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Want a Successful Revolution? Find an Explainer
Posted by: leelefever on May 17, 2013- 10:47am
Categories: Art of Explanation, book, explainer, quote, revolution
Jason Kottke pointed me to a passage from the Kurt Vonnegut novel Bluebeard, where he outlines the three types of specialists that are needed for success in a revolution. Remarkably, one is an explainer.
Here’s the passage:
Slazinger claims to have learned from history that most people cannot open their minds to new ideas unless a mind-opening teams with a peculiar membership goes to work on them.
Otherwise, life will go on exactly as before, no matter how painful, unrealistic, unjust,... Continue Reading
We're getting close to rolling out a new and improved version of
CommonCraft.com and I have a favor to ask. We're planning to include testimonials in the new design. These are short quotes that will display the names (and organization names, if desired) of the people providing the quotes.
While all testimonials are welcome, short quotes of 150 characters or less would be perfect (about the size of a Twitter update.) Just a few words about our videos, how they're used, results, etc. Here's... Continue Reading
It's true, Common Craft (the company and blog) is 5 years old today, or sometime around now. I recently went back to the very first blog posts I wrote in 2003.
One of first was called "My Intentions for this Weblog" of June 24, 2003. Here are two quotes:
This weblog will be written in the language of a lay person. I feel strongly that a key to my success is being able to relate technology and technical concepts to people that are not educated or well-versed in technology. I think that the... Continue Reading
Two Quotes on Simplicity
The first is by Antione de Saint Exupéry, author of The Little Prince and a pioneer in aviation:
Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away.
The second is by William of Occam (1288-1347) You might know the name from Occam's Razor.
It is vain to do more with what can be done with less.
These quotes mean a lot to me and were found, most recently, at the beginning of Chapter 5 of Tim Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Workweek. More on that later.
Every once in a while we get an email that reminds us why we started making videos for the Common Craft Show. Here is a quote from an email today:
I love your films! We were so inspired by the Wiki-Plain English that we have now set up 5 active team workspaces and have totally revolutionised the way we work. (I spent 10 years as a TV/Radio Producer and now work in behaviour/social change communication and I can say I have never come across a short film so motivational yet so simple!)
Yay!... Continue Reading
I'm originally from North Carolina and I once learned that our state motto is "Esse Quam Videri" which translates to "To Be Rather Than To Seem"
If you ask me, this should be the motto for businesses (and individuals) who are trying to adapt to the new world of community, marketing and advertising on the web. The days of "seeming" are over and success in the future is all about "being". Really, there is no choice - the customer now decides what is real.
To Be Rather Than To Seem - it makes... Continue Reading
Richard MacManus quoted a passage from Steve Jobs' commencement address at Stanford.
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
Those words mean a lot... Continue Reading
I just read (and recommend) this .pdf from Guy Kawasaki's book, Art of the Start. For folks thinking about starting a company, I think it's good and somewhat non-conventional advice.
I thought this was an interesting this "key principle":
POLARIZE PEOPLE. When you create a product or service that some people love, don't be surprised when others hate you. Your goal is to catalyze passion�??pro or anti. Don't be offended if people take issue with what you've done; the only result that should... Continue Reading
I heard a few powerful words regarding honestly recently and wanted to pass them on. I had never heard it put this way:
Honesty is the intent not to deceive.
[luvly] Talking to Ward Cunningham about wiki
While I'm writing about wikis, I thought this fit well- it's a transcript of a call with Ward. I really liked some of the thoughts Ward has about wikis (go figure). I particularly liked his comparison of wikis to a fragile civilization...
Civilisation is a construction of people that exists longer than anyone has a right to expect it to.
I like walking in city parks, but they are very easy to destroy. And sometimes someone will come along in their... Continue Reading