I read a newspaper article today (printed on paper) by a journalist who didn’t like Apple Computer precisely because they are popular. He is disgusted by the long lineups at the Apple store whenever they release a new product. He couldn’t understand why someone would cry upon hearing the news that Steve Jobs would no longer be running Apple.

Quoting the article:
“I don’t hate Apple. I actually quite like Apple. But I hate people who love Apple. Because this is not what love is for.”
“These are phones and computers we’re talking about. Trinkets and things. Is it right that our wonder should be so lightly spent?”

The author takes for granted that people actually listen to him. He definitely takes for granted that people actually listen to Steve Jobs.
Anybody who has ever tried to start or spread anything will quickly tell you how hard it is to get people to care. You should never undervalue the fact that somebody cares because changing behaviour is hard, even when you’re motivated. How many people do you know who realize they are unhealthy, yet seem incapable of changing their habits? How many of them rationalize it by saying – “I’m not the only one so it’s ok”?

Apple has a cult of loyal fanboys the world over. Yet, not more than 5 years ago, Apple evangelists were hard to find. Ten years ago, Mac users had been relegated to the fringes of social circles. How did Apple become so dam popular?
Well, if you want to understand more about the technology adoption lifecycle, read Crossing the Chasm and check out my last post. But, this wasn’t about technology adoption; everyone already knew they wanted a computer. This was a different, less rational, social phenomenon.

Mark Earls is socio-anthropologist of sorts, who spoke at the Do Lectures on marketing or how to get people to care about something. He has an interesting take on why ideas spread, which boils down to the fear of missing out (#fomo). His premise is that fundamentally people define their identity by mixing together concepts and values they get from others. So, instill in someone a fear that they’re missing out on something others love, and you’ll quickly get a reaction.

Now, for a few quotes from Mark’s talk:
“Homo-mimcus; the species that copies everyone else”
“People want to do what other people are doing. (When they think they’re missing out,) People don’t always make a rational decision. They don’t think. They just do.”
“Copying is key. It’s how anything spreads through a population.”

Back to Apple Computer. The status Apple has reached in society goes beyond building products that are useful. Owning an Apple computer or phone or music player is now a status symbol. For many owners, Apple is a part of their identity.
Five years ago, techies and students started buying Macs and iPhones. Those people liked really liked their iPhones and would let their friends know. Their friends caught the fear of missing out (#fomo) bug. Then, they all went and bought iPhones, too.

Mr Earls recommends that an idea to spread, it should dead easy for people to share their enthusiasm, and easier for others to join them. I have a good friend who attends medical school in Toronto. Years ago, he bought an iPhone when it was first becoming popular. Whenever he would sit down, he used to take it out of his pocket and place it right in the middle of the table where everyone could see. He was externalizing his identity by asking people to be like him; to copy him. While it didn’t work on me, it left an impression. It definitely worked on many of our friends, most of whom now own iPhones. It was easy enough to join him, I just had to go to the Rogers Mobility store and hand them my credit card.

This isn’t new – the marketing faithful have been theorizing on (caution: buzz word ahead!) virality for years. However, it does explain the psychology behind what we already know. People do things that influencers tell them they want. The more influencers around you, the harder it becomes to hold off the peer pressure to join them. You don’t have to think about it, you instinctively want to join them. Don’t make me think and just let me be more like my friends.

Instead of shunning the jump-on-the-bandwagon behaviour and asserting his false individualism, Hugo Rifkin (the author) should be embracing it. Fear of missing out (#fomo) is one of the most powerful forces for growth our species has.

What do I find amazing about Apple right now? Yes, I like their products and I use them. More importantly, they’ve changed the people I see everywhere. The world is learning new interfaces, new applications, new programming languages, spending more time and money on their computers; people are changing their behaviours. The significance of that feat should not be underestimated.

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Almost by it’s very definition, once a company crosses the chasm as described by Geoffrey Moore in his famous book, everyone jumps on board. The late majority and the laggards. Everyone knows about it, and through this many more opinions on the business sprout up.

The latest example is Groupon. Everyone knows what Groupon is and many have even used it. I find that even people I know who are late-majority technology users recommend that I check out Groupon for a deal. I think this is a real compliment to the business, and especially the marketing team at Groupon. They’ve made it. They’ve done so well that they have inspired a rash of copycat businesses, so many in fact, that the next wave of copycats are actually aggregators for plethora of group-buying coupon sites.

That was a nice introduction, now let’s get to the meat of this ramble. There are many opinions floating around on how Groupon achieved its recent fame. Some exclaim, “they figured out how to do social buying”. Still others believe, “once they had the platform, small businesses just had to fork over their money”. And, of course, the ever popular “they had perfect timing”, like all they had was luck and anyone could have done it. The Groupon is certainly not a simple as it may seem, and definitely required a clever strategic thinker.

Groupon has done at least two things well. First of all, they went for deals, not actual product sales.

A deal is much easier to sell online because it gives the customer flexibility. They can choose when and how they want to redeem the coupon. Psychologically, people love to get a deal. It makes you feel unique, special, accepted and rewarded for your hard work in getting the deal, or just rewarded for being you. There was a huge market for coupons, deals and gift certificates long before Groupon showed up. Looks at the trends in Amazon’s growth, or ask my friends over at Retail Me Not and Tjoos.

These are all good points, but I have yet to mention the single greatest value in selling gift certificates. What happens when someone buys a gift certificate and doesn’t use it? It becomes free money for both Groupon and the business offering the discount! Free money! No one actually received a good or service, so there was no cost to anyone. Having worked as part of the payments team at Amazon, I can tell you that unused gift certificates are a multiple-million dollar annual business for Amazon. Having worked recently with a smaller online retailer that heavily makes use of Groupon, I have seen that the rate of unused coupons is higher than one might expect.

Of course, most deals on Groupon are so heavily discounted that the business is making very few dollars off each unused coupon, but it is still free money. One would hope that the increased brand exposure and influx of new customers is the real long term gain.

Financially, the coupon is purchased immediately. Groupon gets paid long before the business gets paid, and certainly before the actual service is delivered. The money is guaranteed, and Groupon’s work is done.

Time-based sales. A psychological tactic that has been used since the beginning of time. Woot was the online pioneer in this world, but Groupon took it to the next level. People are way more likely to open their wallets if they truly believe that right now is their only opportunity to take advantage of this deal.

It’s social, but not in the obvious way. You can buy coupons, then use social media to let your friends know about the new experience you just signed up for. Psychologically, Groupon tells you how many people have already bought the deal. If you’re the first one, you feel like a pioneer. If you’re later on, you can feel secure in your purchase knowing that you’re not alone. Even more important, is you’re giving the buyer an instant social life. Suddenly now that I’m on Groupon, I’m going places and doing things. Maybe, I’m even meeting new people, new friends. I have stories to tell friends and family about the great new spa in the city, or what it’s like to jump from a plane.

Offering deep discounts to get people to try a new service or product is a very old idea. But, the way Groupon has adapted it is worth marveling at. So many levels!

Followup: Here’s another take on Groupon and it’s effect on the businesses it promotes: http://www.ecommerceanalyticsblog.com/?p=285

I am shocked by the pain that people will put themselves through when they don’t know any better.

I have been helping a small law firm with their office tech. No question, most lawyers would be considered technology laggards. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, just that technology is not important to their business. A small practice lawyer could get by without a computer, or email, or even a phone. Frankly, it would make their lives very difficult, but they would get by.

To a lawyer, technology is a means to an end. A tool. A way of being more efficient with their time. He just wants to get his job done and get on with his life. Technology is used to free up more of his time, or allow him to do more with the same amount of time. Better technology is not his goal; a better result for his clients is.

In fact, this lawyer does not know how to use a computer. He hired someone else to do that for him. Though, he has an iPhone. Never downloaded an app for it, and uses only the phone and photos apps. He doesn’t actually need anything else from his phone. He gets everything he needs, and isn’t curious to explore further. He’s content.

Being oblivious to the world of technology, he hired someone non-technical to be his assistant. Honestly, how would he know to evaluate someone with knowledge of computers. What questions would he ask them? By the same token, how would a bad programmer know how to evaluate a much better programmer?

When he asked his assistants to get an email account for the firm, they did a little research and came up with what they thought was an informed answer. A friend told them how to register for a domain which included email accounts, all for a price they could afford. Can you see where this story is going?

They got an email account, and continued to use it for years. Never revisiting their choice, or considering a change. Why change? We are getting by just fine now, and we know how to use it. Emails come in, we respond, we delete the email. Wait… what? Sure, they had to delete the email. Most email they get contains large attachments; legal documents. If they didn’t delete the email they would run out of space in their inbox quickly. But, they would download a copy of the attachment and store in a folder on the desktop of one of the office computers.

Everyone needs to access these files from several computers in the office, and from home, so they use portable hard drives to share files. Really? Yup, files get moved physically just like they were on paper. That portable hard drive is also the only long-term backup of all electronic documents used by the firm.

No one has done anything wrong here. They all did what they thought was best with the problems they faced. But to anyone who knows better, the result was a disaster. It felt like it was but a thread from ripping apart.

When I told them I could solve all the problems they hadn’t encountered yet,

they told me, “why fix what isn’t broken?”

Me: “I can save you time and make it easier to do these simple tasks!”

Lawyers: “What will we do when you’re gone and the tool breaks? We’re not going to be able to do our work until we find someone to fix it.”

Lawyers: “The process we have now, it works. I figured it out, and I’m used with it.”

So, I fixed their problems anyways and used an excuse. I continue to check in, so far without hiccup. Even starting to get some appreciative thanks.

You have to respect the loyalty they placed in the first solution they found to work.

You have to wonder, could they have come to an informed decision, without me? How?

In latin, the name Lucifer translates to Light-Bringer or Morning-Star. According to history of the early Christian Church, Lucifer was God’s favorite angel. In the book of Ezekiel, God says of him

You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

But, we know him as the Lord of Darkness, the Gatekeeper to Hell, as Satan. So, what happened to Lucifer?

One day, God decreed that all angels worship the image of God in his son, Adam. Lucifer refused the will of God.

I will not worship one inferior and subsequent to me. I am prior to him in creation. Before he was made, I was already made. He ought to worship me.

In a fight, Lucifer was banished to Hell and Satan was born. A man of God, becomes the Angel of Death. Just like that, he pledges to drag Adam and Eve down to Hell to exact his revenge on God.

We hear stories of Lucifer and Darth Vader, and don’t believe they apply to us. Some people make bad decisions that lead them down a dark path, but not me. We all think we know the difference between right and wrong, and what it means to be moral. But, if we were slowly becoming someone we never intended to be, how would we know? How do we know when our personality or moral become disengaged? At what point do good ordinary people become perpetrators of evil?

Dr. Philip Zimbardo has spent his life trying understand What makes people go wrong? We all know that a line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. For example, to be a hero, you have to be a social deviant. Heros go against the social norm which would be inaction, to save their own neck. But, some people go against that norm. So, where do you draw that line?

Dr. Zimbardo grew up in the Bronx where he saw many good friends turn to the dark side. Philip went on to study psychology at Yale and Stanford, where he would eventually be appointed professor. He was first involved in the notorious 1971 Stanford Prison experiment, which went tragically out of control. Since his childhood he has devoted his life to this cause. If that isn’t honorable in itself, I don’t know what is. His talk is mostly about the studies he’s been involved in, but the bigger questions are what he speaks for.

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

If there were a good reason to get an MBA, this man might be it. Srikumar Rao is an adjunct professor from Columbia Business School, Haas School of Business at Berkeley and the London Business School. He teaches and speaks on his vision of bringing more aliveness into people’s lives. He has a fantastic way of breaking down human mental processes so that we recognize the reality we live in.

Srikumar works to help people bring attention to their negative mental chatter and mental models of our world. He uses a scientific approach to understanding the mind, connecting psychology and spirituality. He challenges his students to recognize their thought patterns and how they are affecting both the reality they see and the moments they experience.

• Do you have a tendency to put off things that you would love to do because they just don’t fit into your life now?
• Do you feel disappointed when you look at a decision you made and consider how much better your life would be now if you had made a different decision?
• Do you look at the horrific misery in the world and feel overwhelmed by the tragedy and your inability to make a difference?
• Do you find that when you sit down to relax or spend time with a loved one that you can’t fully enjoy it because you’re thinking about something unrelated to the moment?
• Do you consider what other people will think of you before you do something? Why?
• Do you look to the future for relief, happiness, fulfillment, or something you’re not getting now?
• Do you compare your life to someone’s and dream of having what they have?
• Do you feel like many of your conversations are superficial; you talk about things you have no real interest in, things that frustrate you, or you speak without passion in your voice?
• Do you doubt your competence and worry that someone is going to find out that you’re not as smart as they think you are?
• Do you make purchases on a whim and fill your house with stuff you don’t use?
• Are you worried about events that may or may not happen, like getting a promotion or not making a sale?
• Do you plan to fix your life after a major event, such as a raise, a marriage, or retirement?

Is your reality full of problems that make your life difficult? Start by considering the plausible alternate reality that there are aspects to your problem that are teaching you or that are challenging you to become a better person. That’s really what Srikumar does; makes you recognize who you are and challenges you to learn from yourself.

I would highly recommend his talk. I haven’t read his book, Are You Ready to Succeed?, but I am sure that I would stand behind his written words, too.

This profound list comes straight from the brilliant mind of Austrian Designer Stefan Sagmeister. Can you relate?

• Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
• Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
• Being not truthful works against me.
• Helping other people helps me.
• Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
• Everything I do always comes back to me.
• Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
• Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
• Money does not make me happy.
• Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
• Assuming is stifling.
• Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
• Trying to look good limits my life.
• Worrying solves nothing.
• Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
• Having guts always works out for me.

There is more to experience than your senses can perceive. In fact, more often it is the information that you are not given that creates the experience. Filmmaker J. J. Abrams understands this simple fact, which he has worked into his countless television and movie success stories. The investment in the character and the relationship to a personal story is what really matters.

The most memorable stories are those that universally relate to mankind. Personal struggles through moments in life, or life-long missions to reach a desired end. Inspiration from another who has Lost themselves, and how they found their way back. Why are we so drawn to witness others struggle? Do we take joy in others pain? Do we need our own problems validated by a reminder that others have problems, too? Are we looking for ideas or inspiration to help us jump to a resolution of our struggle for purpose?

Experience tells us that the solution to any problem results from gathering the right information. What can you do if some of the information is just not possible to hold? In fact, a great majority of our world and economy exists to find answers to questions with incomplete information. Often, these questions ask what is going to happen in the moments to come? Trying to predict the future is a valuable exercise in life and business, however it is easy to forget the information is always incomplete. We become dependent on an unpredictable future and forget about life in the present

In his deeply profound recollection, Abrams believes that it is the absence, and not the existence, of the information that makes life so enjoyable. If we had complete information, we could know with certainty the answer to any question. Life would no longer be exciting. There would be no more anticipation or mystery. Life would not be worth living without a journey, a struggle or details withheld. This simple fact is true in every aspect of life:

• careers – Where is this job leading me? Where am I leading this job?
• relationships – What is she thinking right now? What is he going to do next?
• family – Who might my children become? What keeps our family together?
• economics – Is the demand for enviro-friendly products really going to grow?
• politics – What will society need most desperately in 5 years?

All of this uncertainty boils down to the most deeply rooted mystery. The question few ask for fear of failure is simply, Who Am I? Life is constantly a struggle to give words and meaning to that indescribable essence.

The ignorance of that fundamental mystery might offer insight into it. In other words, we can learn something from an unsolved mystery. I know J.J. would agree that the answer to the mystery is not what people are after, but the pursuit of the mystery. Especially, if the mystery cannot be solved.

What is your life story?

The word[is(not equal to)]art website is one of the most insightful and thought-provoking sanctuaries I’ve seen in quite some time. WordArt (my short name) displays a collection of clever renditions on english words. The artistic nature comes in the arrangement and meaning you deduce.

Take a moment to look at each word, and consciously consider what it means to you. You won’t be disappointed!

French designer Philippe Stark presented at TED this year, giving a talk on the reason that he designs. Laden with analogies and symbolism, Philippe takes you on journey to his bigger picture.

Philippe offers that the further you understand (past and present) and envision (future) the evolution of humanity, the more important you will be to civilization. The deeper you understand the goals and the effect of your actions, the more you can contribute to our change. Our evolution. Our history. Our survival.

Philippe describes the evolution, or progress of society as a jagged line. We move from light to dark; civilization to barbaria. In barbaria, there is no need for beauty or design; there are other priorities. Despite the constant see-saw motion of forward progress and setback, the general trend is towards an increase in human advancement. Society presses on.

The beautiful story of civilization is our evolutionary mutation. For 4 billion years, our world has been changing physically and spiritually, in information and organization. Yet, we have gotten only as far as you see today. Ironically, every generation thinks they are the one; the final man and the end of this evolution. Philippe jests “We have mutate 4 billion years before, but because it’s me, we stop.”

The legacy we leave to the next generation are the tools produced in our lifetime of progress. When your story comes to a close, the next generation gets a blank slate and the freedom to write their own story.

The most recent issue of the Economist has run a couple stories on coupling technology with reality. The claim is that the television, video games and the internet have shown their value in creating imaginary virtual worlds, but have yet to improve my reality. The internet’s latest buzzword, social networking, is proving that society wants technology to add to their lives, instead of removing them from it.

Software running on mobile devices is the next clear evolution of the connected lifestyle. Entrepreneurs around the globe are betting that people want information on the move. Simple examples include locating businesses and friends based on physical proximity. How far can this evolution go?

The Economist ran a couple articles about using virtual-reality-style technology to augment our senses. Imagine directions from your in-car GPS device, overlaid on the road through your windshield. How about visiting a doctor who uses a pair of glasses to locate your blood veins before giving you a needle. Those examples only target our visual senses. We’ve all been to museums with audio guides for additional information about the displays. I am sure that prosthetic research has yielded a technology for augmenting touch sensitivity.

Those are just some examples of the products that have already been proposed. I appreciate that our young, tech savvy generation wants push the limits of technology. I know at least one person with a different perspective on the real value of these techno-fantasies. Jim Balsillie (RIM’s CEO) is not allowed to bring his Blackberry into his home, according to his wife. There is an important lesson in Mrs. Balsillie’s words; not all aspects of our lives are open to change.

Is every new technological innovation an improvement to society? Are there some parts our lives too sacred to be taken away from us? Are there some parts of society, or our planet, that will never change despite technological innovation?