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When Atlas Wants to Shrug…

// November 22nd, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Philosophy

Freedom is a tricky word, it is very subjective, its a shape-shifter perpetually changing identity.

Sometimes its just a way of being, so romantic and courageous, sometimes its a revolt, a revolution, a declaration of independence, a country, a job. Sometimes its a house with a view, sometimes a word, sometimes a song. It can be a smile, a kiss, a stroll in the park, a juicy wonderful steak. Its sometimes a book, a movie, a name… But at the end its just a word.

We live in a world with lots of illusions, the biggest illusion is freedom! We have no difference from the world depicted in the Matrix:

Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you’re fighting for something? For more that your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can’t win. It’s pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?

I find myself asking the same questions again and again. Different circumstances, same questions, sometimes it makes me want to puke…

There are several wars you can attend to, but not all are clean and you can’t win them all. A saying says:

Never wrestle with a pig-you both get dirty but the pig likes it!

Another says:

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience!

Well its sometimes hard to run away from getting dirty and from being beaten down. Its also true though that every war bares a lesson, and every lesson has a price. The price makes you want to shrug and give up on the world you have built on your shoulders, and life seems so pointless and in vain.

So why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?

Because I choose to.

Sadok Kohen

for Sam

Why should teachers have great marketing skills

// September 21st, 2007 // 7 Comments » // Marketing

We are surrounded with wonders. Every day various technologies come to our help in the most amazing ways. And yet we often forget to value the hard work and the immense energy that was spent in making all this available to us. Our life is a fast-food drive in, we just want to eat in the fastest and easiest way without having to understand why are we hungry in the first place.

This is directly related to how education is perceived and executed and who are our first teachers.

When we are children we are very busy growing up. It’s no easy task, we have to live up to society standards and that’s why we are very selective in our choices. Which toys we like, which friends we like, which sports we like, which people we like, its all about new data processed at very high speed and most importantly “without prejudice”. A friend can become an enemy and then become a brother. A toy is inseparable one day, we hate it the other, you get the picture.

One day this kind of open minded social network is forced to stay put in a room with an old guy as the “guardian” for a HUGE amount of time…

You have a very well targeted audience with huge buying potential, LOCKED in a room with you for an almost unlimited and mostly UNINTERRUPTED time frame! (Seth Godin rejoice!)

Does that mean you can sell anything at any price, no questions asked ? Well that must be very well what we are thinking or we are really not that interested in selling, because if you look at how we try to teach our children during their most perceptive years its obvious we are doing a horrible job. But can we really afford to ?

Boring classes lead to attention deficit which lead to boredom associated with learning and boring class after class this information is written in stone. If learning is boring, so is working which directly relates to creativity and production loss of generation after generation. This is a direct economical, sociopolitical and humanitarian loss.

Whereas interesting classes, passionate teachers, awareness of what really is at stake would lead to convert those little minds in lifelong extremely loyal customers of knowledge! Creativity, productivity, health, awareness, everything would rise as a result of this with a huge direct impact on the worlds quality of life.

I remember for example being thought about how a battery works in terms of chemistry. Lots of formulas, lots of big words and history and names. It got a little interesting when a frog was involved but it was immediately replaced with big and boring charts. I think about it now, and how interesting it is actually to “know” with the real sense of the word how energy is created and preserved. What does energy mean. How it gives life to a toy. How it can be used in other areas of my life and the power that such knowledge yields. Its the concept of “energy” that needs to be sold first, and what a product it is to sell! But no, we don’t need that. All we want to do is use “energy” to put in a formula to derive some other constant in an “equation”. Splendid pitch right ?

Today’s marketers have amazing tools at their disposal. They track everything, from attention spans to eye balls. Crowd analysis, statistical charts. Behavioral analysis, direct marketing, personalized messages and many many more. All directly applicable to the subject.

I am sure if the best marketers in the world would have the chemistry book as a client, they would restructure every lesson into a great pitch. Use high tone voices full of passion while selling it and literally pour knowledge into your soul. They would recognize the combination of a great product, value the perfect audience and do everything to make the kill !

You probably think the kids don’t have the money to pay for such good marketers time. If you calculate the potential outcome of such an investment and the ROI you’ll see they are the richest and easiest client there is…

We have the tools, we have the means, we have the knowledge, we have the power and we have the time to do it. Why don’t we ?

Pick any topic out of a school book and turn it into a marketing pitch, complete of media planning, creative, script and all, share it with me if you like. You’ll realize that if you put the same passion you put into selling, lets say, hamburgers, you are holding in your hands the next Big Mac!

Sadok Kohen