John Lee Dumas and I had a really fun (and hopefully interesting) conversation for his podcast Entrepreneur on Fire. If you're interested in how I think about the business side of what we do, I think you'll enjoy it.
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The Common Craft Blog
This blog is where we announce new videos & talk about the power of explanation & the change it can create.
Joe Hanson at Itsoktobesmart.com shared this video and it made me laugh. A perfect satire of highly academic explanations.
An Awesome Explanation of A Differential Gear
Posted by: leelefever on April 3, 2013- 9:24am
Categories: Explanation, gears, Great Explanations, mechanics, video
Kottke reminded me this morning about this mid-century video that explains, very clearly, how a differential gear works in automobiles. Watch:
Email readers can watch here.
Notice how the video starts with a scene that everyone can grasp before going into more technical information. They focus on "why" before "how". The simple model they use to explain the mechanism is a great example of simplification. The "noise" of the actual gear is removed so the instructor can focus on the big ideas. A truly remarkable explanation.
Upcoming Speaking
Posted by: leelefever on April 1, 2013- 11:17am
Categories: art of explanation, conference, events, presentation, Speaking, travel
It's that time of year. Starting in May, I'll be out sharing lots of ideas, stories and tactics focused on the Art of Explanation. I hope to see you at one of these events this spring.
STC Technical Communications Summit, May 5-8, Atlanta, GA
My session will be on Monday the 6th from 3:30 to 4:30 on The Art of Explanation.
Professional communicators explain ideas every day, but we rarely take a step back and think about the skill of explanation and what it can mean to our audience. Lee LeFever, the author of The Art of Explanation, will help you take a fresh look at what makes explanations work, how to plan an explanation and use media to make your explanations remarkable.
My session at Webvisions will be at 3:30 on Friday May 24th.
The biggest barrier to people adopting your product or idea may not be design, engineering, price point or UX, but a lack of understanding. If you can’t explain your product or service, or why anyone should care, they won’t be motivated to take the next step.
Attendees will learn battle-tested explanation strategies from Lee LeFever, founder of Common Craft and author of The Art of Explanation. He will help you rethink how you communicate complex subjects and learn to solve explanation problems.
Amplify is "Australia leading platform for discussing business innovation with the world's boldest speakers." Sachi and I will be doing a couple of workshops and I will be speaking about The Art of Explanation and focusing on the potential for organizations to rethink how they explain complex products and services.
Fireworks Factory is a unique conference put on by our friends at Capulet Communications that's billed as "An invite-only conference for smart Web marketers" I'll be doing a talk focused on The Art of Explanation and how marketers can prepare for increasing demand for clear, understandable communications and explanations.
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