britt dionne
writing, brand + awesomeness
ideas i'm into
inspiring stuff I wish I'd thought of, plus things I thought of all by my lonesome.
The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation By Peter Norvig
Oh, Powerpoint. That tool of mass boredom that typically inspires presenters to cram words onto slides like they're animals to Noah's ark, then read every single one of them while the audience slowly slips into a coma.
If Powerpoint makes you die a little inside, this one's for you.
Why Businesspeople Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide
By Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway &
John Warshawsky
I'll admit it: I raved so continuously about this book when I read it the second time that when I refused—as my boyfriend suggested—to contact the authors, he went ahead and did it for me. Yeah. Like he was my very own Make A Wish Foundation. "Dear Chelsea: We don't know each other but my girlfriend is a little cuckoo about your book. Despite her insanity, will you please meet with her so she stops talking about how awesome the three of you are?" I'm sure it went something like that.
I did meet Chelsea and she is indeed a most excellent person. This book should be required reading for everyone in every company. It's insightful, hilarious and has probably influenced me more than any other book I've read in the last ten years.
Branding explained (for normal people): part 1 By Britt Dionne
Or: how to explain branding at cocktail parties, and other feats of seeming impossibility.
Branding explained (for normal people): part 1 By Britt Dionne
Or: how to explain branding at cocktail parties, and other feats of seeming impossibility.
Branding explained (for normal people): the revenge of part 1
By Britt Dionne
In part two we'll meet two very different brands--Virgin America and Southwest--and ponder which one would be the mean girl in real life.
Branding explained (for normal people): the revenge of part 1
By Britt Dionne
In part two we'll meet two very different brands--Virgin America and Southwest--and ponder which one would be the mean girl in real life.
Branding explained (for normal people): the dramatic conclusion
By Britt Dionne
In which I make the case that branding is psychotherapy for big organizations.
The Upgoer Five comic By xkcd.com
This clever comic is a schematic of the Saturn V rocket. But the only words it uses to label and describe each part comes from a list of the 1,500 most common English words. Doesn't sound so hard, right? I should point out that the word "rocket" didn't manage to make the 1,500-word list. Which is why the Saturn V is described as "The Upgoer Five."
Want to try your hand at writing something using the 1,500-word list? Type your text into The Upgoer Five text editor and it'll tell you which, if any, words don't make the list.
I sleep a little better at night knowing that neither "leverage" nor "optimize" make the list.
The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is, By Roberto Trotta
Roberto Trotta, a theoretical cosmologist in the Astrophysics Group of Imperial College London, decided that it wasn't enough that he had, you know, that really long prestigious title. So he decided to add "author" to his list of credits. A talk he gave on using normal, non-scientific language to describe complex scientific ideas unintentionally spawned the idea behind his book (also inspired by The Upgoer Five).
In 68 pages of words and illustrations, he tells a story that addresses the universe (The All-There-Is), dark energy (Dark Push), supersymmetric particles (Mirror Drops) and more—using only 707 words and 19 names of people.
He is a big advocate of scientists using accessible language to explain complex ideas to non-scientists. And, for this reason, I kind of have a crush on him.