Anything for loaf

Wondering how this will end, a pay-what-you-want bakery store brought to you by Panera.

The national bakery and restaurant chain launched a new nonprofit store here this week that has the same menu as its other 1,400 locations. But the prices are a little different — there aren’t any. Customers are told to donate what they want for a meal, whether it’s the full suggested price, a penny or $100.

At least it makes for an interesting social experiment: will people on average underpay or overpay. And how free (or hungry, or financially strapped) will people feel to pay just  a penny for a loaf (“keep the change”) – especially when others are watching. Or people buying more than they usually would. And have you never wanted to walk into a store, slam a dollar on the counter: “I’ll buy everything you have”.  The question is whether it is a commercially viable model, or that it only works as a non-profit model with the proceeds going to charity. My money (2 cents and a nickel) is on the latter, with which it is hard enough already to run it cost neutral. Bon appetit.

I hope you dance

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After Derek Sivers gave this great TED-presentation, there was a little buzz going around on the web (right in the spirit of his message). And though many said he was on to something (sort of like Purple Cow, Tipping Point) and should write a book and hit the lecture circuit, Derek said: I don’t want to. And added that anyone who wanted to was free to take the idea and make it his or her own.

This all inspired Andrew Dubber to the following:

30 ideas in 30 days – Starting Wednesday March 3rd, for 30 days, I’m going to put one idea per day up on this blog.

It could be any sort of idea: a business idea, an idea for a board game, a tv show, an observation about the world that could be turned into a book, an invention, a website idea – anything. I’ll explain the idea in its most basic form – my humble equivalent of a 3-minute TED talk…and then I’ll walk away. Anyone who wants the idea is welcome to it, and can run with it under exactly the same terms and conditions of Derek’s idea.

Then Andrew Wicklander couldn’t help but jump in:

I am committing to executing on – and shipping – one of Andrew Dubber’s ideas by Saturday, May 1st, 30 days after his last idea will be published on April 1st.

So to summarize: starting March 3rd Andrew Dubber starts posting ideas, of which Andrew Wicklander will pick one to execute and materialize by May 1st 2010, with the proceeds going to charity. What the idea will be is unknown at this point, and as this is an on-the-fly-brace-yourself-no-training-wheels-real-time kinda project Andrew Wicklander needs your help. He needs you to come up and dance with him. Join him here (I already did and so have about a dozen others, really inspiring). Yes, I see the question marks in your eyes. But remember, question marks can stand up straight and rise to become exclamation marks, so they’ll be heard (OK, enough with the rhetoric already). Join in, but do so before March 3rd. And as the song goes: And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.

Easy does it

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Psychologists have determined, for example, that shares in companies with easy-to-pronounce names do indeed significantly outperform those with hard-to-pronounce names. Other studies have shown that when presenting people with a factual statement, manipulations that make the statement easier to mentally process – even totally nonsubstantive changes like writing it in a cleaner font or making it rhyme or simply repeating it – can alter people’s judgment of the truth of the statement, along with their evaluation of the intelligence of the statement’s author and their confidence in their own judgments and abilities. Similar manipulations can get subjects to be more forgiving, more adventurous, and more open about their personal shortcomings.

No, this is neither an excerpt from “Politics for Dummies”, nor the cliff notes to prepare for a stockbrokers exam. It’s from a recent article (which is worth reading in full) on “cognitive fluency”.

Cognitive fluency is simply a measure of how easy it is to think about something, and it turns out that people prefer things that are easy to think about to those that are hard.

All very useful to know, but one thing bothers me: if this is how it works, why did the very people who research this stuff come up with the not so fluent term of “cognitive fluency”? Guys, you should know better.

Now I have to go and sell all my shares in Sanockie Zaklady Przemyslu Gumowego S.A.

Western Individualism is Peaking

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I’m calling it! We have seen the Peak of Western Individualism, Peak Me is here. There, I said it. Why? Well, here is the smoking gun, disguised as a contrarian indicator:

This week saw the launch of a public campaign in The Netherlands called “Pas op, Aardig” (“Watch Out: Nice”), aimed at reminding people to be nicer to each other. The whole thing is wrapped in a tongue-in-cheek format of guidelines for dealing with nice people. The tag line of the probably well-intentioned campaign, “Watch Out: Nice”, is a sort of sarcastic warning for people who pay you a compliment out of the blue, nicely nod you a “good day” or offer their assistance without being asked. Seventy-eight out of 100 people feel that we should be nicer towards each other. And to boot, another recent campaign on unwelcome behavior in the public domain was themed “Onbewust Asociaal”, which roughly translates into “Unconsciously Rude” (…don’t ask). Sounds like everyone is pretty much fed up with each other, huh.

This is when the alarm bells go off and the lights start flashing. When everything screams “polarization”, “disconnectedness“ and “people don’t care”, culminating in public campaigns on how to interact with and treat each other, my contrarian streak combined with anecdotal but real evidence has me pounding the table – we’ve seen the low-point and the tide is about to turn for the better.

With the mind of an investor, I go against the grain and totally buy into the human growth story, the progress of true connectedness and the return of the community. And to be honest, unlike in financial markets, I have nothing to loose, and neither do you. The only way is up. Play nice!

Yoga sets you free

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And not just in some metaphysical way – this is the real deal. Inmates in the Indian state of Madya Pradesh can now reduce their jail time by completing a yoga course. For every 3 month of practice they can cut their detention by 15 days. Better fitness, more peace, less anger and aggression and becoming a better person – it won’t just benefit those participating but probably also improve the atmosphere in the facility and the world beyond. And it offers prospects of becoming yoga instructors themselves once released. And yes, some may fall into their old illegal habits; but now you can easily spot repeat criminals by their excellent posture and calm demeanor – “and gently lift your arms up high.” Namasté, inmates.

Avatar Blues or the Art of Possibility

This tidbit of news caught my eye yesterday: the blockbuster movie Avatar seems to invoke depression and suicidal thoughts in quite some people who went to see it. They long to enjoy the beauty of this alien world featured in the movie, called Pandora.

When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed… gray. It was like my whole life, everything I’ve done and worked for lost its meaning.

I understand that a movie, music, a picture or a story (or any sensory stimuli for that matter) can trigger a deep emotional response. But why would the same movie (in this case) leave some in total despair and others in inspirational awe (comparable to yesterday’s post: what’s your association?).

Although I’m not necessarily saying it’s a matter of choice (to me it’s not that straightforward …which might be a choice in itself… aaarrgghh), it made me think of Benjamin Zander. He is an orchestra conductor, writer (The Art of Possibility) and inspiring speaker on leadership and transformation. In a talk at TED (watch it below) about the popularity of classical music he starts:

Probably a lot of you know the story of the two salesmen from England who went to Africa in the 1900s. They were sent down to find out if there was any opportunity for selling shoes. And they wrote telegrams back to Manchester. And one of them wrote:

“Situation hopeless – STOP – they don’t wear shoes”

And the other one wrote:

“Glorious opportunity, they don’t have any shoes yet”

So, do you see wonderful prospects or a prescription for Prozac?

Here is Ben’s inspiring presentation; it’s worth watching in full: a lot shorter than Avatar and guaranteed shrink-free.

New design for the ‘$100 laptop’

One Laptop Per Child Association (OLPC), the non-profit organization behind the $100 laptop has revealed the design for its latest laptop aimed at connecting children in the developing world: the XO-3.

It is a slim-line touchscreen tablet and it’s designed to be thin, sleek, and touch, while continuing to lower power, cost, and material waste. One Laptop per Child (OLPC) said it would be available in 2012 and it would cost well below $100.

XO-3

OLPC’s mission is to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

I would like to end with a nice quote of Mr Walter de Brouwer, CEO of OLPC Europe:

We are not a laptop company. Manufacturing a laptop is not such a big deal. The bigger appeal for us is deploying them and integrating them with education systems to transform a society.

Obama is “Barry from DC”

President Obama had a surprise for outgoing Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as he called into Kaine’s monthly radio show, “Ask the Governor” on WTOP. Obama first introduced himself as “Barry from DC” before revealing his identity and then he thanked Kaine for four years of public service.

Meet me in the lobby

My bad, I was barking up the wrong tree. I found the real Executive branch, patiently waiting in the lobby. Who said no one cares about our future?

click to enlarge

Where’s the change?

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (Denmark) has come to an end. But what about the earth? This conference was about changing the future, I thought. But no change at all. Only talking and no acting. Again.

All those Obamas of the world are messing around with my world. I miss the real skills of leadership, of taking action and responsibility. What will they tell their family at Christmas dinner about their trip to Copenhagen?

But we all have our responsibility in this. We choose our own leaders, we create our own world. How would we all look back on this in 40 years? We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. What will we tell them?