Kicking The Habit

It's that time of year. Half the world is feeling the effects of the holidays and are out trying like mad to lose the necessary pounds to squeeze back into their favorite jeans.

I'm one of them.

But there are other folks out there too who've just plain given up. Dieting doesn't work for them. They've tried every trick in the book and though they maybe lose some pounds, they put them right back on.

. . . hold on. So they aren't saying that their efforts aren't working. They lost weight. That's exactly the goal! It's not the diet that's failing, it's their habits.

I go way way back when I talk about habits to when I was in 7th grade and we were reading some Ben Franklin. He had some firm opinion about habits [he had opinions about a lot of things...]. He stated that you could not get rid of a bad habit, you could only replace it.

Now, I was one of those kids who would just drop whatever I was holding, anywhere, and keep on going, be it an apple core, a wet towel, my shoes . . . whatever. It was requested that I stop leaving my wet towels on things as they were going to destroy the furniture and thus end the human race. Yes, it was that critical.

So, I resolved that this would be my Ben Franklin habit.

What did I do? Well, rather than say "I'm going to stop leaving my towel lying on things" since that leaves one no recourse but to stand there with the damned towel in your hands, instead I resolved "I will hang up my towel as soon as I'm done with it." Simple, right?

But actually, interesting.

I never ever leave towels out anymore. There is a two step process that's been lodged in by brain, a habit, that goes something like this: if towel; then hang_up; else feel_unsettled; end.

I cannot suffer a damp towel to lie out... even one that's not mine. Hotels that ask you to leave your used towels on the floor really mess with me.

Now, what about the rest of life. We were talking about dieting, right? What does this have to do with towels?

Well, diets like The 4Hr Body aren't meant to just help you lose weight. They're meant to help you create habits that you enjoy better in the long run than the habits that were killing you.

A simpler answer would be my two methods of quitting smoking.



1) If I want to smoke, instead, eat a carrot. Nervous habit dealt with. Really, I just needed something to do with my hands. Side effect: I actually turned a bit orange for a month. But it worked. . . for a while. When there weren't any carrots around, I didn't have an alternative habit to fall back on.

2) If I want to smoke, read/post to twitter. This one worked. I'm surprised that they haven't monetized this somehow. This one continues to work, though I no longer consciously want a cigarette. I have replaced the succor of my nervous energy with mucking with my phone rather than pulling out a cigarette. It's not something I do on purpose, it's a habit.

Now, diet. If you diet so that you can lose weight with the explicit thought of "Then I will be skinny and I'll be able to eat whatever I want!" you are going to fail. I'm sorry. You just will. Those people who are skinny and eat crap are a million to one. Most of them will eventually kill their excessively manic metabolisms and then balloon up like the rest of us normal people.

If instead you look at a diet as "I will learn to enjoy things that are actually good for me rather than craving junk all the time" that might actually work for you. If you pair it with "I want to be able to run and jump and skip with ease" and start some regimen of exercise, even better. When I skip my morning run, I'm cranky. It doesn't mean I like running. Not yet. But I already have the beginning of a habit going.

Just like if I had missed my morning cigarette with my coffee, missing my run throws off my day mentally, as well as physically.

All that is going well for me. Getting those habits locked down. Quitting smoking this past year was a huge one for me. After 18yrs of puffing away, starting with one a week, to one a day, to a pack a day and more... I've come back over the other side. I'm over it.

What I need to do now is get into this habit of writing. I'll have to see how I build that out, but it will have something to do with a dissatisfaction in having an idea in my head for too long.

Wish me luck.

The Modeling of Infections Disease and The Startup

How often have you excitedly signed up for an app, something that your friend sent along, something that was hot and was going to let you in on the ground floor? How often have you then looked back months later and realized that you've never used that service?

Successful infections diseases strike a fine balance with their hosts and the lessons they have learned through evolution can be conveniently applied to the land of Startups.

Let's took at one of the most hallowed infections diseases in history for a start point.

Stories of the Black Plague of and its effect on Europe, ushering in the Dark Ages, still haunt the popular unconscious. But the Black Plague, or bubonic plague as it is properly called when not referring to the historical event, still exists to this day, cropping up regularly all across Asia where it is endemic.

Why do we not all quake with fear at the prospect of visiting Hyderabad or Beijing? Certainly that entire terrifying plague spawning continent should be quarantined! The answer to why a vacation bumming around in China actually appeals to the average human - and not just chronic risk takers - lies in the fact that the Black Plague has evolved.

The Black Plague back in the day was extremely virulent. A good thing for certain on one hand, with the bacteria speedily colonizing their way through the new found host. Settling in is a good thing for bacteria, kind of like getting your apartment unpacked and the art up on the wall so you can really feel like you're at home. In some cases this also means the invasive agents go so far as to disguise the fact that they're there. They are after all squatters, not paying rent or anything. So they put up blackout curtains on the windows and keep the noise down. Nice neighbors really. . .

So high levels of virulence, great. Transmission is speedy, a sneeze or a cough, just a few droplets passing the bacteria from one individual to another once things have gone into their pneumatic phase [colonizing the lungs rather than just the lymph notes so spit can pass the contagion as well as blood]. Still, this isn't so bad. So what if everyone has these bacteria in them? We've got all sorts of delightful bacteria working for us in our guts and on our skin.

In the case of the bubonic plague, these bacteria upset the balance of things. They killed their host. Once the host is dead, there's now way to spread to another host. Essentially, that's the end of the great legacy: dead end. In the case of stomach bacteria, they live happily on in our guts and we never think about them til we accidentally kill them all off with broad spectrum antibiotics and realize that chorizo tacos are maybe a bit challenging without our biotic assistants.


Now this is where Startups should take notice:

Startups often come out with a bang, they are passed by word of mouth from person to person, but then rather than integrating into the existing systems of these humans, they set up their own shop. They use up resources, or maybe they just aren't making things better. So then what? Well, either they kill the host, or more truthfully, the immune system boots em out. Sure they could lie fallow there on your iPhone for a while, unused, taking up space. But eventually you'll hit the delete button.

What would help here?

Well, all that spread early on before it's obvious what the hell this new app/startup will do for a person? Calm that down a bit. Don't try to take over the world in a day. Make sure you've infected a few people very very thoroughly. They will pass your "disease" along nicely for ages. Choose wisely who you invite so that they'll be passing the word to the right folks. Make 'exclusive' actually targeted [and truly exclusive]. The folks you choose will know how to pitch it to others as well once they've been 'infected.'

This is just a cursory run through of how looking at evolved systems outside the land of technology can help us all. Not all that rigorous, but maybe it would be useful to look at your startup and decide: do you want to be cholera: deadly, highly contagious, but easily treated? Perhaps just the flu, which everyone gets eventually and with no real treatment? Maybe malaria, infecting the host forever, cropping up in fits and starts for the entire life of the host?

What are the apps you use?
Personally I've always loved tuberculosis [twitter?] and am pleased not to be forced to experience The Black Plague [facebook...].

tipping the deal vs team purchasing

i'd like to step back a few years and look at where Groupon came from. back in the haze of what is now a billion dollar enterprise, there was a little company called ThePoint. now, this little site was created with activism in mind. the idea was to bring a pile of folks together, and if there were enough of them, then they'd stage some kind of action. right now there's a push to make Starbucks offer free WiFi. once 100,000 sign on then they will all commit to not buying drinks at the shops.

now this is nice and all. its basically a big disconnected version of signing a petition. from this idea of getting a bunch of folks to commit to something we get the idea of Groupon. a certain number of folks agree to buy something, the deal 'tips' [it's suddenly worth it for TheGap to offer a 50% off coupon] and everyone's credit cards get charged.

so, excellent. 11million folks get a Gap coupon. they go buy stuff.

now lets look at China.

the interesting thing about the US is that we have fixed prices. retailers write a price on a little tag and we all abide by it. this is why coupons work. another little tag is given to us that overrides that price tag. but in most other companies there's more of a 'suggested' price going on. walk through a market in Bangkok. if you see something you like and get a price on it not only is it customary to argue that price, if you just go with it the seller will be offended!

China is the same way. the big retailers have only recently arrived in force with their big box stores and mandated prices. and this doesn't quite sit right with the average Chinese. so what do they do? well, they arrive in force and demand a group price!

"Of particular interest is the tuangou (‘team purchase’) phenomenon, which involves strangers organizing themselves around a specific product or service. Think electronics, home furnishings, cars and so on. These likeminded then meet up in real-world shops and showrooms on a coordinated date and time, literally mobbing the seller, negotiating a group discount on the spot."

interestingly, a site like Groupon, as it moves toward setting up a bit more social media aspects and creates two sided rating scales for buyers and sellers, is all set to make this happen in the US. if a crowd of moms walked into a Target and demanding that they sell 5 packs of diapers for the price of 3 they probably wouldnt get very far. but if Groupon brought back ThePoint and put the control of pricing on the shoppers side . . . well, that would be something.

as online coupon sites have started to move from small and local to big box and national manufacturers they're going to have to come up with a next step. they have the clout. it's just a matter of getting folks to believe that their dollars are all the power they need.

incidentally, there is a site doing this to some extent in the UK, and i know of at least a few moms who've chosen to circumvent retailers all together setting up group buys direct from manufacturers based somewhat on how Co-ops work.

flash mob + credit card?

the double edged sword of enlightened self interest

Walmart. The retailer everyone loves to hate. And yet in the past years they've made strides in environmentalism that the government has never managed. They've reduced the packaging for detergents, they pushed the whole US to switch away from the old incandescent bulbs and on to the energy efficient ones, their carbon footprint has been minimized as they increase the efficiencies of their shipments [and force the manufacturers they carry to do so as well].

So they've done some good things. In every case there's a huge win for Walmart behind this. Concentrated detergents take up less shelf space, so Walmart can optimize the number of products they have on shelf. Selling only energy efficient bulbs means fewer types of products to stock [I wouldn't be surprised if fewer of these are damaged in shipping either], and the famed Sustainability Index? Well, if they make everyone else behave, they look better and can tack that on behind whatever individual efforts they're making, right?

So now the newest tidbit is what some stores are doing in response to recession spurred hand-to-mouth shopping. First of all, we have 24hr Walmarts. Why isn't the whole world 24hrs? I'm not sure. There certainly are enough night owls out there and enough times when it's been 11pm and I haven't gotten my grocery shopping done [never mind the 3rd shift workers right?].

But here's the new part. With folks getting their food stamps and government checks on the first of every month, Walmart realized they were getting a spike in sales, with huge rings. Folks were coming in and literally doing their entire month's worth of grocery shopping in one night.

What was Walmart to do? Well, they've changed what they have for folks to buy. That first week of the month their pack sizes get bigger, so folks buy up bigtime. Not too surprising. But it's what they do at the END of the month that's impressive. They start stocking more small size packages.

Walmart has always suffered from losing the 'quick trip' or 'fill in' shopping. Folks go to buy big or they go . . . well, elsewhere. To keep their shoppers from maybe going to a grocery store for that one last roll of toilet paper or couple of food items to stretch til the next paycheck, they've got smaller size items on shelf that last week.

Seriously. Japan has been doing this for ages, only with their tiny convenience stores. Go into a shop in the morning, you find breakfast items everywhere. Go back in in the afternoon . . . totally changed over to lunch stuff. What? Yes, that's right. They stock according to the time of day.

Here in the US and in most stores you get seasonal items. No, you can't buy lawn chairs and sun tan lotion in the winter... but no shop has taken it quite this far before.

Walmart has hit another sweet spot of seeming to help their shoppers while really just maximizing their sales. Folks go in to stock up, Walmart makes that easy. If they stock up, they don't buy elsewhere. Those same shoppers now can be directed to fill in at Walmart too, making it their ONLY shopping destination.

They've come a long way since the days when they refused to sell "the morning after pill" . . . but they're still freakin scary to me. Especially when they wind up being the biggest supplier of prescriptions and decide to charge $9 rather than $4 for generic birth control . . . Jerks.

You are what you eat . . .

im looking forward to this sunday. ive looked forward to every sunday morning this summer. why? because i head down to the farmers market in my neighborhood. i get my produce, i wander about and run into other folks who live nearby, i eat a crepe from La Boulangerie that just opened up, have a coffee from the local coffee shop New Wave Coffee [shameless plug].

why do i do this? yes, you're saying 'well duh' and thinking how im this green minded bike lover. but there are a few factors to consider here. when was the last time you looked forward to grocery shopping? when was half the importance of the trip about not what deals you got, but instead who you might wind up chatting with?

farmers markets serve a number of purposes, and [since i've been reading Tipping Point finally] these are the things that make them Sticky. 

1) you can get trustworthy produce: not only do you know that it's organic, you know what farm it came from. in fact, if you dont like what you get, you can tell the farmer to his face! with all the scares about salmonella and contaminants, even as Dole is instituting farm tracking, farmers markets are inherently transparent in their sources.

2) you can feel good about the produce you're buying: it's a nice perk to be able to feel like your purchases are going to a good cause. it's not quite the charity argument [over 60% of people are willing to pay up to 50% more on a product if they know some of the proceeds go to charity, and will stick with a brand despite deals by competition if they know their chosen brand does 'good things']. its more how you'd almost always be willing to give your neighbor a cup of sugar for free.

3) you get to know people: yup. its that simple. now this is sure to be different in more rural communities where folks in a town really do know eachoter. but in the city and even in the suburbs it's rare to really know the people on your block. farmers markets serve as a casual mecca for people to congregate and get to know eachoter. i pet more dogs and talk to more strangers every sunday than i do the rest of my week combined . . . and then the following week they arent strangers anymore.

NOW! mass retailers are realizing that they're losing out to these upstart food purveyors. Target has opened their Fresh Stores to compete with the move toward buying at grocery stores, Walgreens has started offering fresh foods to give people more reasons to wander into their drug stores, so 'fresh food' is obviously in. but the most pernicious move is in the new 'copycat farmers markets' that are popping up. [im kicking myself because there was an article about this happening in australia recently... and i cant find it now].

so what's the impact here? well, there's the argument that it dilutes the 'farmers market' meaning. the whole reason for these markets is that local growers can't otherwise make enough money selling via grocery stores. Whole Foods has made big moves to have local produce and foods in their stores, but with their continued 'Whole Paycheck' association, they're not really moving this toward the masses.

im going to go back to that third reason why farmers markets are actually important, the reason i really look forward to my sundays. there are fewer and fewer ways for urban dwellers to connect in real time to those in their neighborhoods. [yes, the local bar might still exist, but even that is disappearing. and drinking is bad for you, right?] this has lead to closed door communities, and id even say is a big reason that participation in politics has dwindled over the years. if you dont know who's around you, if you are not connected to them, you lose the feeling of being able to have an effect on their lives.  if you can't effect your city block, how can you change the nation?

shifting people back to grocery stores would take us back to that same separatism.

here's an anecdote: in Beijing they knocked down many of the old neighborhoods to expand the city. yes, many of them were in need of rebuilding. they built beautiful high rises with bathrooms for every unit and kitchens and running water . . . and people hated it. what the urban planners failed to realize that for all that many of the old neighborhoods were falling apart, people used them as a community. they cooked together each night, ate together. yes, there were improvements to make, but the importance of shared space and communal living was lost.

just some food for thought. 

Who's talking? Who's listening?

in the end, it seems we really do want our brands to be people. we want them to worry if we sleep well at night. we want them to ask us if our feet hurt after a long day.

so it's no surprise that when you get to social media, its the brands that allow a personality to speak for them that get the followers.

obviously this is easier for some than others. do you really want to get chatty with your toilet paper? but for a fashion brand, this makes complete sense. this is something you put on to express your personality, so it had best have some personality itself!

yes, its also the inside deal that everyone wants. the scoop, the find, the first in the know. "For several months, she focused almost exclusively on the clothes. However, she slowly realized that her followers were responding more to glimpses of her personality." a big realization in "The Importance of Tweeting Oscar" . . . but again, lets step back.

tweets are necessarily conversation snapshots. they are an invitation to rebuttal. and lets get all linguistic on this. a 'conversation' from the etymological standpoint is a 'turning to' or even 'keeping company with.' otherwise, well . . . it's a monologue.

"Much of what Ms. Bearman does on Twitter is reactive. She throws herself into the middle of conversations that involve Mr. de la Renta's work, participating in the chatter"

we get plenty of these from brands anyway. the TV spots. the billboards. perhaps part of the reason brands see such a response when they crowd-source ads is that it was the first option for consumers to have their say. speak directly to and as the brand.

well . . . twitter and facebook and foursquare have obviously changed all that.

so now a flip around. . . what is it about all those celebs that makes us love them? why do we love it when we get to see a new music video? hold on. wait a second. you mean we get to hear them AND see them??? they bare their souls and then look us straight in the eye?

why is the official Fuck You video so damned appealing? i mean, yes, we've all been snubbed by someone. we all hope to show them what we've really got and wind up on top in the end. that's nothing new. after all . . . we heard it all in the old "Do you love me?" song back in the day.

a few brands have caught onto this. a few retailers have been showing their colors, getting their personalities out there... but some of them are still just stuck talking coupons and two for ones. i mean, i like it when my friends buy me a round at the bar too, but that's not why i post on their facebook page and show up to their parties.

The new 'it' man

who's the hottest guy in the room?

well, if hollywood and the world of advertising are any indicators, its the IT guy.

ok. maybe not exactly 'IT' guy, but the programmers, the nerds, the geeks.

where is this coming from? well. . . there's what YouTube has to say about being a dickhead [faking the nerd is cool!], and then on the other side we get Honda Jazz's Australian campaign with their Kerouac quoting hipsters.

ok. so those are the nerds... where are the computer geeks? well, who is Justin Timberlake playing in an upcoming film? who are the guys in the next Gap ad? [here's a hint: they both start with F. i am assuming that 'G' is next on the list.]

no. this isn't rocket science im pulling together here. but there is something a bit interesting going on behind the scenes. even as we are raising up our nerds to billboard worthy heights, India is producing more honors students than the United States even HAS students. we're cranking out SAT taking clones while those who are changing out world are dropping out of school, skipping college and winding up millionaires.

what's wrong with this picture?

well, on one hand, not a whole heck of a lot. so long as kids have access to a computer, to the web, to an iPad [have you seen how kids are playing with these things?] they seem to be learning on their own. yes, we're wasting a lot of their time putting them in what amounts to a holding cell with a warden [school], but what are parents to do? work from home?

on the other hand, what are these guys as role models? oh! and where the ladies at!?!? seriously?! what is it that has somehow catapulted [once again] the guys to the top and left the ladies to sit by and idolize?

. . . i will be waiting for the obviously approaching ladies takeover, while also gleefully anticipating the throw down of Farmboy vs Techhead.

[wow. that was a lot of links. im going to have to find a better way to deal with this]