Seth’s Blog: Beware of false averages

Beware of false averages

Some people like really spicy food. Some people like bland food. Building a restaurant around sorta spicy food doesn’t make either group happy.

It’s tempting to look at pop music, network TV and the latest hot fashion and come to the conclusion that the recipe for success is to focus group everyone, average it up and make something that pleases the big hump in the middle, while not offending most of the outliers.

But few things are up for a majority-rule vote. Instead, the tail keeps getting longer, and choice begets more choice. As a result, people don’t need to abandon their hump to head to the non-existent middle.

Yes, there are true averages (like how high to mount a doorknob). But more often than not, trying to please everyone a little is a great way to please most people not at all.

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Seth’s Blog : Irresistible is rarely easy or rational

Irresistible is rarely easy or rational

There’s often a line out the door.

It’s not surprising. The ice cream is really good, the portions are enormous, and a waffle cone costs less than three Canadian dollars. And it’s served with a smile, almost a grin.

It’s irresistible.

Of course, once you finish the cone, you’ll stroll around, hang out by the water and maybe start to make plans about where to spend a week on next year’s vacation.

The Opinicon, a lovely little resort near Ottawa, could charge a lot more for an ice cream cone. A team of MBAs doing a market analysis and a P&L would probably pin the value at about $8. That’s where the ROI would be at its peak.

But they’re not in the business of selling ice cream cones. The ice cream cones are a symbol, a beacon, a chance to engage.

If you run everything through a spreadsheet, you might end up with a rational plan, but the rational plan isn’t what creates energy or magic or memories.

Stew Leonard’s was a small supermarket with a big footprint. They were profiled by Tom Peters and had the highest sales per square foot of any store of its kind. As they grew to a few more stores, a new generation took over, one that seems more intent on ROI and less focused on magic. As a result, profits went up. For a while. But now, year after year, it’s a bit less crowded, a bit less energetic, a bit less interesting. So when new store options open nearby, they lose a few more customers, then a few more, and finally, people begin to wonder, “why do I even bother coming here?”

It might not be about being cheaper. It’s tricky to define better. But without a doubt, the heart and soul of a thriving enterprise is the irrational pursuit of becoming irresistible.

Seth’s Blog: Compulsory Education is an oxymoron (back-to-school rant)

Compulsory Education is an oxymoron (back-to-school rant)

Effective education is rarely done TO people. It’s done with them.

I had my first professional teaching gig forty years ago this summer. Since then, I’ve taught at institutions like NYU and Tufts, at community colleges, from the stage, one on one and most of all, on the vanguard of digital media.

As our hemisphere goes back to school this week, I hope you’ll spend a few minutes thinking about who school is for, what it’s for, how it works and how it doesn’t. We’re wasting a huge amount of time and money, bankrupting our children, hindering progress and stultifying growth, all at the same time. Even worse, we’re not even seeing all the things we’re not learning, not engaging with, not creating, because we’re so busy learning like it’s 1904.

Here’s my free book-length manifesto, Stop Stealing Dreams. It’s been shared (in PDF and video form) more than 4,000,000 times. I hope you’ll forward it to parents or learners or people you care about.

Consider the radical shifts being pursued by Acton, by Harlem Village Academy, by Big Picture Learning. Or experiences like Global Citizen Year. Before you go a quarter of a million dollars in debt, it’s worth reading Hackiversity, a new book about re-examining what gets learned in college.

I’ve written a popular Medium post, “Will This be on the Test?,” in which I outline how the altMBA and The Marketing Seminar are pioneering changes in adult education. Digital learning isn’t merely a version of in-person learning, (online).

It’s an entirely different experience, one that can transform people faster and with more impact. The exchanges, the experience and the outputs are all dramatically different.

When you’re in it, it might not feel like a revolution. But it is. One by choice. One that’s urgent. One that’s happening right now.