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On Being Irrational

January 6th, 2009

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I always get a kick out of someone saying that our personal, cultural, or learned dysfunctions work for them.

This is the case in SEOmoz’s blog post, 10 Irrational Human Behaviors and How to Leverage Them to Improve Web Marketing. It’s an extension of Chris Yeh’s Outline of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions. SEOmoz author randfish is using these not-entirely-rational behaviors to his own advantage: finding easier ways to sell stuff and make money. It’s a clean post: description of the behaviors, and lessons on applying them. For example:

VI: The Problem of Procrastination and Self Control

Ariely conducted an experiment on his class. Students were required to write three papers. Ariely asked the first group to commit to dates by which they would turn in each paper. Late papers would be penalized 1% per day. There was no penalty for turning papers in early. The logical response is to commit to turning all three papers in on the last day of class. The second group was given no deadlines; all three papers were due in the last day of class. The third group was directed to turn their papers in on the 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks.

The results? Group 3 (imposed deadlines) got the best grades. Group 2 (no deadlines) got the worst grades, and Group 1 (self-selected deadlines) finished in the middle. Allowing students to pre-commit to deadlines improved performance. Students who spaced out their commitments did well; students who did the logical thing and gave no commitments did badly.

“These results suggest that although almost everyone has problems with procrastination, those who recognize and admit their weakness are in a better position to utilize available tools for precommitment and by doing so, help themselves overcome it.”

Lessons to Apply to Web Marketing:

Procrastination is an extremely common human behavior – plan for it in your business and take advantage of it where it can help (trial offers that turn into paid services, for example).

By setting up early controls and making people recognize this weakness, we can reduce its negative impact. You can apply this to contractors, employees, vendors, etc.

Coaching Moment: To borrow a phrase from the government, some people are more prone to “irrational exhuberance” than others. Do you know your own strengths and weaknesses? Are they in service of your true needs? If not, is there some behavior or belief that you need help with?

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friends/family, tools behavior, Chris Yeh, irrational, marketing, search engine optimization, seo, SEOmoz, Web Marketing

Change is Coming

January 5th, 2009

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A couple of years ago, the original “Did You Know” video (this is the updated version) got me thinking about some of the changes that are coming to my world.

The magnitude of change that we’re likely to see in the next decade is enormous.

Coaching moment: Most of us have a hard time seeing the future. For all the changes in technology, nobody has invented a magic crystal ball yet. Our public media looks backward at what happened in the world. History has taught many of us, and we are rightly skeptical, about pundits that claim to know and see the future (and will share it with you–for a price.) What facts back their claims? Do you believe those facts? Are there any contradicting facts?

Despite the lack of a crystal ball, we will be affected by things happening in the future.

In times of change and uncertainty, I believe that it’s wise to do some planning. On the minimal side, sit down for a few minutes and think about your priorities. What is the most important thing in your life? Second most? Third? Talk with your family about their priorities. (You might be surprised to discover they don’t match your list exactly.) Next: what plans can you make to ensure the safety and security of your top priorities? What threats should you watch for?

Want to know more about possible changes on the horizon? Here’s a link to one man’s perspective: Chris Martenson’s Crash Course. He illustrates how changes may be pretty radical!

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A Transparent Society

January 3rd, 2009

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Back in 1999, David Brin released a book called The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? Many of my friends and I thought that it was perhaps a bit alarmist, but I’ll admit that I had rosy glasses on then. I thought that it was still possible to right the wrongs that technology was imposing and allowing.

Fast forward to September 2007, when Law Professor and privacy activist Michael Geist was giving the closing talk at an International Privacy conference.

There’s no stopping it: we are increasingly living in a transparent society.

Coaching moment: In the book and in the video, both men talk about leaving fingerprints behind and being tracked by surveillance cameras and databases, and the consequent changes that this activity entails. On a personal level, many of us are uncomfortable with this level of involuntary disclosure. It’s as if we suddenly had a digital firefly attached to us.

On one hand, if everything and everyone is being tracked, who will have time to make sense of it all? On the other hand, we are quickly developing the computing power to visualize all kinds of activities and behaviors. It’s only when the tracking is focused on one single person that it becomes troublesome.

What would you do differently if you knew you were always being watched?

UPDATE: There’s an important essay written by noted security expert Bruce Schneier called The Myth of the “Transparent Society” that is a must read for everyone that thinks that increasing transparency is alright. The problem at its core is the imbalance of power between the disclosing and using parties.

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future, records Bruce Schneier, David Brin, fingerprints, Michael Geist, privacy, security, surveillance, tracking, transparency, Transparent Society, watchers, watching

Being Yourself

January 2nd, 2009

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Psychology Today has an article called Dare to be Yourself in which the author explores the notion of authenticity. I laughed when I read their “technical definition of authenticity” because sometimes I can be rather technical.

…the unimpeded operation of one’s true or core self in one’s daily enterprise.

Of course the researchers needed to be technical in order to study what makes up a person’s “self.” They came up with a few key components of authenticity:

The first, and most fundamental, is self-awareness: knowledge of and trust in one’s own motives, emotions, preferences, and abilities. Self-awareness encompasses an inventory of issues from the sublime to the profane, from knowing what food you like to how likely you are to quit smoking to whether you’re feeling anxious or sad.

Self-awareness is an element of the other three components as well. It’s necessary for clarity in evaluating your strengths and (more to the point) your weaknesses: acknowledging when you’ve flubbed a presentation or when your golf game is off, without resorting to denial or blame. Authenticity also turns up in behavior: It requires acting in ways congruent with your own values and needs, even at the risk of criticism or rejection. And it’s necessary for close relationships, because intimacy cannot develop without openness and honesty.

One of the significant questions is do we discover or invent what we consider to be our self. There is some disagreement on this, and recognizing the important constituents of your own self is a tough challenge, especially as an ongoing practice.

Coaching moment: Are you completely happy with who you are? A useful exercise might be to list three of your strengths and three of your priorities in life. Now sit back and think about what’s stopping you from achieving your priorities. Can you think of any way to use your strengths to help facilitate your priorities?

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