Amanda Penn, Author at Shortform Books

Early Adopters Model: Your Most Important Customers

What is the early adopters model? How do innovators and early adopters affect the success of your marketing strategy? What is an early adopter example? The “early adopters” model is a system in sociology that explains how a contagious idea or product spreads among people who adopt it at different phases. In the model, an idea spreads from innovators and early adopters all the way to the laggards. We’ll cover how the early adopters model works, what an early adopters example looks like, and why innovators and early adopters should be important elements of your marketing strategy.

Gaussian Curve: Why It Fails to Explain the Real World

What is a Gaussian curve? In which situations can it accurately describe the world? Where does it fail, and what are its limits? The Gaussian curve is another name for the classic bell curve, or normal distribution curve. It’s named after German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, and it describes many phenomena accurately. We’ll look at where the Gaussian curve is accurate and where (and why) it fails.

Naive Empiricism: When Ignorance Makes You Smarter

What is naive empiricism? How does it work to counter confirmation bias? Naive empiricism is the scientific practice of approaching a problem without any assumptions or expectations, relying solely on empirical evidence. This term is occasionally used differently in other fields. We’ll cover how naive empiricism combats confirmation bias and other cognitive errors.

“Band-Aid” Solutions Are Actually the Most Effective Ones

Tipping Points are all about small ways to make significant change. So-called Band-Aid solutions — despite the term’s negative connotations — can actually be the most effective strategies by taking focused, targeted action with the least amount of time, effort, and cost. Using a heavy amount of effort to tackle all aspects of a problem is not always possible or the best use of energy. We’ll cover the analogy of the epidemic, look at a case study of band-aid solutions, and discuss why band-aid solutions are often the best solutions.

Spread Ideas to Create an Epidemic: 3 Surefire Strategies

How do you create a trend, or a social movement, or a product that people can’t get enough of? How do you spread ideas? What you are trying to ignite is a social epidemic, when an idea, message, or product spreads through the public masses like wildfire and creates a craze. Take a cue from medical epidemics: When a virus spreads, it starts with one person — Patient Zero — who gets sick and infects a handful of others. Then each infected person passes the germs to more people, and with exponential speed and reach the virus spreads until it

Unknown Unknowns: Things You Don’t Know You Don’t Know

What are “unknown unknowns.” Why do we have the tendency to avoid them? We’ll cover why unknown unknowns are so hard to see (we don’t know that we do don’t know them!) and how our tendency to “tunnel” gives us an inaccurate picture of the world.

How DeeDee Gordon Got Preps to Wear Skater Shoes

Who is DeeDee Gordon? How did she get preppy kids to wear skater shoes, resulting in the epidemic success of the shoe company Airwalk? DeeDee Gordon is a maven able to spot trends that are about to explode. She was responsible for making Airwalk’s skater shoes mainstream, which led to the company’s widespread success. We’ll cover how DeeDee Gordon turned Airwalk’s branding around and how ideas like Gordon’s become epidemics through the diffusion model.

What Is a Dynamic System? Why Reality is Unpredictable

What is a dynamic system? What is dynamical systems theory? Why do dynamic systems make it so hard to make accurate predictions? A dynamical system (dynamic system) is one in which an array of inputs affect each other. Whereas prediction in a system that contains, say, two inputs, is a simple affair—one need only account for the qualities and behavior of those two inputs—prediction in a system that contains, say, five hundred billion inputs is effectively impossible. We’ll cover the most famous dynamic system examples and explore why dynamical systems make it so hard to make accurate predictions.

Empirical Skepticism: 5 Ways to Fight Bad Logic

What is empirical skepticism philosophy? In what ways does it resist faulty reasoning and cognitive bias? Empirical skepticism philosophy is a skeptical approach steeped in fact and observation. It was practiced by philosophers such as Sextus Empiricus and David Hume. We’ll cover the history of empirical skepticism philosophy and how it resists five common cognitive errors.

The Stickiness Factor: Make Your Ideas Catch On and Spread

What is the “Stickiness Factor”? Where does it come from? Why is it important in business, sales, and marketing? The Stickiness Factor is the idea that you can change the presentation of a message to make it more contagious and stickier (having a more lasting impact). This idea was popularized in Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point. We’ll cover examples of products and messages that have the stickiness factor and look at why the message needs to be sticky for businesses to succeed.