DO NOT TRY TO LIVE FOREVER. YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED. — GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Try this experiment: write down 10 things that would definitely change in our society if we all lived ten times longer. What if you had the potential to live for one thousand years? How would that change our current 4-year political cycles? How would that change the idea of a ‘generation’? How would that change our approach to sustainability? How would that change our idea of ‘ages & stages’? What would are experience of time be like? Would we have a different relationship to money? How does the concept of marriage change? If you are 980 and your kid is 960, are you really that different? How would this change advances in technology, art, education, research? How long does a trend last? How much longer do bucket lists become? Would suicide become more acceptable? Would the idea of prison change? How much more, or less, would people change over time? How would our physical activities change? How would our bodies handle one-thousand years of abuse? What new types of deseases and chronic issues would occur? Would religion become more, or less necessary? Would new types of skills develop, and would those skills require new age restrictions? Would age make you more, or less desirable than it does now, and why?

Asking ‘what if’ in any situation forces you to think broadly about the big picture, and then go deep into each situation and figure out how all the pieces are connected. It’s not just a fun exercise; it can expose a fresh approach to a problem, or present an innovative solution to a current need.

Sebastian Drawing 'Squiggly', The First Bedroom Monster

Understanding your fear is the first step to conquering it. Fear of the unknown can be crippling, but uncovering it, inspecting it, classifying it, and describing it can keep that fear at arms length. So it was that my son, who had expressed his fear of monsters the night before, came to spend the morning drawing and describing them to me the next day. These were the creatures that kept him up at night, he insisted. He went into morbid detail about the worst of them. And tonight, he went to sleep without concern.

His explorations into the depths of his greatest fears can be found below.

Classification of BEDROOM MONSTERS:

SQUIGGLY: He is the greatest and most fearsome of the mosters. He is long and flat, and lives under your bed. He has very long, spindly, swirling arms that can wrap and envelope and grab. Without leaving his place, he can snatch you from your bed and drag you underneath to your doom.

SPIKEY: This monster hides in the closet, lying in wait should you escape the clutches of Squiggly. Then it chases you around the dark room, poking and prodding you with sharp prongs.

JAIL: This may be the scariest of the bedroom monsters. Jail lives in old armoires, peeking out of the door and terrifying children with his ugly face. As if that wasn’t enough, he has a human head tied to his ankle with it’s own hair.

TOILET: If you are unfortunate enough to have a a conjoined bathroom in your bedroom, the Toilet Monster, a filthy creature with three decrepit heads, waits for children with full bladders to approach the toilet and then bites them where the sun don’t shine.

COKE: Coke is a monster of forbidden, childish desires. It temps children to stay up late, putting them in perilous danger with other monsters.

BIG NOSE: He is a simple monster of brute force and pig-like expression, who likes to walk heavily about the room when you have the covers over your head.

SIX-LEGS: This extra-limbed horror live inside of every child’s mattress and kicks them whenever they are about to fall asleep, causing their bodies to jerk and jolt them awake.

These are but a few of the Bedroom Monsters, studied and classified by six-year-old Sebastian Xavier in his own home.

All Monsters Drawn and Named By Sebastian

Perhaps I should just smile more.

:-D

1. Pinterest is easy and fun to use.

2. Pinterest is visual and beautiful.

3. Pinterest is built for exploring & cross-linking.

4. Pinterest is connected to your social graph.

5. Pinterest encourages conversation

Those are just a few reasons. But design and usability cannot be understated. Check out the same feature sets from Pinterest and Delicious, and it becomes quite apparent that the best design wins.

HOMEPAGES

Delicious Home Page

Pinterest Home Page

STACKS SEARCH vs BOARDS SEARCH

Delicious Stacks Search Results

Pinterest Boards Search Results

STACK vs BOARD

Delicious Lego Stack

Pinterest Lego Board

MY STACKS vs MY BOARDS

My Delicious Stacks

My Pinterest Boards

LINK DETAIL vs PIN DETAIL

Delicious Link Detail

Pinterest Pin Detail

I decided to score Honda’s “Matthew’s Day Off” commercial, using my Creative Success Meter. It was hard to remain objective because there were already two metrics attached to the ad: the number of YouTube views (over six-and-a-half million), as well as reader rankings (8.5/10). I tried to ignore these numbers as much as possible and go for a consistant, well thought out score based on the creative success of the ad. Remember, creative success is not the same thing as commercial success. Sometimes very uncreative things can make mountains of money (The Smurfs grossed over 142 Million dollars at the box office). By creative success I mean how well-made, connected, and original the project is.

First, here’s the commercial: Honda CR-V “Matthew’s Day Off” (6,600,000 views)

Here are the results of applying the Creative Success Meter to this ad:

This is a simple, familiar idea that resonates with its audience of 30 & 40 somethings who loved John Hughes movies and still want to be cool for driving a mini-van-like-cross-over vehicle. Everyone that likes it will want to share it with their friends, the same friends that they probably watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with in the first place. I gave it bonus marks for the resonance: they hit their demographic sweet spot with a hard, shallow nostalgic kick. But is it smart like the original movie? Nope. Is it well-crafted like a John Hughes movie, with witty edits and perfect timing? Not even close. It’s not an original idea to spoof an 80s movie, and it’s certainly not a flexible one, it can only work once in this format. Did it challenge the audience? No. Was it magical? For some people it will be, which would pull this score up to a 6. I really wanted to love it, and I laughed at most of the references the first time, but I couldn’t get passed the craftsmanship. I felt like Broderick wasn’t trying very hard, and the editing was lazy. The magic wasn’t there for me.

But the spot is doing phenomenally well online. Millions of hits, discussions, shares, and I’m sure some of them are even checking out the car. But I can explain. Remember when I said that something could be familiar and shallow; that the connection didn’t have to be deep to resonate? This is one of those examples. This commercial will not stand the test of time, like the 1984 spot by Ridley Scott, but it has it’s place right now.

If you look closely at the Creative Success Meter attributes, they are grouped into 3 main sections: yellow for Action, blue for Connection, and pink for Deviation. These represent the three main elements of creativity. Action is about quantity, about turning practice into experience. If something scores high in the Action column, it means it is exceptionally well made, well thought out, and easy to understand. Deviation is about uniqueness, about experimenting until you find the right expression. If something scores high in the Deviation column, it means it is highly original, works in all sorts of situations, and makes you think in ways you’ve never thought before. In the case of Matthew’s Day Off, all three of the Connection column were checked off, plus an extra bonus. Connection is about using associations to creating meaning and understanding. This commercial does that very well, on a superficial level, and thus will be popular and enjoyed for a few more weeks before it fades away.

Matthew’s Day Off, on the Creative Success Meter, scores: 5

The Creative Success Meter is a tool for measuring potential or success of any given project. I created it to measure and rank my own work consistently, and then to judge it against the great work of others. In the next post, I’ll apply this to some of the early 2012 Super Bowl ads that brands are ‘leaking’ online for some pre-game buzz. But first, here’s how the Creative Succes Meter works:

For each project, check the attributes that apply to the idea/execution you are measuring. For instance, ask yourself, “Will this project Resonate with the intended audience?” If the answer is yes, it deserves one check. Each checkmark counts as one point. If you believe the sum is greater than it’s parts, and that the work has an undefined perfection to it, you can add another point for Magical. The Bonus is for an exceptionally strong attribute that you wish you could check twice: for instance, if a piece of furniture was hand-carved by a master wood whittler, you’d apply the bonus check-mark to the Well-Crafted attribute. If an execution is better than perfect, it should score an 11 out of ten.

Here is a brief description of all 9 main attributes and 2 extras:

Simple: Is the idea easy to explain? Could you give it a good elevator pitch? Has it been worked at so much that only it’s core elements are necessary to communicate the idea?

Smart: Smart means intelligent, but it also means well dressed. Is the idea put together with experience, with panache? Is it free of mistakes and oversight? Smart work proves that the creator has done this so many times that they make it look easy while never missing a beat. All things have been considered.

Well-Crafted: Is this concept very well made, with attention paid to the smallest detail? Has the creator elevated their form to a new level?

Familiar: Is the idea something that builds on what came before it, something the audience will remember? Work is familiar because it is built upon what has come before it. It is a part of history, and it understands it’s place. Often work is not successful because it is too far ahead of its time, or because the audience finds the work to be too alien to their current tastes. Obvious examples of Familiar exist in remakes, spoofs, and homages; pop culture references. These are more shallow connections, with a limited shelf life, but can still be very powerful and successful. They are better suited to advertising. More subtle, deeper examples of familiar are in the use of metaphor, mythology, legends, old wives tales, even religious and historical references.

Resonant: Does the idea connect with a core philosophy, belief, culture, or time? A resonant idea exhibits a core understanding of the subject matter. Research has been done. Insight has been gleaned.

Shareable: Does the idea beg to be passed along, verbally, digitally, or otherwise? Will the intended audience talk about it? Will they think about it for days afterward, and bring it up at the water cooler?

Original: At first this appears to run contrary to the Familiar attribute, but Original in this context means put together in a new way. Familiar things can still be put together in unique ways.

Flexible: Can the idea live in multiple channels? Can the idea survive fads and trends, can it be looked upon with multiple perspectives? (Think Shakespeare, or event The Catcher In The Rye)

Challenging: Does this idea challenge current beliefs or ideas? Does this idea make you think, and continue to think, long after its first exposure?

Magical: This attribute can only be applied if you believe that everything about the work has come together to transcend the ordinary. It is a stamp of awe and wonder at the ability of human beings.

Bonus: This is not an attribute, but rather the option to choose one attribute that truly stands out (for instance Well-Crafted) and award one extra point to that attribute, so that it is worth 2 points instead of 1.

This tool was initially designed to judge advertising, but I wanted it to work with almost anything that can be created. I will be testing the Creative Success Meter periodically, scoring various work, and inviting discussion. Tomorrow I will look at the 2012 Honda CR-V Super Bowl Spot, “Matthew’s Day Off”.

jted's Top 3 Goals

Creative people often have many, many things on the go. I used to say, “If you want to get something done, ask a busy person,” and in many ways this still holds true. Busy people have energy and momentum. But there’s another side to it. Having too many ideas, starting too many projects, can lead to ‘action dilution’, where you are spread so thin that you are effectively immobilized.

Once or twice a year, it helps to examine your personal, creative priorities. Make a list of the Top Ten things you would like to achieve over the next six months. Prioritize them, with the most important goals at the top. Now ask yourself, “What Would Jobs Do?”

Steve Jobs, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography, did a lot of strange things including: cry in meetings, park his Mercedes the handicapped spot, eat only fruit for months on end…but I’m not talking about those things. Steve knew how to focus. He did this by being ruthless with lists. Every year he would invite his Top 100 employees from Apple (the first ruthless list) on a retreat. They would talk and brainstorm, and at the end of the retreat they would pitch company priorities to Steve Jobs as he stood in front of a white board. After intense debate and impulsive editing, there would be a list of the Top Ten most important company priorities for the year. Then Steve would examine the list, strike out the bottom seven items, and state, “We can only do three.”

Try that with your own list of personal priorities. Look at what you want to accomplish and winnow it down to the top three. Focus on only those three core goals for the next six months; you can assess and re-prioritize in half a year. This should allow you to get past the ‘action dilution’ problem, and get a few really important things done. If this process can turn a tech underdog into a tech titan (Apple is now the most valuable technology company in the world), think about what a little focus might do for you.