NORTHERN PLANNER

Why don’t more people use science as a place to look for ideas and inspiration? Perhaps the problem with most science writing is the lumpy, impersonal way it’s written, few seem to able to bring it to life. J.Bronowski’s book on the rise of civilazation is an exception though.

A big theme is the idea of science as uncertainty rather than explanation. The big leaps forward come from asking brilliant questions, from looking at things in a slightly different way.  Whenever we’ve been deluded into thinking we have all the answers, we’ve stagnated; We’re at out best when we’re uncertain. I like this point of view, I like the way it encourages me to look for people who will look at things differently to me.

So next time everybody agrees with me, I’ll get worried, since I’ll probably have missed something.

Did you know that many hamsters blink one eye at a time?

A big part of being useful to other people is having loads of information, so I like collecting stuff; facts, pictures, film and anything else that might come in handy. So here’s some more useless facts for a rainy day.

As this article shows, everybody has something to learn. Stephen Hawking claims that despite being very close to discovering how the universe works, he’s still light years away from understanding  women.

After the news at 6 on Radio 4 this week, I chanced upon this fantastic programme. In ‘Heresy’ David Baddiel chairs a programme intent on challenging conventional wisdom, on the premise that many deeply held opinions are wrong.

Apart from being funny, witty and interesting, it’s a useful framework for thinking. I’m not suggesting being controversial for the sake of it, rather finding a way to challenge the accepted agenda, or creating a new one.

David Hasslehof’s ‘Night Rocker’.

Apparently it helped bring down the Berlin wall.

"Leaving things up to the consumers’ imagination is something you never want to do.Customers are dangerous, and if you let them decide how they want to be satisfied, you’re going to have a terrible time living up to their dreams. It’s better if you can control the promise and delivery"

Sergio Zyman, Head of Marketing, Coca Cola

" Let go of the fallacy that your brand belongs to you. It belongs to the market"

Alex Wipperfurth

"Why choose? Work together, give everybody input""

Northern Planner

Pitching next week against some big network agencies. I don’t suppose I’ve any right to be amongst such company. Perhaps I should work on being slick, cool, charming and urbane? Nah, I’ll just be myself.

This is by taylorkoa22 on flickr. A joy.

I learned today that 80% of head lice are now immune to common treatments. In a classic case of Darwinism, just like the failing effectiveness of antibiotics, repeated use of the same methods has allowed them to evolve a resistance.

Useful analogy for why you should avoid attempting to bludgeon consumers instead of earning their attention.

By the way, you can still solve the lice problem with the painstaking effort of combing them out.

Here’s a fantastic collection of photographs created using X-ray. Beautiful and not a little bit haunting.