Below is a short story that was posted to our travel blog from Shanghai.  Almost any visitor to China is likely to experience a higher-than-expected level of competiion while standing in line for something like a subway ticket. In the case below, I had made up my mind to be a competitor.  Unfortunately things didn't work out as planned.

From the post: Lessons in Line Breaking

I had made a decision and I was going to act on it.  Gone were the days of standing passively in line while Chinese people wedge themselves in front of me and place an order before I could react.  I was going stand up for myself and try to be a little more Chinese.

This is not the kind of thing you can plan – it just has to happen and just last night, I had my chance.  We were in the Shanghai subway terminal in line for our first subway card at a vending machine, as we’ve done so many times before in other cities.  Just as the couple in front of me at the machine received their card and turned away, a young Chinese guy stepped directly in front of me.  So, with great determination, I stepped in front of him enough to place my right shoulder at about his eye level and in a single motion stepped directly in front of the vending machine.   It was mine!  HAHA!  I’ll show you line breaker!  I’m no push-over tourist softy!

So there I was, with this foreign and unfamiliar machine staring me in the face.  It was mine, yes, but I realized all too quickly that I had no idea how to use it.  The instructions were in English and the #1 read “Select Fare???.  Scratching my head with waves of embarrassment pending, I searched the machine for anything that said “Fare???.  Nothing.  I inquisitively pressed a couple of random buttons in the hopes that something would happen. Nothing.  My pride was on the line here and I was blowing it!  Thoughts of fleeing in shame entered my mind when I heard a voice over my shoulder, “Where do you need to go????  It was the line breaker politely asking a simple question that I couldn’t answer completely.  All we knew was that we needed to go two stops on Line 2.  He ended up doing the whole transaction for me and after many “thank yous??? I left with our subway cards in hand and my pride more than a little crushed.

The moral here is that if you’re going to try to act like a local, be prepared for the entire event.  Going off half-cocked is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot. 

First, we want to wish you and yours good cheer and positive vibes for the Holidays.  It's been an exciting year for us at Common Craft and it couldn't have happened without you.  Your links, your blog entries, your emails to friends all put a spotlight on our work that wouldn't have happened otherwise.  Maybe there is something to this social media thing after all. J

Between now and the New Year, we'll be with families on separate coasts and generally unavailable. 

If you're looking for an off-topic diversion, we were interviewed for a podcast by Vann Black recently about our trip last year.  It focuses on travel planning and making lifestyle changes to support extended travel.  

Ta Phrom, Angkor, Cambodia

How long has it been since you really thought about all the things you subscribe to in email? The newsletters, the notifications, the email lists. It's so easy to delete the old stuff when it comes in that you might be used to doing just that - deleting instead of unsubscribing.

I've spent the last couple of weeks unsubscribing from everything and I was amazed at the sheer number of things that came in, but always went unread. My guess is there were 25-30 different newsletters and updates. I had no idea.

My advice is to be aware and remove the things you're not reading if you have a choice. It's quite liberating. Now, if I can just figure out how to unsubscribe from spam, I'll be all set.

As I’ve been hinting, I’m getting really close to revealing something new that I’m very excited about. Quite honestly, I’m hoping to build some buzz, as I’ll be looking for people to participate (it's free). In planning for buzz, I like to look at it in terms of something I call “Buzz Capital�?.

Like most types of capital, buzz capital is something you build up and then spend. The goal is to spend it at the most opportune moment, thus increasing the returns on the buzz. I'd say that Apple is a perfect example of good buzz capital management.

When I started planning this project, I chose a moderate level of secrecy so that the buzz capital wouldn’t be spent too early. For example, let’s say that I wrote about the development of the new thing in public for the last 6 months. To me, this might spread the potential buzz over months. By the time it’s finalized, too much buzz capital may have been spent too early, decreasing the potential returns.

Despite the potential benefits of open/public development, I’m on the side of being (publicly) secretive and hoping that a finalized new thing will return more buzz than an in-development new thing. My hope is that when I’m ready to reveal it, it will have the elements in-place to maximize the potential buzz it can create.

My hope, dear reader, is that you'll be able to help me maximize the buzz capital I'll be spending soon. Like I said before, the new thing is something fun, free and experimental.