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Survival of the fittest

There’s a fascinating debate over at Adliterate asking if blogging is killing planning or not. It’s developing into a facts/logic V ideas and intuition debate.

From my point of view, I like planning blogs because:

a) Most good planning blogs don’t just talk about planning, which makes it a great source for finding thoughts to store for a rainy day.

b) Even better, l like the way good ideas get better and bad ideas get smoked out, a kind of blog Darwinism I suppose. Lots of new thinking is put out there, good ideas get talked about, commented on, developed and improved. The not so good either gets ignored or crumbles under the sheer weight of ananysis is gets. I think this helps us all to experiment, try new stuff and learn from each other. I for one get very lonely in a one man department.

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18 responses to “Survival of the fittest”

  1. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    Maybe the people who say Planning Blogs are killing Planning are the same individuals who said Television would kill Cinema.
    We never stop learning – and we should always be open to other ideas and influences – but at the end of the day, being objective is a vital part of our job and if certain people are losing that because of planning blogs, then they’re not a planner I’d want to be working with.

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  2. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    Then again, there are too many planners who spout intellectual bullshit and forget the job is to help resonate with single Mum’s in Maidenhead who have 3 kids and only 80 quid a week to survive on – not confuse them by developing comms ideas justified by some psudo phychobabble learnt on another planning blog by someone who has an inherent need to feel they are more intelligent/valuable than society actually credits them with.
    We think far more about brands than ‘normal people’ and sometimes that’s the major issue because planning is about humanity – likes / loves / hopes / fears – not just about whether we can ever make someone feel their bank is their bloody friend.
    So to answer the question – it’s dependent on the character of the individual. [Like the ‘on-the-fence’ way I did that!?]

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  3. Rob Mortimer Avatar
    Rob Mortimer

    I like the way the bold and contetious opening comment curves back round to sit on the fence without ever actually contradicting itself..!

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  4. Northern Planner Avatar
    Northern Planner

    Must agree, it depends on the planner. I hate needless pretention (I’m from Yorkshire) and slaveish dogmatism that stick to what it knows equally. There’s a lot of both.

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  5. Will Avatar
    Will

    Simply put – I like blogs in general because they tell me things about people.
    That’s what I think (as Rob @ Cynic states) we all need to bear in mind – ‘The consumer is not an idiot. She is your wife’.
    There’s no place for overly lofty thinking.

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  6. Rob Mortimer Avatar
    Rob Mortimer

    Lofty thinking is great providing it is rooted in reality.
    Planning is all about knowing how to talk to people; surely blogging is practicing just that…

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  7. Will Avatar
    Will

    Rob,
    Yeah, I was bemoaning overly lofty thinking. Anything which sounds like Management speak has to be on the way out..

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  8. Rob Mortimer Avatar
    Rob Mortimer

    Its proven that management speak causes mistrust and confusion.
    Planners should not be using it. Unless of course thats who they are communicating with 😉

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  9. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    Given we say we offer clients “Inspirational Intelligence” – it does sort of make my comments about being based in reality sound abit of a hypocrital doesn’t it!
    Thank God the Anger = Energy [or as a wanker planner would right, A=E2] is our planning principal or I may as well pack in my job, move to Oxford, put on a cardigan, smoke a pipe and wax lyrical how Inspector Gadget represents the inner need in humanity to fulfill multiple roles.
    See … planning wank talk at it’s best.

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  10. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    Talking of bullshit language – have you seen the anti-bullshit program for documents? It has a list of about 1000 wank phrases that ultimately mean nothing [ie: 2+2=5 / synergistic] and bans the from the doco.
    It’s genius – we all have them on our computers and it’s a free download.
    Anyone found to have written something with over 10 bullshit corporate phrases wins the cynic “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE” cup – which is basically a solid silver mug of which the word ‘pretentious’ doesn’t do justice.

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  11. Rob Mortimer Avatar
    Rob Mortimer

    Haha!
    Excellent!

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  12. carol Avatar
    carol

    Jon Steele has the most delightful writing style:
    p.146:
    Now I don’t even know if bees have testicles, but that’s hardly the point. I was using them as a metaphor, which the creative team, incidently, felt explained what the camera did very simply and graphically (yes I had broken the rules by already discussing it with them).
    I also really like Sam Horn’s new book, ‘Pop’. Here’s an example, p. 103:
    What startles people, stops them in their mental tracks, and gets a rise out of them is to dispute what they believe is right.
    None of that is wanky, just fun to read and inspiring. Good writing should be crystal clear, resonate and have a good beat. That’s why Winston Churchill keeps getting mentioned. He worked weeks on his ad hoc comments.
    Don’t know where I’m going with this thought…

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  13. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    Carol – what you’re suggesting is a great tool to start debate … opposite views [for the sake of starting an argument] is actually a technique taught to Union Negotiators … the secret is to know when to use it because it can be as harmful [to your role/cred/goal] as it can be useful.
    As for bees with balls … we’ve just won the DISCOVERY Channel, so I’ll ask them tomorrow and get back to you. Maybe you can pass it on to Mr Steele

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  14. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    Will – tried to post on your wonderful blog and it wouldn’t let me.
    Maybe your system has an anti-argumentative filter [if so, don’t ever let it reach a mass audience or I’m screwed] but if not, maybe there’s something wrong with it and worth a quick check?
    Of course it could be me – it tends to be

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  15. Rob Mortimer Avatar
    Rob Mortimer

    Speaking of HK. When I was there, Discovery Channel had a great MTR ad which was still pictures that appear to animate as they move past the tube window.

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  16. Northern Planner Avatar
    Northern Planner

    I want the ‘Who do you think you are cup’.
    By the way I wish more people understood that disputing what people know is the thing they pay attention to, maybe then we’ll avoid ads and stuff that echo obvious insights from badly done groups.

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  17. Will Avatar
    Will

    Rob (Mr Cynic),
    You aren’t the only one to complain about the comments.
    Buggered if I know why, but try not logging into blogger – it seemed to like Richard Huntington doing that.
    Glad you like the blog – hope you like the podcast.
    Btw, every discipline has its fair share of wanky language. My favourite is postmodernist stuff. Sheesh – they love making things up..

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  18. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    That cup cost us a bloody fortune … it weighs a ton … makes you look a complete tosser and is so hot when you have a coffee, you need to wear gloves.
    Perfect punishment and yes I have had to use it a few times – which is why I went and set up our Asia office, to get as far away from it as possible, ha.
    Will – I shall try the ‘logging in’ thing.

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