tell the future something

Matt was kind enough to send me a top thing: Paul Kedrosky's One-Sentence Challenge. (original post here)

"Physicist Richard Feynman once said that if all knowledge about physics was about to expire the one sentence he would tell the future is that "Everything is made of atoms". What one sentence would you tell the future about your own area, whether it's entrepreneurship, hedge funds, venture capital, or something else?

Examples: An economist might say that "People respond to incentives". I had an engineering professor years ago who said all of that field could be reduced to "F=MA and you can't push on a rope".

What a great idea. And it solves a problem for me - let's make that the Account Planning School of the Web assignment for December. (I'm still crunching through the Maple Syrup entries hope to get them up soon. Sorry.)

Let's pretend that the future might be interested in whatever it is we do and try and tell it a sentence that might be of use to future planners/brand people/communications people/whatever. Get your entries in by January 8th. You can add your sentence as a comment below or email me. I'm looking forward to this.

Comments

[Ben]

That's a great assignment.

(That wasn't an entry, just a comment.)

[John Dodds]

Legitimising the illegitimate.

[david]

"A good British accent isn't necessary, but it helps."

[Dan Ng]

"A brand is a shared idea that is both a noun and a verb."

I think it gets across the point that a brand is an idea that both marketers and people share in making (because it's made inside their heads).

And I wanted to tell the future that it's easy to get caught up in the abstract noun part of it (e.g., "Apple is creative technology") and forget that at least half the brand is in the verb of using/buying it (e.g., "I love my iPod because it's easy-to-use.")

Hopefully that doesn't sell our discipline short.

[Flo]

Everything is art, not everything is good art.

[nico]

"People subconsciously use brands to express and extend their personality."

[eric S]

if you want to keep 100% control of your brand, keep it to yourself.

[daniel joseph]

People are emotional

[Elias Betinakis]

Know before you do. Or the other way around.

[Rob @ Cynic]

Emotions Motivate The Most Powerful Rection Within Humanity.

[or 'Humans Are Helpless To The Power Of Emotions']

... so communication needs to understand what emotion/s will motivate the right consumer action for clients business needs.

[Ashish Banerjee]

"Brands are about people"

[Chris]

I've got 2:

1) If you're on the edge of things, make sure it's the cutting edge.

2) Make sure you've got something to say.

[Ben Mason]

Tell the truth well and be nice to people.

Speed (of Planning on Subversion) gave me 'Tell the truth well', of which I am constantly reminded. I added the second part on impulse as I wrote this.

[Picklin paul]

Create interesting conversations.

[gordon euchler]

account planning tries to be the conceptual art of advertising

[Chris Koutsoukos]

“Sooner or later the Sun always comes out”

[Fenton Benton]

selling something to someone.

[Clay Parker Jones]

If Physicists say, "Everything is made of atoms" and Economists say, "People respond to incentives" ...

Wouldn't we want to say something like, "People will communicate with each other"?

[Johanna]

Immerse yourself in everything.

[Richard buchanan]

learn to learn

[james]

I think the problem is that economics and physics are of a different category to planning.

Both of them are useful reductions (if limited in scope - try explain love with physics or what thoughts are like with economics): the truth about planning is that just like people it cannot be reduced. It is interdisciplinary and its greatest insights often come unheralded and (counterintuitively) unplanned. It is human, and it just is.

If I have to give a response, it will have to dodge the question a bit I'm afraid. Perhaps: "you will never be able to predict exactly what people will do when they see something new, but if you spend time watching them your predictions will get better".

[Adrian Lai]

There's more to life than advertising.

[james]

No shit.

But if you are going to be good at advertising then you better consider as much of life as possible.

[Lauren]

A brand is a living, breathing thing.

[Clay Parker Jones]

James, if the idea is to reduce it to one sentence, then you're going to get something that is limited. I think that's the nature of the game. And I don't think we can consider planning to be more complex and irreducible than economics, physics, or anything else.

By the way, I like your sentence. It's fantastic advice.