Hey, I'm back from holiday full of fresh energy!
I take pride in making my out-of-office something more then just the usual blabla. So this time I listed the books I intended to read during my summer break:
> I’m on holiday right now and will be back on August 1st.
>
> I plan to use this relaxing holiday to catch up on some relevant
> literature which has been dusting away in my library. If you’re still
> looking for inspiration for your holiday:
>
> - The Attention Economy
> - Blink, The power of thinking without thinking
> - The world is flat, A brief history of the twenty-first century
> - The wisdom of crowds
As usual I' didn't read all of it of course. But I did get quite some positive (and funny) reactions.
Here's what I learned from the reading:
1. The Attention Economy
An 'old' book, but 'attention' has had my attention for some time so I thought it was high time to read this book. In some parts the examples (e.g. about the Internet) are outdated, but the basics remain solid and fascinating. In fact, looking at it a few years after the first publish date ... the writers even underestimated the impact of the 'attention deficit'. It's influencing our daily lives and jobs even more then what they suggested.
2. Blink
Another must-read. Malcolm Gladwell uses the same style and technique as in the famous "The Tipping Point" to explain that we often make (good) decisions in a split second. These are based on the experience we gather over time and that is stored somewhere in our brain.
The implications for marketing & adverting according to me? In short, two things:
> Succesfull businesses communicate with people, they don't try to pump an offering in their minds. If it's not genuine, it'll be rejected in the end.
> Marketing/communications is a long term business. Brands are not invented, they are carefully build on sound (genuine) fundamentals and it takes time.
3. The Wisdom of Crowds
Still working on it :-)
4. The World is flat
I need another week of holiday ...
Two more books have been added to the living room table in the mean time:
- The Cluetrain Manifesto
Another one of those oldies (2000) I wanted to read to be sure I'm not missing anything.
- The Long Tail
As already announced, it's finally there. I hope to learn a lot more and who knows, write my own little annex to it ...
Happy readings!
