Chuck O’Connor on the pursuit of popularity

“But, we seem to live in a world where the pursuit of popularity is burning on ample oxygen and to avoid it is to invite the anxiety one feels when ostracized from the herd. Twitter filled air-waves capitalize on tweets as a self-esteem currency where people long to be followed. Yet, I find myself reacting as a reclusive paranoid amidst this socialized narcissism. Mostly because I think that popularity has little to do with insight or intelligence. I was the kid beaten up on the playground due to late onset puberty and an astigmatism that led to coke-bottle lenses in welfare frames. Growing up poor and unattractive creates a longing for and distrust of the popular kids. I see in the twittering twits the same bullet-headed aggression. The instinctive tweeters fail to consider the possibility that tweeting too hard can often contradict their own self importance.”

Chuck O’Connor

via Battling Confusion

Who’s Going to Own our Preferences?

Some related thoughts, disparately organized:
The inimitable Dave Coustan (@extraface on Twitter) has been up here in Boston from Atlanta working with us for the last few days. Among the many things I have learned about Dave in that time:

Dave has a soft spot for really good Pinot
Dave likes push messaging for his regular FourSquare updates
Dave [...]

links for 2009-01-17

graphpaper.com – Innovation, Transformation, Therapy, Practice
An argument that Nussbaum's death-knell for innovation doesn't go far enough.

Ford's New Prototype Dashboard Concept – information aesthetics
Not likely to compel me to purchase a Ford, but I'm glad to know that they're paying attention in class.

Photoshop Adbusting In Berlin | BRAND INFECTION
Astounding violation of copyright that ought to be [...]

Transparency Paper Two: The Kubrick Archives and the Power of Conscious Decisions

In a prior post, I attempted to make the argument that chefs of a certain stature are able to leverage transparency towards a profitable end without risk to their business because they enjoy an inherent executional advantage. Here, I’d like to explore a closely-related, yet different side of operational transparency – namely that the opening [...]

Transparency Paper One: The Executional Advantage of Celebrity Cookbooks

With transparency on the mind of so many – Andy Beal (transparency and Steve Jobs), B.L. Ochman (price transparency), Ben McConnell (bailout transparency), Paul Soldera (corporate transparency), Joseph Mann (transparency transparency), Mitch Joel (digital transparency) and Chris Anderson (personal transparency) – as well as frequently on my own mind, I thought that I might begin [...]