idea
Egofriction:
Hugh MacLeod
Hi, I'm Hugh.
My life is committed to drawing little illustrations that spread messages, inspire people, help businesses kick butt & support causes.
Gapingvoid is based upon the science of how these cartoons work.
If we can help you or your business, please email us here.
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Archive for October, 2004
random notes
: William Gibson is blogging again. My friend Hamish will be well pleased. Thanks to Joi for the tip.
: Nick Denton, probably the most successful (and famous) commercial blog publisher interviewed in the Wall Street Journal. Talking about how blogs are a great mainstream advertising medium (something I concur with). Thanks to Bruner for the tip. The link to this article is set to expire in five days (WSJ.com is a paid subscription site), so read it while you can.
: “Success in the Creative Age: The Internet, Not TV, Is The Harbinger of the Future.” Evelyn rocks yet again.
1. The psychological center of gravity (+/- 5 years of the adult median age) is skewing towards older, more mature mindset. Sorry, to have to say this so bluntly but the Donald Trumps are stuck in Erik Erikson’s stagnation stage. Trump was the last generation. The leaders of the future will be generative. Even Gen Y is exhibiting more traditionally mature values (btw, I get some ideas about youth sent my way from a relative that works on tween and teen market research).
: “We pay our lawyers $250 an hour to tell the world that we’re utterly clueless.“
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Heck, I’ll tell the world for free. Thanks to Mary Hodder for the tip.
: From Wired: The Long Tail:
Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.
Thanks to Tim Oren for the tip.
: “Mommy, how come Daddy lost his sorry-ass job in Big Media?“
From David Sifry:
The chart above shows a graph of the most influential or authoritative blogs as compared with the most authoritative
why i’m writing a book
I’m writing a book. It’s an expansion on a web post I published this summer called “How To Be Creative”.
(NB: The Book Outline is here)
The premise is very simple:
“So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years.”
I didn
October 14, 2004
egofriction: culture vs technology
I’m seeing a huge gap in the market at the moment.
Companies change internally for two main reasons. Let’s call them “Culture” and “Technology”.
Yes, both affect the other.
My experience has been: if you’re part of the change process in a company, you’re either a “Culturalist” or a “Technologist”.
My experience has also been, the Culturalists and the Technologists are very bad at talking to one another.
So you get “we need a new ad campaign” or ” we need a new tech implementation”. But you never seem to get both at the same time, coming from the same place.
Why is this so? Egofriction, of course.
Sure, “Egofriction” is a silly, made-up word. But its eradication will mean big bucks to anybody who gets good at killing it.
I have a few ideas. You?
[UPDATE:] Heh. Gary Maxwell in the comments puts it nicely:
Merging two cultures and two technologies typically fail because each side seems to have a subconscious desire to have their culture and technology “win”. This is never admitted by either side, yet it is obvious that each side obfuscates its intellectual and cultural assets to prevent the other side from incorporating them. It reminds me of a bizarre courtship ritual that never consummates.
book thoughts
Heard recently from a publishing insider that the average book is lucky to sell 6,000 copies.
That number struck a chord with me– 6000 is about how many unique visitors I get at gapingvoid every day. Sometimes more, sometimes less etc.
Sure, you get money from a book, but to make it also costs you two years of your life. I guess I concur with Cormac McCarthy’s advice to young writers: “Don’t write unless you have to.“
I’ve been neglecting the book recently, but I’m starting to think about it some more…
[UPDATE:] Earlier I mentioned something about wanting to move to Silicon Valley and join The Revolution. Since then I’ve started working with some folk out there. Cool work, too. No need to move there yet, though. I’m still enamored with my cybercafe model.
Markets are conversations. Markets are conversations. Who you talk to decides what food you put on the table…
CAVEAT: After you reach a certain size the “conversation” stops behaving like a thing and starts behaving like a metaphor.
October 13, 2004
talent = scarcity
Post-commodity economics, Baby!
This cartoon was recently part of a very interesting Powerpoint presentation. I guess those who were there will recognise it.
cybercafe biz models
I’m at the age where folks start considering quitting their nine-to-five advertising jobs and opening up their own agencies.
The thing is, the more I think about it, the less I think you need all that agency crap– offices, employees, photocopiers etc etc.
I’m starting to think you can do a lot of it from a cybercafe, if you have to. How very post-Cluetrain, “Marketing-is-Dead” of me.
This says one of two things: either I’m utterly crazy or the standard agency biz model is truly dead, cold and buried.
Maybe a bit of both…
October 11, 2004
egofriction death squads
Egofriction.
In The Hughtrain there is the oft-quoted thought that the future of advertising is “internal”.
i.e. How you talk to each other is more important than how you talk to the outside world.
i.e. If you can’t discuss with your people why your product is fabulous, how do expect to be able to do likewise with the general public? Exactly. You can’t.
And let’s say you build Bill and Ben The Company Men the most advanced internal corporate communications system in the world. So they can share information and whatnot better than anyone alive. Using Typepad, Blogger or whatever.
Well, if Bill and Ben hate each other’s guts, it’s all for naught. They ain’t going to be talking to each other, regardless of how swell their toys are.
This is what I call “Egofriction”. Personality getting in the way of process.
Egofriction Eradication is key to the internal conversation of any company, and it is key to the external market conversation of any company.
So I’m wondering if there’s a market for companies that can eradicate it? Egofriction Death Squads, as it were.
We live in interesting times.
[AFTERTHOUGHT:] “Egofriction devalues Emotional and Intellectual Capital”. Of course it does.
[AFTERTHOUGHT:] By making your process more fluid and/or transparent in any endeavor, you are opening yourself up… you are sharing.
Sharing is an act of love.
October 10, 2004
back home
Shit. I am no longer in Paris.
I am no longer there and it pisses me off.
I had my happiest few days in years while I was there.
You go into the slummiest, run down cafe you can find, and they still serve good coffee.
Going back in early November. Can’t wait.
October 9, 2004
last full day in paris
Still in Paris. Leaving tomorrow.
Methinks I’ll be back soon…
October 8, 2004
paris doors
Yes, I am still in Paris.
Paris apartment buildings are interesting. To get inside the building you first need to pass through 2 doors– the outside street door and the inside courtyard door.
Say you are visiting a friend in Paris and you want to ring his doorbell. The doorbell is only on the inside, by the courtyard door. To ring that, first you have to get through the street door. The only way to do that is by pressing a five digit code (say, 12B45) known only by the people in the building and their friends and people they trust.
So if you have an apartment in Paris and you have a friend coming over for the first time, you’ll say to him, “I’m at 56 Rue de Whatever. My code is 12B45. Then ring my doorbell once you get into the courtyard.“
Unless you already know the code, you don’t get in. Only people who are already trusted get to ring the doorbell. Door-to-door solicitations just don’t happen.
A simple method that works.
It’s Permission Marketing at its finest. Somebody should invent an application that does the same for e-mail. Or perhaps other gizmos that makes mass-advertising and unsolicited marketing pretty much impossible.
Perhaps something like a new daily code that changes every 24 hours, available via RSS…?
I love Paris.
[UPDATE: 6pm]
Kim Polese introduced Spikesource and suddenly Fred Wilson plans to sell his Microsoft stock.
We’re only just getting used to the idea of the recorded music industry being toast. Bill Gates being toast is a bit harder for us mere mortals to get our heads around.
Whatever. There’s a fun new space that’s opening up in the business world:
“Be the best in the world or die.“
Some companies can handle that space; others can’t. Spikesource obviously thinks it can, which is what’s driving the current excitement.
Like the old song says, it ain’t whatcha do, it’s the way that you do it.
The proportion of companies that have to be able to handle that space just in order to survive (let alone grow and prosper) is expanding at such a fast rate it’s starting to get kinda thrillseeker-scary etc.
[UPDATE: SATURDAY]
Hmmm… Coca Cola has started blogging, it seems. Using Typepad software, it seems. Quite an amusing story how it wasn’t password-protected at first, and how it was soon spotted by the outside world.
Somebody’s head is rolling at the moment, I am sure.
OK, I’ll shut up about blogs now.
I’m still in Paris. Having fabulous time. Drawing wee cartoons on the back of business cards and handing them out to sweetheart Montparnasse waitresses.
Heh.
October 4, 2004
london paris
Off to London for a day or two, then off to Paris for 5 days. Posting from internet cafes for the next week. Back at my desk circa the 11th.
[UPDATE: Tuesday, 5th October] In London. Lovely London. Apologies to everybody I should have looked up but didn’t have time etc. Only here for one full day and rather stressed by having too much to do in such a short time-frame etc. etc.
[UPDATE: Thursday, 7th October] In Paris. I really, really like Paris. I really like the French. Why? I like the way they speak to each other. Even if you’re only buying a pack of cigarettes or whatever, when they speak to you they are very “there”, in the moment, “present” etc.
I shall be quite incommunicado till Sunday at the earliest. I’m writing this from a wee cybercafe near The Pompidou Center.
My French is improving.
[UPDATE: Friday, 8th October] Still in Paris. I still love Paris.
silicon valley startup
I have this idea for a Silcon Valley startup.
It’s not really a startup. It’s just some crazy guy with a laptop, a cellphone, a stack of blank business cards and some drawing pens. Applying The Hugtrain to real life, helping out other startups express themselves better to the world.
From a recent e-mail I sent somebody, who described himself as a “Creative Futurist”:
“Creative Futurist” is no bad place to be. I’m more creative than futurist, sadly, but that is quickly changing.
Technologists, for all their skills, have one weak spot. They want all problems to be technological problems. That way they can fix them.
But there are also cultural problems with any large company, or with any large tech implementation. Tech alters values and value chains. The techie might be able to install for us the most amazing e-mail program, but if we hate each other’s guts, it’ doesn’t matter how good the program is because we’re not talking too each other.
Techies think that if you install the right tools, the Cultural Alignment will happen by itself. It doesn’t.
That’s where I think our space could be useful in years to come.
Obviously, this doesn’t apply to ALL technologists… some more than others etc.
Talking to Doc Searls (again) on the phone yesterday about this. West Coast, here I come. Time to join The Revolution etc.
For a while now I’ve been ranting on about blogs being a great way to make things happen indirectly, especially in the job market. Finally, I think people are beginning to get it. The New York Times just quoted me: (From Page 2 of the article, last para:) “That’s the advantage of blogging– if you do it well and have interesting things to say, people pay attention.“
Speaking of Doc; from about 5 years ago in The Cluetrain:
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter and faster than most companies.
True. But once you stop thinking of your company and your market as two seperate things, that problem goes away.
October 2, 2004
random notes
: On the phone to Doc Searls last night. He described gapingvoid as “Dilbert for folk with non-shitty jobs.” Heh.
: In the future, the only people who will ever hire you will be your regular blog readers. That’s already starting to happen some people I know. Start blogging YESTERDAY and get building traffic.
: Going to Paris next week. Hooray!
: Been writing a lot lately. Not been uploading new drawings so much, just reposting the old ones with the writing etc. Take it from me– it’s really hard to write new stuff, draw new stuff AND hold down a job. I do my best but it’s not always enough.
: The Book is now circa 15 thousand words. It really needs to be 30 – 40 thousand. Arrrrgh. It wouldn’t be a problem but I’m already swamped with other things.
: Balance, Schmalance:
At its most basic level, the imagery of balance doesn’t work — the teeter-totter with our work on one side and something else on the other as we strive to keep them in perfectly equal weight.
I gave up on the idea of balance years ago (I think I was 15 at the time). Face it, People, we’re entering The Creative Age. Hey, guess what? Anything creative is EXTREMELY time consuming.
: Paul Graham: “What The Bubble Got Right.“
Now the pendulum has swung the other way. Now anything that became fashionable during the Bubble is ipso facto unfashionable. But that’s a mistake– an even bigger mistake than believing what everyone was saying in 1999. Over the long term, what the Bubble got right will be more important than what it got wrong.
That does it. As soon as I’m done with my current gig I’m moving West to Silicon Valley and joining The Revolution. Guess I’ll need to find a job. Heh.
gapingblog.com
“Gapingblog.com– an offshoot of Hugh MacLeod’s gapingvoid and his Scottish webmaster, Jonathan Alstead– is a blog hosting service for hardcore, professional and corporate bloggers who are damn serious about the medium. No messing around.“
I’ve gone into the blog hosting business. Sort of.
Johnno’s been building and hosting gapingvoid since its inception in 2001. He’s cheap, realiable, good natured and honest. His elder bother is one of my oldest and dearest friends. I trust both of them utterly.
John does all the hosting, technical, design and whatnot. My part is to help advise the client with what I know about blogging and communication strategy (which is a lot).
Clients of gapingblog.com will be able to consult me via e-mail on blog design, marketing and strategy (within reason, of course, please don’t stalk me).
I am getting no money for this. Just helping out an old friend. John’s a terrrific guy who’s done an incredible job helping me. We talked about joining forces for years, now we have.
A fully operational, well-designed blog starts at about
great branding is a spiritual exercise
(Just added the following to The Hughtrain:)
Great branding is a spiritual exercise.
The primary job of an advertiser is not to communicate benefit, but to communicate conviction.
Benefit is secondary. Benefit is a product of conviction, not vice versa.
Whatever you manufacture, somebody can make it better, faster and cheaper than you.
You do not own the molecules. They are stardust. They belong to God. What you do own is your soul. Nobody can take that away from you. And it is your soul that informs the brand.
It is your soul, and the purpose and beliefs that embodies, that people will buy into.
Ergo, great branding is a spiritual exercise.
Why is your brand great? Why does your brand matter? Seriously. If you don
October 1, 2004
generation c
Lalarene, a young graduate in Los Angeles, meditates on The Sex & Cash Theory:
My job is confusing.…I’m definitely not getting the Cash but not all of the good feeling Sex either (probably because I know I should be getting the cash — almost like having sex without an orgasm…you know it’s supposed to happen but sometimes it just doesn’t). I want both in one package (don’t we all) so I’m carefully massaging my circumstances to give me that. It takes time. In college we called it “paying our dues.” It sucks. But I recently ran into Tiffany at the Spider Room who also graduated with a degree in Political Science (though one year before me) and now she’s a Financial Analyst. She hates her job but it pays her the big bucks (Cash) so she stays.
I don’t like that compromise. Even the creative outlet that I seek should be Sex & Cash together. Isn’t that what our generation is all about? Creative Content…Generation C. So let’s work towards Sex & Cash together forever.
“Generation C”. As in “Content”. Ha! I love it!
Any young person entering the job market knows full well that we’re quickly entering into what is commonly called “The Creative Age”. It’s old buggers like me who are having trouble seeing it. If you are having trouble, you should go read this book ASAP.
forget “customers”. think “allies”.
Forget “Customers”. Think “Allies”.
That line came to me after reading an insanely great post from Evelyn Rodriguez.
No empathy, no alliance. Rock on.
[CAVEAT:] She gives me a mention in the post (Thanks, Ev!).
Damn, she’s good. Every time I write something I have to check her blog just to make sure she hasn’t thought of it first.
[UPDATE:] Nice story from fellow Evelyn groupie Johnnie Moore, who I think has the best British marketing blog:
A friend was once asked by a CEO to get his staff to have more engaging conversations. His inspired intervention was simply to ask the boss, “Is this an engaging conversation?” Rather Zen like, I think that captures the challenge of getting conversations into the here-and-now where I think change can happen. What Ben and Roz Zander call “possibility space”.
I was having a chat with a very smart British advertising executive the other day. She was telling me how “Britain still has the best advertising in the world.“
I’ve been hearing that for years. The more I know about advertising, the less I agree with it.
Sure, if you’re into cash-thirsty, 30-year-old business models, then yeah, well, maybe the UK is your kind of place…
I’ll shut up now in case this turns into a rant.
[UPDATE:] Evelyn’s link was broken. Fixed now. Thanks to Katherine for spotting it.
intense longing
From now on if anyone asks me why say, Apple or Harley Davidson are such great brands, all I have to do is show them this drawing.
And of course, if anyone asks me why their brand isn’t so hot, again, all I have to do is show them this drawing.
Like I’ve said before… it’s so frickin’ obvious.
Heh.
[UPDATE:] Just added the drawing to The Hughtrain.
The Hughtrain is starting to gel. Wondering whether to expand it into a book or not. Maybe just incorporate it into the book I’m already writing. Not sure yet. Watch this space.
