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vineri, 19 august 2016

Seth's Blog : Pattern matching as a shortcut to growth

Pattern matching as a shortcut to growth

You have two choices when you want to move forward (grow a business, sell an idea, get a 'yes'):

Have such an insight and deliver such innovation that people will choose to make a new decision, adopt a new habit or otherwise get smarter.
Provide an option that matches a decision they've already made. No new decisions, merely new information.

Ms. Investor, you already invested in companies A, B, and C. We match that pattern.

Movie executive, you made a lot of money on three comedies for the young adult audience. We match that pattern.

Hey kid, you love to buy new flavors of chocolate bars, here's a new flavor.

You're used to taking pharmaceuticals, and this placebo looks just like one.

Most of the time, we look for patterns that match our habits. When we find a pattern match, we can embrace it without re-evaluating our beliefs.

On the other hand, moving all your data to the cloud, or staying at an Airbnb, these are new decisions, new ways of being in the world. Trying to get a book publisher to fund your magazine or your web app might make sense to you, but without the benefit of a pattern to match, the publisher who has built a career around one pattern might get cold feet.

Human beings are pattern-matching machines. Changing our beliefs, though, is something we rarely do. It's far easier to sell someone on a new kind of fruit than it is to get them to eat crickets, regardless of the data you bring to the table.

It's tempting (and important) to improve the world by creating new beliefs. But it's far more reliable to match them.

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joi, 18 august 2016

Seth's Blog : Bureaucracy, success and the status quo

Bureaucracy, success and the status quo

Every organization or project that succeeds begins to erect a bureaucracy around that success, because keeping success from going away is a basic need.

When you show up offering change, understand that the status quo isn't the enemy of the bureaucracy, it is their entire reason for being.

At some point, successful organizations stay successful by fighting off their instinct to support the bureaucracy. But far more often, people associate the bureaucracy with the organization's success, as though they are one in the same, and work overtime to protect it from anything that feels threatening.

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miercuri, 17 august 2016

Important Social Blade Security Notice

Important Security Notice

We put the security and privacy of our users at the forefront of everything we do, which is why we're sad to inform you that our website was recently the victim of a security breach.

What happened

Due to a vulnerability in our 3rd party forum software, attackers were able to obtain a partial database dump that included user email addresses, IP addresses, and encrypted password information.

What we're doing

Upon learning about the incident, we immediately patched the security issue by making the conscious decision to remove our forum entirely.

In the interest of precaution, we're requiring each user to reset their password. You can do so using the link below.

Reset your password now →

If you used to same password anywhere else, we highly recommend you change your password on those sites as well.

Moving forward

We're committed to maintaining a safe and secure website, and we hope you'll continue to bestow your trust in us. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to open a support ticket.

Regards,

The Social Blade Team

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Seth's Blog : Function (and the dysfunctional organization)

Function (and the dysfunctional organization)

Here's how you end up with a bully in a position of authority at an organization:

Someone points out that the bully is a real problem. And the boss says, "I know he's a bully, but he's really productive and we can't afford to replace him."

And here's how you end up with a naysayer, or a toxic co-worker:

Someone points out that people are afraid to work with this person. And the boss says, "I know, but we really need her expertise."

And, person by person, trait by trait, we build a broken organization because we believe that function trumps cooperation, inspiration and care.

Until it doesn't, and then, all we've got left is a mess.

The negative people who do nothing functional are an easy decision. It's the little compromises around people who seem to add value that corrupt what we seek to create.

Build a team of people who work together, who care and who learn and you'll end up with the organization you deserve. Build the opposite and you also get what you deserve.

Function is never an excuse for a dysfunctional organization, because we get the organization we compromise for.

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vineri, 19 august 2016

Seth's Blog : Pattern matching as a shortcut to growth

Pattern matching as a shortcut to growth

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joi, 18 august 2016

Seth's Blog : Bureaucracy, success and the status quo

Bureaucracy, success and the status quo

More Recent Articles

miercuri, 17 august 2016

Important Social Blade Security Notice