It's all about Perspective

Aaron Dignan is one of my favorite writers on the Internet. I had the pleasure of meeting him in person. Super nice and super smart.  Here is a good post about his experiences at the Apple Store. Ouch.

He makes some great points about the process and takes a small little swat at Best Buy which is pretty much the opposite of my experience at Best Buy.

But the point of this blog entry is to make an interesting observation about perspective and how the human brain changes something with just the slightest amount of external data.  Stay with me, this one is fun.

You probably have heard the song "White Flag" by Dido. This link will take you to the clip on Amazon if you haven't heard it. Scroll down on the Amazon page and listen to White Flag. Nice, eh?

Perfect for the special someone, all cute -n- cuddly, right?

Right.

Now, picture this:

A pain in the ass VC. That wasn't hard, was it.  The VC and a bunch of the other suits at the board meeting are just not getting it. Man -oh- man, just goofballs, the lot of em.  They tell you to spend when you shouldn't, save when you should spend, hire the 50 consultants to figure out what size the hose is for the coffee machine, and in general cause your acne to really really act up.  Typically, you'd scream, yell, fight, argue, and get grey hairs.

Naaah, put the gun away. Do this instead.

Simply stand up slowly. Rise up and stop. Look around the room, into the eyes of each person. Then, ensuring you have the speakers on your laptop cranked up, simply walk out of the room while pressing PLAY (right mouse click and save it, sorry it isn't streaming.) Listen to the whole thing.

Yeah? See? One visual picture and it's completely different.

Now, exercise number two. 

I've mentioned Gapingvoid before. Hugh draws great cartoons, has smart things to say and I've never met him in person. Bought the T-Shirt(s) but haven't been there, so to speak. 

Wander his blog and get a sense for his work. It's good stuff.

Now, scoot over and listen to this Podcast of Hugh which is brought to you by a very smart lady named Nicole Simon from Lübeck, Germany. Another person who I've never met but already know.

Now, you read Hugh's work, then listen to Hugh and then go read some more. What happens to your perception of who this guy is? What do you think he is all about?

If you are following the brand firefight going on at Gapingvoid with respect to "Bespoke" Suits and lower price/high quality, does hearing Hugh talk change the way you read his material? Are you more or less inclined to believe/like/enjoy Hugh's stuff?

While this sounds like I'm having a slow day here at PMV; I'm deadly serious.

For business of the future (also known as NOW), understanding all the dimensions of how your customers, partners, etc, think, take on way more importance then 5 years ago. 

Listening to Hugh and reading Hugh, gives me an incredible advantage over others if I need to interact/do business with him. It's data that we have never had before in mass quantities.

Pay attention to this stuff, folks, pay attention. The ground isn't shifting, it's shifted.  You need to understand how all of this is going to impact your business.

See you at Reboot, Nicole.

>R<

Comments

[Nicole Simon]

thx. ;) Exactly why I love listening to people, it changes your perception.

You like them more afterwards, or less, doesn't matter, it changes.

Being on the internet always means you write, in most of the cases. Get to know the other person - but there are more facettes. I for example like speaking more than reading, but only because each time I write I feel the limitation. Not being able to use such fine words as others, it is so much more work.

And it is why I use smileys all the time. For example your profile, the "sound" of it, made me giggle immediatly - a sound again. Others are different, and of course, I blog anyway. ;)

See ya Thursday! :)