Paul Merrill
Last fall we went to Aspen for a weekend getaway. (We did not take a private jet — just our minivan.)
One evening meal was at a fairly humble pizza place. I loved their drinks menu: “Beer: $3, Good beer: $4.”
All too rarely do we communicate that bluntly. It’s a good thing to do so, as long as we don’t hurt others in our blunt communication.
One friend observed, “You get mad at things, I get mad at people.” She said it in a complimentary way. (And I thanked her.)
If you’ve never been to a Big Lots store, you need to. It’s a lot like a dollar store, only they have a wide variety of stuff you won’t find elsewhere. Like Belgium Cookies.
My sister and her family live in Belgium. You can’t buy Belgium Cookies there. Which reminded me of when we lived in England. “English muffins” were not to be found. “Muffins?” Yes. (Same phenomenon.)
What is an “inside/outside” term that you’ve experienced?
I love IKEA. But they did not get their trash cans right. What are blue recyclables and what are green recyclables?
If I’m the only one with that question, no problem. My guess is that others might be confused too. Many cumulative staff hours must have been spent on explaining which kind of objects go into each bin. And many people probably were just confused and threw recyclables into the trash bin.
The very simple solution would be to have diagrams of types of objects that go into each bin.
Bicycles are all over Oxford, England. (Good thing, since there are few places to park a car!) Signs are on every surface that isn’t moving. (And some that are.)
Someone thought of combining the two — they put signs for theatre productions on old bikes that are painted totally gold.
What ways can you combine unlikely objects to get your message across?
I am amused by spam.
But I am not amused at spammers. Recently these two “young women” followed me — and they had very similar tweets, which immediately flagged the fact that they were not real people.
My question is this: do any women Twitter users who are reading this get spammy “female” followers like this? (I am just wondering if they only target males — though I did not want to click on their links to see just who they were targeting.)
For those of you who want to follow more of my thoughts along these lines, check out my archives about spam.
“Wonky” is a great word. Askew or amiss might have a close meaning, for those of you not from the UK.
Anyhow, sometimes it’s better for a thing to be slightly imperfect for it to be more interesting. In the case of this little sign, if the clear background portion were perfectly aligned with the front portion, it would be boring.
Takeaway: Can you be intentional about adding some interest to projects you are working on? Adding a tiny bit of chaos could be a good thing.
A nearby coffee shop has a descriptive tag next to a piece of fabric art from India: “Embroidered Mirrored Tapestry, Gujarat.” But the thing is, that describes a tapestry across the room, and not the one it’s next to. I brought that up to an employee, and she basically said, “Oh.”
My gift is noticing details. Others notice the big picture. Both are needed for a job to get done well.
Teams work best. If you work alone, find a way to join a team. I’m part of a mastermind group that meets occasionally (mostly online), and we all help each other. You can do the same, if you’re not part of a team.
The makers of Cheez-It snacks weren’t thinking too well. Only a tiny precentage of their buyers would ever notice the name change from “Party Mix” to “Snack Mix.” My guess is that their staff were so excited about the new name that they felt they had to announce it on the box.
The rest of us? We would never have noticed the name change.
Takeaway: Think of your audience in any communications you create. Consider what they care about.
If you’re in North America, you will have seen the popular “Coexist” bumper sticker. I don’t like it.
Why? Coexist means to tolerate. And tolerate means to barely get along with.
I would propose a better sticker: “Love.” I think it’s much better to aspire to loving those who believe differently than we do — rather than simply living with them on the same street.
What would it take to love people different than us? That’s your homework. It may take a few days to figure out.
Credit goes to a Polish graphic designer, Piotr Mlodozeniec, who designed the first coexist image.
Copyright laws are a bit looser in other parts of the world than America.
Lexus Crackers? I didn’t try them, but I’m guessing they had a smooth, relaxed flavor.
If the “munchy’s” company tried selling them in the States, the product would be quickly taken off the market.
(I saw them on the shelf of a supermarket in Malaysia.)
