cool?

               

                        

Martin, a friend and occasional commenter has a question he'd like you all to think about if you don't mind. So I thought I'd make it another Account Planning School of the Web quick quiz. Here's the question:

What does it mean for something, or someone, to be "cool"?  Can someone come up with a
concise definiton, that others can agree on?

Tricky. A great challenge, one that many people have failed at. Post your definitions. One sentence or less. In the comments here by midnight GMT on Monday. Then we'll have another vote to decide the winner. The victorious definition gets another signed copy of Blink. (Again, signed by Malcolm Gladwell, not by me, I bought a couple).

Comments

[[email protected]]

if you have to ask, you will never know what's cool.

[Boff]

Someone much more clever than me defined it as: "Not participating in traditionally enjoyable experiences and creating the illusion that happiness can be found in alternative less enjoyable experiences. The degree to which other people around you try to emulate your alternative lifestyle and fail determines how cool you are. You're only as cool as people wish they were."

[kanky]

i don't know what is cool anymore after reading these comments....is that cool? not caring?

[Ben]

I like gemma's answer.

[russell]

Is that coz Gemma's cool?

[RajaB]

Someone or something "Up-to-date, attractive, acceptable & different"

[Ben]

I'll let you decide that, chief

[Ken]

Cool is the nexus of good and bad.

[Pete Gagliardi]

The term used to describe the pleasing emotional response to innovative expression that one can or wants to identify with.

[Helen]

Cool = a natural confidence that is inexplicably alluring

[Emily]

This is actually a very good question -I've had it buzzing around my head all day now and can't help but come back to talk more about it.

Is cool about not caring? I think that's the most obvious layer (the rebel who actively rejects what everybody else does).

But then there's the next layer which is about doing things for yourself, regardless of what others think (eg geek chic)

And finally, there's the level where you are still doing it for yourself but you also respond and play with the culture around you at the same time (applying your own take to the changing fashions).

This last level feels like it's related to the athlete's 'zone' or Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of flow.

Not self-conscious yet in control.

[Servant of Chaos]

Cool just IS.

[Marco]

Someone or something that evokes a different sight to everyday life

[Carolyn Hadlock]

the moment you define cool, it no longer is

[Will]

Carolyn H's wins for me.

[Camiel]

[picture of Fonzie]

Cool: an attractive nonchalance

[david]

Cool is, and means, different things to different people. What you, Russell or I perceive as being cool probably aren’t the same, and it’s that which makes it so hard to define. A bit pretentious/vague/wanky (delete as appropriate), but the best I can think of is...

“to have cultural kudos.”

[lsa]

Cool is fearless originality.

[fernanda]

cool is someone who has many characteristics other people want to have or envy.

[kedar]

anything that's not cheesy
or
stuff that you've slogged your ass off on

[giddy]

cool breaks conventions, subverts the mainstream and the mundane, celebrates the inappropriate or overlooked while appearing to be completely oblivious to what people think of its actions.

Not to be confused with tricksy, fleeting novelty or smugness.

[Jared]

I like Gemma's response, from the very top.

[giddy]

but does cool really evaporate once more than the inhabitants of Hoxton know about it? What about Bob Marley, Miles Davis, Andy Warhol, James Dean, Annie Leibowitz?

[Lisa]

Cool is something that heats up until it evaporates.

[RICHARD]

Cool is Milk....