The Fracking of Attention

Martin Weigel, Head of Planning at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, has written a keenly observed essay on the role we play everyday in, well, fracking people's attentions: 

So attention is personal – what we attend to defines our reality.

Attention is finite – it is a scarce and thus valuable resource – not just to those who wish to monetise it, but to those to whom it belongs.

And attention is hackable – the world is overpopulated with those skilled in the art of capturing and redirecting attention for their own purposes.

Surely then, we have a responsibility – dare one say, an ethical duty – to the audience.

And to the attention we see to hack.

Michael Bierut On Learning Graphic Design

Michael Beirut seems to be everywhere promoting his new book How To and answered 20 Odd Questions for The Wall Street Journal, including his advice for learning graphic design: 

To learn about graphic design: go to a flea market in Paris, Marrakesh, Tokyo or anywhere. Almost every matchbook, record cover or junky paperback book you’ll see is likely to have more interesting graphic design than what you will find in a museum.

Casey Gerald: Don’t Wait for Permission

After graduating from Yale, Casey Gerald and his friends wondered what would happen if, instead of “marching off in pinstripe suits to slave away in a cubicle,” they set out to the heart of America to put their MBAs to work helping entrepreneurs. The result is MBAs Across America, whose message is simple but vital: There’s a new way of changing the world, and each of us has a part to play. In this 99u talk, Gerald shares his story and gives us the three aspects of this “New Playbook of Change.”

Does Watching Good TV Make You a Better Person?

Melissa Dahl in The Science of Us, reports on a study that complements a previous one that asserted that reading novels also made you more empathetic: 

If you ever feel vaguely guilty about the vast amounts of television you watch, might I suggest you cling to the findings of this study, published last week in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. In it, the authors claim that watching high-quality television dramas — things like Mad Men or The West Wing — can increase your emotional intelligence. That is, watching good TV makes you more empathetic.

Heidi Grant Halvorson: Why No One Understands You (and What To Do About It)

Ever get the feeling you and a client or colleague are just talking past one another? Miscommunication and misunderstandings are one of the biggest culprits of career acrimony. That’s why, in this 99u talk, researcher and author Heidi Grant Halvorson shares how we can get out of our own minds and make sure our message is heard. Using research from her latest book, Halvorson demonstrates the importance of overcoming the assumption of false consensus, and how subtle cues like eye contact and nodding can make all the difference.