spreading ideas

What kind of news and stories spread faster?

There are some features that are common to narratives and stories that have spread fastest:

they tend to be catchy, very simplified models of reality

one or more influencers were involved, helping their fast spread

They are part of a narrative cluster, which makes them more plausible, e.g. the rise of AI, blockchain innovation, etc.

they are often newer and more resistant variables of old narratives e.g. the speculative benefits of harnessing a scarcity e.g. land and buildings

(ideas from book “narrative economics” by Robert Shiller)

 

Don’t yell-sell, instead activate people who LIKE you … creating a sense of urgency

Activating people who already like you is far more productive and profitable than it is to spend time and money yelling at people who are ignoring you.

You should shift to building relationships between and among the core audience, to make products and services for your audience instead of finding an audience for your products and services, is the golden lesson that applies to just about every organization.

Create a sense of urgency for those that share your company’s worldview. In almost every non-essential situation, people are likely to choose, “later,” as their response to a pitch. Why do it now if I can do it later?

Extracted from Seth Godin’s blog entry

from forced upon to inspired by

“We believe that only when an approach is inspired (read: the spirit blown into it), can it be successful and transformative. It doesn’t matter how smart the strategy is. If people do not believe it, it has no possibility of success.

All transformation starts with one person. If there is one person who believes in the values that formed the foundation of the strategy, he or she will give meaning to it by ‘living it’. If one person lives the example by taking actions based upon the common principles, new possibilities will appear … There is nothing more contagious than someone who sees and uses new possibilities. Not as an opportunist, but in the spirit of the values and the purpose. Living the values from inside out, in contrast to the values being forced upon from outside in.”

From a post by Refresh Interactions

the more interactions an idea produces, the quicker it will spread

“Ideas that spread win. Ideas don’t have to be selfish to win, in fact, it turns out that the more generous the interactions an idea produces, the more likely it is to spread.

See the example of guacamole: in less than a generation, it went from an unknown delicacy to something commonplace: it spread partly because it’s a party food, so people discovered it when others shared it…

Seeing your business or your project as a multi-generational organism, one that you can mutate at will, is a useful way to help it grow. I’ve written about it here and here.”

Extracted from Seth Godin’s blog.