Tag Archives: influence

How ego saved the world one game at a time

Posted on by
14

Like any reasonable thinking human, the topic of most interest to me is myself. But, I guess it is that understanding of my own ego that makes all of this “being human” think work? With that in mind, I will redirect my attention towards my own little obsession with understanding others focus on themselves. Which describes my my new found interest in studying influence, motivation, and whatever that other fancy word is for “what makes people do the things they do.” I am currently naive enough to believe the way to change the world, and make it a better place, is to master the art and science of influence.

This is why gaming theory is so interesting to me right now. For better or worse, social gaming has discovered a way to drive people to do things that are not necessarily in their best interest (a.k.a. give someone else money for no tangible ROI) i.e. spend $3 on a “flower” that is nothing more than 2k bits of completely un-unique data.

What if some of the lessons learned by these companies could be applied to social-change and make the world a better place? What if we could derive ways to inspire people to do something else that is not necessarily in their best interest (a.k.a. give someone else money for no tangible ROI) i.e. spend $3 towards the drilling of a water well that potentially saves more than 2k lives.

Fortunately, a lot of the research has already been paid for by the entertainment industry. So, my real task will be discovering a way to get them do do something that is not in their best interest. I guess it is time to go back to studying ego.

I hate Community Management

Posted on by
27

People’s “relationships” are emergent and thus can’t be managed. That is, they can be influenced but not controlled.
[ via Charlie Ehin ]

a.k.a. Why I Think ‘manager’ is the worst word to follow the word ‘community’

I prefer the phrase Community Cultivation and try to map all tasks and skills against gardening metaphors:

  • planting seeds
  • mindfulness about environmental factors
  • neighborhood kids who like to kick over the tomatoes
  • too much water is bad
  • not enough water is bad
  • fallow fields
  • weeding
  • harvest time
  • sharing with and helping the neighbors
  • getting up early
  • canning

What would you add to the list?
or What metaphors do you use?

say my name, say my name

Posted on by
4

I saw this float down my screen today, and it struck a nerve, because I have the same problem:

Picture 2.png

At least 12 times yesterday someone asked me, “Do you know [name]?” or, “I was talking to [name] earlier, you know them right?” I had to shrug my shoulders and timidly reply, “I think so?” or, “They sound really familiar…?”. Only to discover five minutes later–once we got into the story a little further–that I *totally* know that person.”

I’m not OK with this.

The why is most easily summed up in Dale Carnegie’s words:

“Remember that a person’s name is to them the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

The sound! It really does go that deep. As in, chemicals are released into your body when you hear your name. (I have a whole deeper level of thoughts about this. If you are interested, please ask.)

The how is a little more difficult. Even though there are about 170,000,000 results for “how to remember names”, the tricks haven’t helped much so far. But, @chrisbrogan is going to kick my ass if I make any excuses. So, it’s time to own this weakness.

Here is where I could use your help: I am not interested in a tip, or a list of tips. (I could read google results for 37.4 days to get those). But, if you could tell me a story about your own mini or major breakthrough with names, I truly believe that will help etch the skill into my mind. (Another one of those ‘whole deeper level of thoughts’ thing you can ask me about, if you want.)

When did you have a remembering-names-breakthrough?