The remarkable wish

"Nothing is so common-place as the wish to be remarkable."

Who said it?

If you follow blogs and message boards related to the new CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, you'll see folks who claim Gideon quoted Shakespeare, and there are those who think it was Hotchner.

Checking a handful of websites, I find that the same quote is attributed to Shakespeare and Oliver Wendell Holmes. (I wonder if Holmes' appropriation is considered fair use?)

Regardless of which TV character referenced the quote by Shakespeare or Holmes, I'm not sure I agree with either of them.

If the wish to be remarkable is common-place, how do we describe the overwhelming shortage of anything remarkable? Mediocrity is common-place. We raise the mundane and average to undeserved heights of honor and cheapen those people, places and things that truly are remarkable.

If everything is a BIG DEAL,
Nothing is a BIG DEAL.

Googling books in the "TiVo Culture"

The debate continues and gets increasingly intense between Google and those who write, publish and sell books.

The search engine folks want to make digital copies of entire books so they can offer "fair use" portions on their web site.

The authors and publishers contend that copying entire books would violate copyright laws, and could lead to future misuse beyond the stated objective of "fair use."

My advice to the publishers: start swimming, or you'll sink like a stone.

Legal questions aside, this is something the consumer will eventually demand and the best course of action for those on the publishing side is to figure out a way to make it happen to their advatage.

Legislation may slow down the advent of digitized libraries, but new laws will never stop the shift in consumer attitudes and desires for the ability to "TiVo" every aspect of their life.

Consumers will want this, and they will have it. Look at the music business for a great example of mistaken trust in the legistative process.

More evidence of the TiVo Culture

Brand managers and marketers have always placed a feather in their cap whenever they find evidence of a consumer changing their lifestyle to fit a product. This has been the ultimate goal; create such a bond with the user that they are willing to change the way they live to use our product or service.

But that wind is changing.

Latest evidence is the story out of my area about the university student who is creating online repositories of retail sale announcements long before the sale ads hit the street.

Read more from the NYT

Score one more point for the TiVo Culture - consumers have one more layer of control over sellers and Dylan's words continue to resonate clearly:

You'd better start swimming, or you'll sink like a stone.

It really IS the 17th

For those who use a Mac and iCal, today is a weird day.

As you know, the iCal icon in the Dock defaults to "17" when the application is closed.

I looked down this morning, saw the "17" and wondered why I had closed the application.

Lesson - Through consistent, subtle repetition, I have been trained to see the number "17" differently.

Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication

That's from Leonardo da Vinci and it's always intrigued me. Simple isn't stupid and complex isn't - necessarily - brilliant.

I've found a delightful podcast from the Australian Broadcasting Company that offers regular discussions on the need for simplicity in a variety of very complex situations.

Presented under the umbrella of Ockham's Razor, you may want to download these 15-minute segments and listen to them as you drive to work. My guess is that repeated exposure to the program may cause you to look for simpler solutions to issues you're dealing with.

Couldn't hurt.

Ockham's Razor Podcast

Words Matter

A story by NBC reporter Roger O'Neill provides a tidbit of hope for those who cringe at the sorry state to which our collective grammar has fallen. According to O'Neill, Fortune 500 companies are spending more than $3 billion a year re-training employees to properly use grammar. He quotes one Roger Peterson:

"How about this expression, 'for all intents and purposes.' What does that mean?" asks Peterson. "[Or] 'at this point in time.' What does that mean? How is it better than saying 'now?' 'That was an awfully nice dinner you just served me.' Well, was it a nice dinner or was it an awful dinner? Make up your mind. We simply, now, must salvage American English."

It's about time.

Words do matter, and not just to grammar snobs. They matter because it takes a bit of time to craft a well-turned sentence and in the extra span of a few minutes - or even seconds - you can actually THINK about what you're saying and present an idea worthy of the reader's attention.

If it's important enough to ask someone to read it - it's worth an extra minute of review.

My pet peave phrase is any with the word combination each and every, as in "A hearty thanks to each and every one of you." One of those words is wasted. If they thank each of us, they've thanked every one of us.

Favorite Drucker quote

"My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions."

Yours?