The crazies are coming out. I don't mean the people touting the end of the world. I am talking about the people that believe that horse pucky. It is one thing to produce an end of the world special for the History Channel, another entirely to believe that silly tripe.
On the other hand, there is a lot of money in Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). FYI FUD was created by IBM.
Here I think there is a great deal of the fun with poking fun with the opposite story. Here are a few good zingers to throw around at the water cooler when people start chatting up the various Discovery Channel specials:
The Aztecs couldn't predict their way out of death-by-Spaniards. Why predict the end of the world in 2012?
The Aztec calendar does not end in 2012, it simply resets. There isn't a mushroom cloud or even aliens on that last day. Heck, our calendars are so much better to predict that January 1st 2012 is New Years Day. Look it up if you don't believe me.
They say that Nostradamus predicted the fall of the twin towers. Really? I don't remember anyone hanging out in the lobby that day shooing people away because it was the day.
Nostradamus had gout. He was said to be a healer? Oh, and he died at about age 62, hardly a sage age. None of that rising from the dead stuff either. David Blaine is harder act to follow.
Nostradanus wrote in quatrains and you can say either it was in code or riddles, but why not in the clear French he spoke?
The Aztec calendar was wheel-shaped. Do you really think that a calendar shapped like a wheel could predict the end of time when they could not have invented the actual 'wheel''?
The Aztecs had blood sacrifices. So, how did that work out for them? Did it prevent their demise as a culture?
Nostradamus died with today's equivalent of $300 thousand dollars. Not bad for being psychic without having to prove everything was really predicted accurately.
Alvin Toffler (Future Shock and The Third Wave), probably has a better record than Nostradomas for predictions because he wrote in clear English. Though Alvin did predict that a large part of society would become nomads and that the Mobile Home was the future of housing. Guess that means he didn't predict the housing credit crash either.
The Bible predicts the end of the world too, no surprise. But the book of Revelations was written between the years 68 and 96 A.D. But why not spill the beans in Genesis? Why wait? Why get people all hot and bothered when the end times can't be put on the calendar you got for Christmas? Why the suspense?
Why not just 2000 years? Did we really have to wait for Bush to end his term? Seems a little arbitrary to tack on an extra 12 as well. It's all just a tease! I'll bet they end up changing the date... again! Who want's in on the End Times betting pool. I got $20 on April 1, 2020.
Faith Popcorn is said to have a low return on her predictions too. What do Toffler and Popcorn have in common, they wrote in clear English, not riddles. But they both got some things right. They predicted the future too, not divine it.
What about the last time the world ended? Get in line, here it comes again!
I'm seriously thinking of writing an end-of-the-world book. People will buy it. When the chips are down people will believe anything that wiggles the crazy meter. You don't even have to prove anything. There are a lot of options:
How The World Will End
Digging Your Shelter - Five Shelter Designs From Home Depot
Top five religions to be a part of when the world ends - or, Improving your odds of the hereafter in 2012.
How to make money after the world ends!
Fifty Pithy Phrases For Your Last Words
Introducing Yourself To Your Alien Overlords
What To Do New Years 2013 With Your 2012 End-Of-The-World Hoard
Revelations in Marketing - How to sell your products to the end of time
I'd ask you to comment, but why? Don't want to get between you and your family with less than 3 years to go. But if you have a new date and time for the end of the world, I'd like to know. I need better lead time on the marketing budget.
Here is my other blog of the end of the world. The book will be coming soon!
FYI this is a version of a blog moved from a limited membership blog site at http://www.triiibes.com/. I am moving many of those blog entries here for your entertainment and enlightenment.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Teenagers Can't See Your Point of View - Can you fix that?
New Scientist is full of fun stuff this week. There is an article today about how teens and their inability to see another person's point of view.
This is called Theory of Mind. Wikipedia says: Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own.
According to the article, Theory of Mind gets better as we grow older and that's good news! But you need to really work hard to deal with teens to overcome this.
The article has more bad news saying, "adolescents show strong egocentric behaviour that is very similar to that of young children..." I sort of translate into 15 years old with terrible two's syndrome.
What might this all mean? How could we use this? I suspect that you cannot impose your will or give examples. You could lead and see if they follow. My guess however is that you really need to ask a lot of questions and use their directed opinions to whittle down the possibilities.
You: "What is cool/rocken/all-that/phat/spiffy/mayonnaise to you?"
Teen: "I think X is spastic!"
You: "Why is X... well, spastic?"
Teen: "Because it's what Slink Borders all wear."
You: "So what are Slink Borders?"
Teen: "They are ..."
Eventually you get to some sort of understanding. You figure out what Slink Borders are and what they do, say, believe, and consume. You see how close the teen is to these and you have a better understanding of their point of view and motivations. Pick a subject and work your way around it.
Teaching Theory of Mind is a bit different. Sadly I have found few good references because a lot of this is aimed at Autism and not teenagers. I did find this paper, but it is long and scholarly and I must be off to work. Read it at your leisure.
One more thing to add. People can loose their Theory of Mind over time or may have functional Asperberger's syndrome. In either case we have high functioning adults that seem like angry assholes. They can't understand why the world is so stupid. I have and currently know many of these people. One was officially diagnosed with Asperberger's when he was about 40 years old. He was like a 185 I.Q. train wreck.
Others I know with impaired Theory of Mind are less problematic, but I must say they are really bad. Lots of yelling. World against them. It is worse as stress gets higher. They just fail to see the implications of their actions and anger. Think of the sales mistakes.... The overselling. Not listening. Jumping before understanding a key word.
I am going to be reading a lot more on Theory of Mind and training/confronting those impaired. It seems like a very skill to be good at. My goal would be to learn to do this without the other person noticing. Nobody likes the implication that their thought process in wrong. That is why a lot of stuff bounces off teenagers.
I will caution. There are also Narcissists out there. They could really be Asperberger's, but they are far nastier. Very often they will say they are everyone's friend but they exude evil from every pore. These folks can't be changed. Don't bother. Get far far away.
The common misconception is that Narcissists are egotists. Truth is that Narcissists feel out of control a lot of the time and gain that control by manipulating others to feel out of control. In other words, they are in their element when you are a complete and total failure and pulling your hair out.
Almost forgot. What is your opinion? Words of wisdom? War stories? Stand up, take a break and start writing!
This is called Theory of Mind. Wikipedia says: Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own.
According to the article, Theory of Mind gets better as we grow older and that's good news! But you need to really work hard to deal with teens to overcome this.
The article has more bad news saying, "adolescents show strong egocentric behaviour that is very similar to that of young children..." I sort of translate into 15 years old with terrible two's syndrome.
What might this all mean? How could we use this? I suspect that you cannot impose your will or give examples. You could lead and see if they follow. My guess however is that you really need to ask a lot of questions and use their directed opinions to whittle down the possibilities.
You: "What is cool/rocken/all-that/phat/spiffy/mayonnaise to you?"
Teen: "I think X is spastic!"
You: "Why is X... well, spastic?"
Teen: "Because it's what Slink Borders all wear."
You: "So what are Slink Borders?"
Teen: "They are ..."
Eventually you get to some sort of understanding. You figure out what Slink Borders are and what they do, say, believe, and consume. You see how close the teen is to these and you have a better understanding of their point of view and motivations. Pick a subject and work your way around it.
Teaching Theory of Mind is a bit different. Sadly I have found few good references because a lot of this is aimed at Autism and not teenagers. I did find this paper, but it is long and scholarly and I must be off to work. Read it at your leisure.
One more thing to add. People can loose their Theory of Mind over time or may have functional Asperberger's syndrome. In either case we have high functioning adults that seem like angry assholes. They can't understand why the world is so stupid. I have and currently know many of these people. One was officially diagnosed with Asperberger's when he was about 40 years old. He was like a 185 I.Q. train wreck.
Others I know with impaired Theory of Mind are less problematic, but I must say they are really bad. Lots of yelling. World against them. It is worse as stress gets higher. They just fail to see the implications of their actions and anger. Think of the sales mistakes.... The overselling. Not listening. Jumping before understanding a key word.
I am going to be reading a lot more on Theory of Mind and training/confronting those impaired. It seems like a very skill to be good at. My goal would be to learn to do this without the other person noticing. Nobody likes the implication that their thought process in wrong. That is why a lot of stuff bounces off teenagers.
I will caution. There are also Narcissists out there. They could really be Asperberger's, but they are far nastier. Very often they will say they are everyone's friend but they exude evil from every pore. These folks can't be changed. Don't bother. Get far far away.
The common misconception is that Narcissists are egotists. Truth is that Narcissists feel out of control a lot of the time and gain that control by manipulating others to feel out of control. In other words, they are in their element when you are a complete and total failure and pulling your hair out.
Almost forgot. What is your opinion? Words of wisdom? War stories? Stand up, take a break and start writing!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Why crying wolf pays and how to shame that little boy into honesty and positivity
Mary Louise Penaz (you need to be a member of Triiibes) made a comment on an earlier blog of mine about the end of the word:
Mary said "...and who doesn't like being right? Right?"
It made me think about why there are so many detractors and especially a lot of doomsayers.
Predictors of the future are always right until the future is the past. For those that predict with riddles, they will always be right while there is a shred that they could be right sometime soon.
I think the 'cry wolf' story is like this. There are wolves. Crying wolf is never wrong because there 'might' be a wolf. It just wasn't there when you came to help or you scared it away. See how good it was for me to cry wolf? Eventually there will be a wolf. Yeah, we missed all those wolves, but that last time that little kid was dead on. Smart kid!!!
It is amazing though that it is far easier to believe that something will go wrong. What is the ratio of people that believe that aliens will come and shower us in a golden age verses all those that believe in the end of the world?
It is easier to be right about failure than success. I think this is because wrong is wrong. Right can be easily cast as wrong or even not totally right. A successful product can be wrong even if it brings in millions because it could have brought tens of millions.
It is easy to pick apart success and hard to find silver linings in failure without still seeing the failure.
But how do you stop this sort of thing? How do you stop the hobby of doom and gloom spreaders?
I actually have this issue in my tribe. Why does a customer want that? They say it rhetorically and dismissively. There is no question because they see no value. What's a product manager to do?
The key offense is to force them to write positives first. We do that in our product vision. It help set the stage. I also never respond to one negative with one positive. The equation is lopsided in tit for tat. One bad has more points that one good, even when it is a home run of a zinger.
Another good comeback is to challenge. Get them to write the list of possibilities for good. What are the 5 success factors? What do you think will be the five most used features? If that is a problem, what are three possible solutions?
But be careful. Never ask, "so, what would you suggest instead?" This is too open. Ten to one, this guy hasn't a clue. At least I've yet to meet one that had enough mental foresight to buy even a discount clue. They are dissing your idea because they are defending their empty wasteland of ideas. You'll hear the tension and anger in their voice. Tread carefully because exposing this fact will create a shit storm. Concentrate on the attack, not the attacker. You don't win a fight by questioning if the guy's father and mother were related before they were married.
Keep on point. Don't allow the conversation to waver away from the subject the guy is dissing. You can not reward negativity with a voice and a lever of power.
Get a copy of a book on how to argue and a few books on critical thinking. Keept the examples with you written on little cards with the reference. Put them in your slides to cut off the types of arguments you know you are going to hear. Think of the argument and disprove it before the peanut gallery even wakes up.
There are a lot of web resources, like this one. Just type illogical argument into Google to get a bunch.
BTW, you want to have the worst arguments and have the most animosity? Try running a meeting with Robert's Rules of Order. Take my word for it and don't let it happen to you. The issue is that all it takes is one negative space cowboy to take over. Put one guy in charge and force them to read a bunch on controlling meetings, critical thinking, and detecting illogical arguments.
Have a fantastic win against a negative nelly lately? How did you do it? Give us the play by play.
Mary said "...and who doesn't like being right? Right?"
It made me think about why there are so many detractors and especially a lot of doomsayers.
Predictors of the future are always right until the future is the past. For those that predict with riddles, they will always be right while there is a shred that they could be right sometime soon.
I think the 'cry wolf' story is like this. There are wolves. Crying wolf is never wrong because there 'might' be a wolf. It just wasn't there when you came to help or you scared it away. See how good it was for me to cry wolf? Eventually there will be a wolf. Yeah, we missed all those wolves, but that last time that little kid was dead on. Smart kid!!!
It is amazing though that it is far easier to believe that something will go wrong. What is the ratio of people that believe that aliens will come and shower us in a golden age verses all those that believe in the end of the world?
It is easier to be right about failure than success. I think this is because wrong is wrong. Right can be easily cast as wrong or even not totally right. A successful product can be wrong even if it brings in millions because it could have brought tens of millions.
It is easy to pick apart success and hard to find silver linings in failure without still seeing the failure.
But how do you stop this sort of thing? How do you stop the hobby of doom and gloom spreaders?
I actually have this issue in my tribe. Why does a customer want that? They say it rhetorically and dismissively. There is no question because they see no value. What's a product manager to do?
The key offense is to force them to write positives first. We do that in our product vision. It help set the stage. I also never respond to one negative with one positive. The equation is lopsided in tit for tat. One bad has more points that one good, even when it is a home run of a zinger.
Another good comeback is to challenge. Get them to write the list of possibilities for good. What are the 5 success factors? What do you think will be the five most used features? If that is a problem, what are three possible solutions?
But be careful. Never ask, "so, what would you suggest instead?" This is too open. Ten to one, this guy hasn't a clue. At least I've yet to meet one that had enough mental foresight to buy even a discount clue. They are dissing your idea because they are defending their empty wasteland of ideas. You'll hear the tension and anger in their voice. Tread carefully because exposing this fact will create a shit storm. Concentrate on the attack, not the attacker. You don't win a fight by questioning if the guy's father and mother were related before they were married.
Keep on point. Don't allow the conversation to waver away from the subject the guy is dissing. You can not reward negativity with a voice and a lever of power.
Get a copy of a book on how to argue and a few books on critical thinking. Keept the examples with you written on little cards with the reference. Put them in your slides to cut off the types of arguments you know you are going to hear. Think of the argument and disprove it before the peanut gallery even wakes up.
There are a lot of web resources, like this one. Just type illogical argument into Google to get a bunch.
BTW, you want to have the worst arguments and have the most animosity? Try running a meeting with Robert's Rules of Order. Take my word for it and don't let it happen to you. The issue is that all it takes is one negative space cowboy to take over. Put one guy in charge and force them to read a bunch on controlling meetings, critical thinking, and detecting illogical arguments.
Have a fantastic win against a negative nelly lately? How did you do it? Give us the play by play.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Magic and persuasion - I'd like to float an idea in front of you.
Flying, levitation, people just floating in the air. Imagine how you feel when you see a magician perform a trick that breaks the laws of physics. Our brains are wired to expect gravity. When someone floats into the air, you feel the hair go up on the back of your neck and the chill of goosebumps.
I'm not taking about watching David Blaine or Chris Angel on TV. I mean really seeing this live and in person. You feel like you just jumped out of an airplane - your stomach does a little twist like you are flying too. It is powerful stuff.
I tried a new trick last night. I am not really a good magician, but there are a few good tricks that work themselves and even the most honest magician - i.e. I feel bad that this is a trick and it shows - can pull off something that spins the audience's mind. In this case, just my girlfriend, but a group of 100 tomorrow. This trick is so good, I'll be doing it every presentation or talk in the coming months.
Quite simply, it is full body levitation. Flying up in the air seven inches or so (higher depending on circumstances). It is a bit incredible to see someone see you break the laws of physics. It is even more incredible when you say, "hey watch me do this new trick". People are still falling out of their chairs! It is a trick, they know it, you know it, but they still are surprised! The human brain just works that way. Even if you repeat the trick several times, people still can't stop having their minds twist at the sight.
The brain is predictive. That is how you can know a song fro the first three notes. But when you break that predictive pattern, all hell breaks loose. The brain is both confused and in a state that is far different than normal life. It is also in a state of newness. The brain is ready to see whatever is next because it has gotta figure this all out.
Persuasion can be this way too. Don't need to hide the fact that you are selling an idea or a product. It is in the art of surprise and stickiness of ideas that sell. Knowing it's just there to make decisions easier and entertaining helps drop resistance to the idea or sale.
The world is too full of blah blah blah buy me. It should be more empty hat (the problem), the rabbit (the solution), producing a rabbit from a hat (the idea/product).
You want to sell shoes, I got the trick for you! But I'd guess that anyone that can fly 'literally' through their presentation is going to be able to spin the freedom and power over the 'gravity' of the problem is going to make a sale.
I'm not going to give this trick away. I'm not even going to tell you where it is commercially available. It is for magicians. Are you a magician? Are you the witch doctor of your tribe? Let me know what your tricks are and I'll share mine.
Time to go. Gotta feed my rabbit.
I'm not taking about watching David Blaine or Chris Angel on TV. I mean really seeing this live and in person. You feel like you just jumped out of an airplane - your stomach does a little twist like you are flying too. It is powerful stuff.
I tried a new trick last night. I am not really a good magician, but there are a few good tricks that work themselves and even the most honest magician - i.e. I feel bad that this is a trick and it shows - can pull off something that spins the audience's mind. In this case, just my girlfriend, but a group of 100 tomorrow. This trick is so good, I'll be doing it every presentation or talk in the coming months.
Quite simply, it is full body levitation. Flying up in the air seven inches or so (higher depending on circumstances). It is a bit incredible to see someone see you break the laws of physics. It is even more incredible when you say, "hey watch me do this new trick". People are still falling out of their chairs! It is a trick, they know it, you know it, but they still are surprised! The human brain just works that way. Even if you repeat the trick several times, people still can't stop having their minds twist at the sight.
The brain is predictive. That is how you can know a song fro the first three notes. But when you break that predictive pattern, all hell breaks loose. The brain is both confused and in a state that is far different than normal life. It is also in a state of newness. The brain is ready to see whatever is next because it has gotta figure this all out.
Persuasion can be this way too. Don't need to hide the fact that you are selling an idea or a product. It is in the art of surprise and stickiness of ideas that sell. Knowing it's just there to make decisions easier and entertaining helps drop resistance to the idea or sale.
The world is too full of blah blah blah buy me. It should be more empty hat (the problem), the rabbit (the solution), producing a rabbit from a hat (the idea/product).
You want to sell shoes, I got the trick for you! But I'd guess that anyone that can fly 'literally' through their presentation is going to be able to spin the freedom and power over the 'gravity' of the problem is going to make a sale.
I'm not going to give this trick away. I'm not even going to tell you where it is commercially available. It is for magicians. Are you a magician? Are you the witch doctor of your tribe? Let me know what your tricks are and I'll share mine.
Time to go. Gotta feed my rabbit.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Squinting and Pirates
Why you squint, pirates, and millions of dollars lost in the sporting goods industry!
Because I'm right handed, but my eyes are left handed - sound crazy? Read on to see how society has messed up a lot of us with assumptions about being right or left handed.
Yesterday I went to an Archery range with my boss (perhaps a tale for another time). When I shoot a bow, I close my left eye for a very uncomfortable squint to take aim on the target. This one eye squint is annoying. I can hit the target, pretty good too, but the squinting is super annoying. But what is crazy is that this is all caused by bad marketing.
The subject (sounds boring, but we will get to pirates in a moment) is about eye dominance. Eye dominance is like being left or right handed except your eyes are also left or right dominant too and they don't always match your hand dominance.
The squinting and poor aiming comes when your eyes and your hands don't have the same dominant side. Simply you use a bow, a gun, darts, throw a ball, and some tools are meant for or depend on a right handed person but your eyes are aiming like a lefty.
Nothing special, right? I'd hazard a guess that their are millions of people with their lives affected by not understanding this little known fact about our eyes. Perhaps that is worth billions of dollars especially in recreational sports.
If you do one thing today, test your eye dominance (instructions below). Have your friends test theirs and if you have children, please have them test their eye dominance too. This isn't a medical issue about eye disease, it is simple quality of life as you will soon see (pun intended).
The revelation of a lifetime
I had not plied my archery habit in over 20 years, so I thought I'd read the latest literature in preparation of buying a new target shooting bow. But in an odd corner of one archery web site I started to read about eye dominance. I was floored by the simple statement that I was aiming with the wrong eye. Suddenly a lifetime of squinting from archery, to target shooting, to even using my telescope were seen as something totally avoidable - if it was taught to me as a child.
Squinting is something that every expert, from archery to darts and many sports, will tell you is bad. Very bad! Enter the pirate eye patch left over from last year's pirate theme party. Eye patches work, but they are frowned upon unless you really are a card carrying pirate. The patch really is just a crutch for more comfortable squinting. But why squint or join a band of pirates? Why is eye dominance a huge issue? What is up with squinting?
Lets look at the geometry (sorry) of eye dominance. Simply, one eye is oriented to look directly at an object, while the other is looking from the side. Imagine in pool (billiards), if you have the cue stick held in the right hand, your right eye is above the cue and looking straight at the cue ball. The left eye is looking at an angle at the ball. Of course this is only true with a person with right eye dominance. A person with left eye dominance must squint or play left handed (I play pool as a lefty and never knew why until now).
We assume the right hand is related to the eye we aim with. So if I buy a bow, gun, or many other implements built for right handers, I squint and likely miss what I aim at. Even in a simple game like darts, the eye you align your dart and target to will make a huge difference in accuracy.
Right handed with left eye dominant (or the opposite) people don't learn that left handed aiming will stop the squinting. They are just criticized about the squinting. They become social misfits of the accuracy club... or pirates.
The right may be left
Why our preconceptions and marketing are making you squint.
The answer to why we continue to squint when aiming is simple marketing, my friends. If you are right handed, everything is supposed to be on the right (pardon me for leaving behind my left handed friends for a bit). If you are right handed, you buy right handed scissors, right handed bows, right handed mice, your keyboard has the all important return key on the right.
Keep the marketing simple. Why look at the uncomfortable scientific research? And hey, why stock more stuff for lefties, isn't that low odds for a sale? But the reason the marketing sounds like this is that we just want to sell the right handed products because of a collective assumption of left and right handedness.
The assumption that the whole body (except the brain) is right or left dominant. Now it is time for some research and a few facts.
Eye dominance and hand dominance
and the horror of statistics
A study at USC showed that slightly more than 50% of men and women did not have the same hand dominance to their eye dominance. In other words you have about a 50% chance being a pirate or squinting.
In another study we can see the real evil of hand/eye dominance differences. In competitive Archery 62% were right handed and right eyed. But only 12% of shooters are right handed but left eyed. What? Based on statistics, the number of left/right eye should be about the same.
What does this mean? A lot people gave up archery that were left eyed and right handed... because they should have been shown on day one that they needed a left-handed bow.
If the Archery market concentrated on educating new customers that the eye is more important than the hand, this should be 50%. For coaches it is an astounding 3% for lefty eyed marksmen that sign autographs with their right hand - the rest quit because of squinting.
For football, two thirds of players have the same hand and eye dominance. No wonder my spirals were clean, but missed the person I threw to. Imagine wearing an eye patch on the football field!!!! If you don't have the same hand/eye dominance, you better be good at tackling.
Pirates!
Why do pirates have eye patches? My guess is that it is all about telescopes. If you are left eye dominant, you should look through your pirate issue telescope with your left eye. But the marketing for the telescope is usually littered with scantily clad wenches holding the scope in the right hand and looking through the right eye. Pirate monkey see, pirate monkey do. But the 50% of pirates end up getting a patch (assuming a hook on the right hand is a sign pirates as a group are generally right handed).
So, right handed, left eyed, and peer pressure of a lovely marketing wench, Q.E.D. the pirate must use a patch to keep from looking like a squinting land lubber. The patch becomes a constant accessory because only sissy pirates use a patch to look through their scopes. The peg leg is probably a result of an injury due to depth perception and a bad fall rather than hard core swashbuckling.
Pirates are cool, but it is the eye patch that has always annoyed me and now I know why. I hate pirates and their smug eye patches because they look cool, quick with a musket pistol, and can use a telescope, all without squinting.
I am sure my fellow lefty eyed compatriots would join me in raising a toast to the demize of eye patch pirates. But via marketing and the popularity of pirates by Disney and others, hard to rock the boat. The only pirates to hate nowadays are Somali Pirates and they probably use binoculars because I have never seen one with an eye patch.
Testing for eye dominance
Hold out your arm in front of you and make a circle with your thumb and second finger (the universal hand sign for OK.
Look through the circle of your hand at a small object in the distance. Now close your left eye. If the object stays in the circle, you are left eye dominant. If the object moves, you are right eye dominant.
Another interesting tip is that if you are aiming with one eye closed and aiming with the non-dominant eye, you will struggle to keep the dominant eye closed. This is why, in part, that using an eye patch is feels better because your dominant eye isn't struggling to see.
Show me the money!
Do you sell anything (tools, sporting goods) where aim is important? Educate your customers and if your tools are right or left handed, stop selling based on the hands, but the eyes. You may not sell eye patches this way, but you will sell more products to happier customers.
Not every right hander can use left handed equipment. Odds are that you will win over more than you have before. You also have a more educated consumer that is aware of the problem and can correct for it.
Change your marketing! Start with the simple eye dominance test and sell to the right (or left) dominance of the customer. Put it on the first page of the manual! It does not matter one bit that your product is the most accurate if your customers are squinting or just plain horrible with your great equipment.
The catchphrase here is "repeat business". If the use of your product causes eye strain, I won't use it as much. If I don't use it, I don't get into the sport and buy new stuff. You loose me because you either sold me the wrong stuff or didn't educated me on one of the most important subjects for success.
There is a downside. If you teach people that lefty equipment is good for right handers, you need to stock up on the left handed products. Maybe sell more ambidextrous designs? For pool or darts, the only downside is a rework of the manual to test eye dominance and show how to aim accurately for your situation.
The good news perhaps is that all those lefties out there might find what they want in stock. Remember, 50% of lefties are right eye dominant and could use the righty's equipment.
Please send me a check when your sales numbers go up. Eye patches were cheap, but now I am looking at a very expensive left handed bow.
Extra goodies
Here are a few excellent explanations for different target-intensive sports and ways to correct for mismatched hand/eye dominance: Archery, Billiards/Pool , Darts, other sports.
Also found the book: The Dominance Factor: How Knowing Your Dominant Eye, Ear, Brain, Hand, & Foot Can Improve Your Learning
. What is interesting is that it is the only one on Amazon that is clearly aimed at both eye and other body dominance issues.Have you done the eye dominance test yet? Are you a pirate or are you ready to ditch the patch for the right equipment?
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Welcome budding Marketers!
This is not really a blog/book for little boys and/or girls. Sorry. It is just a catchy title and part of my marketing of a series of books that take serious subjects and throws caution to the wind with humor and fun.
This is all about the humor in marketing. Maybe some wisdom. But if I can't make it funny, well I'll have to torture you with a pun or two.
I'll cover a lot of things in marketing. From the ads to the psychology. The idea is to see the silliness in the worst and the opportunity for silliness in the best.
Send me your horror stories or the stories that make milk squirt out your nose (I want to pitch a new ad campaign to the Milk industry). I need the material, really! Marketing is just a hobby, so if you are in the trenches, I want to hear from you.
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