This about Sums it up
- Thread starter djlance
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silentthunder
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- Feb 6, 2009
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Funny stuff. lol
djlance
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- Apr 8, 2011
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"Absence Blindness is a cognitive bias that prevents us from identifying what we can't observe. Our perceptual faculties evolved to detect objects that are present in the Environment. It's far more difficult for people to notice or identify what's missing.
Experience makes it easier to avoid Absence Blindness. Experience is valuable primarily because the expert has a larger mental database of related Patterns, and thus a higher chance of noticing an absence. By noticing violations of expected Patterns, experienced people are more likely to get an "odd feeling" that things "aren't quite right," which is often enough warning to find an issue before it becomes serious.
In Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions, researcher Gary Klein tells the story of a team of firefighters putting out a fire on the first floor of a house. When water was sprayed at the base of the fire, the fire didn't respond as expected—it didn't diminish at all.The chief noticed and ordered everyone out—something just didn't feel right. A few minutes later, the house collapsed—the fire had started in the basement, destroying the foundation. If the team had stayed inside, they would have died. That's the power and benefit of experience."
-The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business[h=1][/h]
Experience makes it easier to avoid Absence Blindness. Experience is valuable primarily because the expert has a larger mental database of related Patterns, and thus a higher chance of noticing an absence. By noticing violations of expected Patterns, experienced people are more likely to get an "odd feeling" that things "aren't quite right," which is often enough warning to find an issue before it becomes serious.
In Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions, researcher Gary Klein tells the story of a team of firefighters putting out a fire on the first floor of a house. When water was sprayed at the base of the fire, the fire didn't respond as expected—it didn't diminish at all.The chief noticed and ordered everyone out—something just didn't feel right. A few minutes later, the house collapsed—the fire had started in the basement, destroying the foundation. If the team had stayed inside, they would have died. That's the power and benefit of experience."
-The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business[h=1][/h]
ShadeDream
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- Nov 27, 2008
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What's the difference between these two books:
1 - The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business
2 - The Personal MBA: A World-class Business Education in a Single Volume
Are they pretty much both the same?
1 - The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business
2 - The Personal MBA: A World-class Business Education in a Single Volume
Are they pretty much both the same?
djlance
Regular Member
- Apr 8, 2011
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djlance
Regular Member
- Apr 8, 2011
- 210
- 87
Here's another quote from the book, I just added the "SEO":
"Examples of Absence Blindness are everywhere. Here's a common example: great SEO management is boring—and often unrewarding.The hallmark of an effective SEO manager is anticipating likely issues and resolving them in advance, before they become an issue. Some of the best managers in the world look like they're not doing much, but everything gets done on time and under budget.
The problem is, no one sees all of the bad things that the great SEO manager prevents. Less skilled SEO managers are actually more likely to be rewarded, since everyone can see them "making things happen" and "moving heaven and earth" to resolve issues—issues they may have created themselves via poor management.
Make a note to remind yourself to handsomely reward the low-drama SEO manager who quietly and effectively gets things done. It may not seem like their job is particularly difficult, but you'll miss them when they're gone.
Absence Blindness makes prevention grossly under appreciated. In the case of the Product I was working on, people had a hard time believing that something they couldn't see working was actually effective. If you're trying to sell the absence or prevention of something, you're fighting an uphill battle, even if your Product is great. Always state benefits in positive, immediate, concrete, and specific terms by focusing on things the user can directly experience."
"Examples of Absence Blindness are everywhere. Here's a common example: great SEO management is boring—and often unrewarding.The hallmark of an effective SEO manager is anticipating likely issues and resolving them in advance, before they become an issue. Some of the best managers in the world look like they're not doing much, but everything gets done on time and under budget.
The problem is, no one sees all of the bad things that the great SEO manager prevents. Less skilled SEO managers are actually more likely to be rewarded, since everyone can see them "making things happen" and "moving heaven and earth" to resolve issues—issues they may have created themselves via poor management.
Make a note to remind yourself to handsomely reward the low-drama SEO manager who quietly and effectively gets things done. It may not seem like their job is particularly difficult, but you'll miss them when they're gone.
Absence Blindness makes prevention grossly under appreciated. In the case of the Product I was working on, people had a hard time believing that something they couldn't see working was actually effective. If you're trying to sell the absence or prevention of something, you're fighting an uphill battle, even if your Product is great. Always state benefits in positive, immediate, concrete, and specific terms by focusing on things the user can directly experience."
B. Friendly
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- Jun 10, 2012
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So I'm telling this young thing all about "How Things Are", supremely aware of my YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, as well as her 1) age and 2) her gender.
She says, politely, "Well, couldn't it be like this?" and then starts giving me a very detailed and reasoned theory for how things could be different. Different than I just told her.
Well. Mr. Experience isn't having any of that.
So, with as little patronizing as I could possibly manage, I patiently re-explained everything that I had said the first time, making certain to avoid mentioning those areas where her theory directly contradicted mine. I thought I was being polite. And sensitive too. As well as experienced.
And so, eventually she evaporated away, into her little home-office, probably to sit down for a nice game of "Bejeweled" or "Angry Birds" or some other girlie video game that doesn't involve cutting off someone's head and then jamming a longsword 2 ft. down into their windpipe (+7 damage, ka-CHING!). And then I got busy, doing it the right way, just like I explained.
She comes out about 5 minutes later, holding a crisply-printed piece of 8 1/2 x 11 computer paper, with a bunch of black stuff on it, and some pitchers. She shows me the paper. Funny thing is, it has the manufacturer's name on it. And from there, it talks about "How Things Are" from the point of view from the people that actually MADE it, and not from the experienced and worldly man that thought he knew all about it. And the more that I read, the more I realized that her opinion sounded pretty much exactly the same as the manufacturer, and the only odd guy out was me.
And it was pretty obvious that I was wrong.
I keep this story around in my back pocket for several reasons. They are:
1) A reminder of the danger in underestimating women, just because they are women.
2) Also the danger of of underestimating young people, just because they are young.
3) The danger in failing to appreciate the profound impact the internet has made on our society. Information that was only held inside the minds of delusional old men can now be easily found by children with access to the internet.
4) The embarrassment that follows when you've made all three of the previous mistakes, and then you have to maintain a good working relationship with that person (vs. slinking off into the dark and empty city streets, never to be seen or heard from again.)
It's a good motivator, that lesson. Teaches a healthy dose of humility, as well as facilitating the utterance of 3 of the most important words in the English language, which are "I don't know". Those are good words to practice. I have a LOT of experience with saying them.
She says, politely, "Well, couldn't it be like this?" and then starts giving me a very detailed and reasoned theory for how things could be different. Different than I just told her.
Well. Mr. Experience isn't having any of that.
So, with as little patronizing as I could possibly manage, I patiently re-explained everything that I had said the first time, making certain to avoid mentioning those areas where her theory directly contradicted mine. I thought I was being polite. And sensitive too. As well as experienced.
And so, eventually she evaporated away, into her little home-office, probably to sit down for a nice game of "Bejeweled" or "Angry Birds" or some other girlie video game that doesn't involve cutting off someone's head and then jamming a longsword 2 ft. down into their windpipe (+7 damage, ka-CHING!). And then I got busy, doing it the right way, just like I explained.
She comes out about 5 minutes later, holding a crisply-printed piece of 8 1/2 x 11 computer paper, with a bunch of black stuff on it, and some pitchers. She shows me the paper. Funny thing is, it has the manufacturer's name on it. And from there, it talks about "How Things Are" from the point of view from the people that actually MADE it, and not from the experienced and worldly man that thought he knew all about it. And the more that I read, the more I realized that her opinion sounded pretty much exactly the same as the manufacturer, and the only odd guy out was me.
And it was pretty obvious that I was wrong.
I keep this story around in my back pocket for several reasons. They are:
1) A reminder of the danger in underestimating women, just because they are women.
2) Also the danger of of underestimating young people, just because they are young.
3) The danger in failing to appreciate the profound impact the internet has made on our society. Information that was only held inside the minds of delusional old men can now be easily found by children with access to the internet.
4) The embarrassment that follows when you've made all three of the previous mistakes, and then you have to maintain a good working relationship with that person (vs. slinking off into the dark and empty city streets, never to be seen or heard from again.)
It's a good motivator, that lesson. Teaches a healthy dose of humility, as well as facilitating the utterance of 3 of the most important words in the English language, which are "I don't know". Those are good words to practice. I have a LOT of experience with saying them.
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B. Friendly
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- Jun 10, 2012
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Well if we restate "things the user can directly experience" into "things the user feels like they understand", then that's a real problem too, cause "specific" terms frequently send the messages "you are stupid" and "I'm smarter than you" and "You have no choice but to trust, believe and/or respect me."
Specific terms have a way of creating walls between people that have a mutual interest in working together. I LIKE specific terms. You can't learn a thing without them. How many people think PageRank is a position in the SERPs? Those are the people that fail to have a proper appreciation for the use of precise language.
Another thing is that a lot of people assume that because they spend a lot of time using Google, they understand how it works. And they aren't interested in being contradicted about that, either. So, I figure, we have to compromise. I use phrases like "web presence" and try to avoid saying words like "backlinks". Most people can't see the difference between a backlink and an email address. Both of them are blue letters that "do something" when you click them.
And that's all they are ever going to know.
djlance
Regular Member
- Apr 8, 2011
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The specific term I like to focus on is money, and the exponential growth they will experience when they utilize my services. If you know the value of a new client for the market sector you're targeting, and can illustrate a specific return on their investment in your services, you will get clients. I think it's more important to listen to the client and demonstrate that you have a clear understanding of their wants and needs, but in the end I try to focus on how much money we can make them, while alluding to specific instances where I achieved these results for other satisfied clients.