The attitude of the average 9-to-5′er goes like this: If I do this boring job long enough and well enough, I’ll be promoted to the job that’s fast-paced and exciting. That’s the job I really want.

The problem is, showing people you can only do boring work will only consist in more boring work.

When I was very young, I spent a lot of time on touch typing programs, and learned how to type over 100 words per minute. Proud of myself, I would tell my bosses this over the years. What would they inevitably do? Give me the most boring jobs ever, of course.

There has to be a path for those who want the fast-paced exciting job NOW. A different way to prove themselves. What do you think?

Filed by Julien at 8:21 am under random
12 Comments

Is it just me, or are newspapers becoming kind of quaint?

I was on the bus this morning looking over at the headline on one of those free dailies they hand out in subways. It said “Coup in Honduras!”

I was like, well no shit. I found out about this while it was actually happening. Where were you then???

Simultaneously over the past five days I’ve been receiving text messages and emails from people all over going “Michael Jackson is dead OMG” and “Billy Mays is dead WHOAHHHH,” and I’m like, uh… yeah.

Those of us on the extremes of information spreading mechanisms are used to this. I found out about all three of the events above through Twitter and Reddit, where there’s very little friction. And I spent minutes a day on those sites. The same could’ve happened if I were on CNN, though.

Thing is, I know I’m not the average. Neither are you if you’re reading this. But this feeling of ours is increasingly normal. Twitter is everywhere and recommendation sites like Reddit are known to most, even if we don’t visit them.

Information is spreading with less friction than ever. Have you ever wondered how much faster can it get?

… hold on, I just got a text message– maybe it’s someone else telling me yesterday’s news. ;)

Filed by Julien at 11:11 am under trends
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Mass media is merging.

Personal media is splintering.

Why?

Filed by Julien at 1:11 pm under random
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Watch the video below before you read this. Or don’t, whatever. At least look here.

First of all, disclosure: A lot of people find this meme funny. Despite its kind of offensive nature, I think I’m becoming one of them, and so are a lot of people (look at the Youtube comments). My question is whether that’s good and, if not, what to do about it.

We’re watching things online more and more, with no social consequences from laughing, by yourself, at something that a lot of people find offensive. But what happens when we do it so much that we start to think it’s funny to other people, and start talking about it aloud?

Are we alienating ourselves from normal people by interacting online with those with strong, extreme opinions? What does this do to us as people?

Or is it the opposite? Should we let ourselves be pulled into whatever tribe we most connect with, and forget about mainstream opinion? After all, we might be happier, right?

Filed by Julien at 8:55 am under culture
3 Comments

It’s amazing what we can get used to.

We seem to think that adopting some new technique, strategy, or tactic will help us. Sometimes, we think getting on the next bandwagon will help. Sometimes it does.

We all have a tendency to go after the New and the Big. It isn’t even our fault. When we see that everyone is heading towards something, and we want it too, sometimes without even considering if it’s right or not.

Getting the New and the Big may not even be that bad. The worst, I think, may be the Now.

Getting the New can be great. Start fresh with a new approach, something that hasn’t been done before; that can be awesome. But New doesn’t go with Big– it goes better with the Small.

The Big is what you do when you put all your energy into something.

The Now is what happens when you decide that your New and your Big aren’t good enough. The Now splinters your attention in 10 different directions. You get nothing done. All your Old gets dumped for your Now, no matter its importance, because of the immediate, short-term importance of the Now.

Like they say in web design– you can have two of the following things: good, fast, and cheap. But not three.

Likewise, choose carefully between New, Big, and Now. It will change what you do, and once you’re off, you may not find the time to look back.

Filed by Julien at 9:14 am under random
3 Comments

I love these things. Got them in New York, original 50’s style frames. If you’re looking for glasses, check out Moscot.

Filed by Julien at 4:00 am under random
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A few months ago I got together with David Segal of Davids tea, a chain of tea shops around Canada. They’re opening up stores all over the place these days– tea is the new coffee, I’m told.

We talked about what they were doing on the web, got along well. I came and did a consultation with them about how to improve web sales and augment word-of-mouth. I didn’t see David again, though we continue to drink the tea he gave me to try out (it’s actually very good).

Fast forward to the other day, where I saw David is opening a location on Mont-Royal street– right next to Starbucks– nice job, giving Sbux clients an alternative. :)

So here’s the thing.

Let’s say you’re a decently-funded company (one that can open a nice retail store or chain, say). I think it’s almost worth it to engage with, and maybe hire, any social media person that is in the environment they’re in. Not to bring them out to lunch and “pick their brain,” but to say, “I will pay you for this advice.” That way it’s clean.

So if you’re in Montreal, hire everyone locally that does that kind of work, even if it’s just one hour. Montreal is actually great, because it’s such a cheap city, but it could be done anywhere.

That cost will give you good advice, but more importantly, a relationship with every one of them, all sneezers to a certain degree. They may blog it, they may not. They may love your tea, or hate it. But they’ve tried it, and you’ve created an intimacy with them by being in business with them.

It’s a shotgun approach, but I think it would still be effective. What do you think? It’s got to be more effective than “blogger outreach.”

Filed by Julien at 11:15 am under strategy
6 Comments

“Je fume, je bois, je baise - triangle équilatéral.”
“I smoke, I drink, I fuck - equilateral triangle.”

- Serge Gainsbourg

While I am only currently a half smoker, I did previously smoke a lot for a few years, and I’ve always been fascinated by the allure of cigarettes. I’m sure I’m not alone. Today, I read design observer’s view on the modern assault on cigarettes, which leaves me thinking about what is to come in a day where the smoker is increasingly becoming a pariah.

Montreal used to be a city of smokers; one that, like any other modern city, received similar smoking bans to those of Toronto et al., where it would no longer be permitted indoors at all. This caused an epic struggle among our smoking population the likes of which has never been seen before in the city. Never mind what happened to the cigar lounges, whose living depends on that mystique.

But what is happening to the romance of cigarettes? People love seeing a classic movie star photo of a smoking rebel or artist (James Dean, say), looking distantly into the horizon with a certain attractive apathy. What will make the movie stars look this good now? How will the poets seem as tortured as they once were? I wish I was being sarcastic, but seriously, there’s a struggle here - how can I make myself look as good as i did when i was smoking, how can i give myself that certain allure, right? I don’t want to die, but dammit, I would almost die to look that good, to be that tortured poet, that movie star, in my mind’s eye.

That look is dying. That blasé attitude, a romantic blend of fatalism and rebelliousness, and I don’t think there is a single item as powerful as the cigarette that will ever resurrect it.

Is there?

(PS: This is a reprint from 2005. Thought it was interesting and worth re-publishing. Minimal editing.)

Filed by Julien at 4:53 pm under random
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So I was over at my family’s house yesterday, and decided to pass along the book we wrote to my dad. He was thinking about building a site and wanted my advice, so I figured we’d start there and see how it went.

Over supper we started discussing a bunch of stuff and I started peppering the conversation with jargon (social capital, social proof, etc.) without realizing and I saw that, in some cases, some additional reading might be required to really get him on the same level.

That’s why I wrote this list.

You don’t need to read any of these to understand the book we wrote, of course. But if you like to read the way I do, you love getting those Aha! moments in which you really grasp a concept fully. Reading the books on this list will help you do that. Plus they’re all good are worthy of a read anyway, just on their own.

1. Influence by Robert Cialdini.

Let’s start simple: Understanding human behaviour is at the core of everything we do online. Cialdini is the social psychologist who will help you do this. From social proof to unconscious herd behaviour, this book will guide you through different ways in which persuasion works, and why. Also check out 50 Scientifically-Proven Ways to be Persuasive, a summary his most recent one of the same name. They’re both full of great info. (Thanks to Kottke for reminding me about this one.)

2. The Little Teal Book of Trust by Jeffrey Gitomer.

There are a lot of books on trust I don’t recommend. The Speed of Trust is one of those; I feel like it just went on and on. Gitomer’s book is the opposite. It’s different from ours because it talks primarily about trust in a sales environment, but I have to say that I was really surprised at how great it was. Gitomer is amazing at distilling complex principles into phrases that are catchy and memorable.

3. The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt.

You already know what I’m about to tell you, but I’ll say it anyway: Social capital is something to pay attention to. We talk about it in our book, and ways to gain it, but for a comprehensive, web-savvy assessment Tara’s book does the job. I had done a TON of research on social capital when we were writing the book, but Tara has done more and it shows. Read it.

4. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.

I was introduced to Ariely by Mitch Joel, and spoke to him on the phone a bit as we were writing the book. Honestly, his book is so great I should have made it number one. I read it at the same time I was reading Influence, and I was starting to become overwhelmed with how much people don’t understand their own behaviour, and why they make the decisions they do, both individually and in groups. This one should not be missed.

5. Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod

You know what’s in this, and so do I. But Ignore Everybody, which comes out tomorrow, is as classic a book as Twyla Tharp’s Creative Habit — it will teach you to step out of your usual habits and create what you need for your own life. In the end, that’s what we wrote is really about: trying something new that can make something great happen for you.

You know what, there are probably more of these– give me some suggestions, I’d love to know what you think. Hey, and once you’re done those, go grab ours! :)

Filed by Julien at 3:17 pm under the book
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(via Kottke)

Filed by Julien at 12:32 am under random
2 Comments