Friday, July 31, 2009

Everything will be better in the new building

All right, my friends (and I think we both know who you are): the air in this joint's been getting stale, and all the people who selected this Blogger layout in 2005 are now much more famous than I am. Therefore, The Medium Run is closed until further notice; for the forseeable future, I'll be blogging about entrepreneurial local journalism under my own domain (but with -- never fear! -- equal sporadicity) at OldForestNewTrees.com, which will offer all the same services, including its very own RSS feed, which will ding every time I post, and its very own email subscription.

I hope you'll join me there, where our new broadcast is already in progress...

Continue reading...

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Two kinds of products that rely on people's flaws

Here's a distinction worth understanding:

a) Products that rely on the idea that people will simply be too dumb to figure out an alternative. These products rely only on informational barriers: once you know the better way to do things, it's no trouble to do things the better way.

Like a car mechanic who preys on ignorance in order to sell more air filters, these products breed resentment.

and

b) Products that rely on the idea that people don't have the time or effort to pursue an alternative. These products rely on procedural barriers: even if you spent the time to figure out an alternative, you'd need to alter your behavior to take advantage of it.

Like a car mechanic who pokes around in earnest for possible mechanical problems you haven't yet noticed, these products breed loyalty.

Continue reading...

 

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