“Researchers have figured out how to stop people from habitually overeating and biting their nails. They can explain why some of us automatically go for a jog every morning and are more productive at work, while others oversleep and procrastinate. There is a calculus, it turns out, for mastering our subconscious urges. For companies like Target, the exhaustive rendering of our conscious and unconscious patterns into data sets and algorithms has revolutionized what they know about us and, therefore, how precisely they can sell.” – How Companies Learn Your Secrets | The New York Times

Habits are important… yada, yada, yada.  How many times before have you heard people talking about changing your habits and all? A million times – and that’s just in January. But when it comes to numbers, how much control does your habits have over you?

Target and other retailers send massive amounts of money on statisticians to help change your shopping habits.  The New York Times article focuses on changing the shopping habits of pregnant women.  Using different statistical methods to alter its customers’ shopping habits, Target grew it’s revenue from $44 billion in 2002 to $67 billion in 2010.

It’s no doubt that habits are powerful but I think we underestimate them.  From what we buy to who we vote for, habits shape our subconscious, which ultimately makes us do things without ever thinking about it because they’re routine.  Do you really think about driving your car down the Interstate?  Or do you set the cruise control, crank up the music, and just drive? Formed over years of doing the same thing over and over, driving becomes automatic.  You get lost in a conversation with a passenger and pay no attention to the buildings your passing.  It’s not a bad thing – it’s just a habit.

Cultivating the right habits is the key.

The best part of that article -

“Habits aren’t destiny — they can be ignored, changed or replaced. But it’s also true that once the loop is established and a habit emerges, your brain stops fully participating in decision-making. So unless you deliberately fight a habit — unless you find new cues and rewards — the old pattern will unfold automatically.”

You are your habits.  If you do something habitually that you don’t like, you have to fight to change it.  Losing weight, eating healthier, writing that book, or whatever, those goals all center around the habits you have right now.  You just need the right habits in place to finish them.

Click on the image for a larger view.

How is this even a real sentence?  And the real monstrosity here – both the writer and the editor missed this. If you’re going to write, at least do it well no matter how horrible the overall story is.

Ads.  Those horrible things that seek out our attention in the most obnoxious manner possible.  While I wish that ads were better tied into the media their interrupting, Audi at least does something different with this one.  Telling the story through a modern take on Herman Melville’s classic, Audi keeps me interested for the full length of the ad.  I’m not going to go out and buy one but it’s a step above other ads out there.

Photo via Flickr Artist Katri Niemi

“For the press covering politics, NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik has this reminder: Most people are visitors to the land of political obsession, not full-time residents.” – via NPR’s The News Tips

The video shows perfectly how detailed just the physical elections can get in primaries.  Now make those numbers larger and you can beging to imagine how insane it gets with the presidential general election.

“During this election cycle in particular, the media audience is exposed to a lot of information. Folkenflik says with that comes faster and more intense reporting, so journalists can more easily lose sight of which developments are most important.”

My guess is that the average person can’t even begin to make an informed decision on who to vote for in these elections.  Add in the media’s 24 hour obsession with these elections and the average voter only gets more confused about who to vote for.  With the CNN video again, I care about how those numbers from the different counties are tallied; however, my grandmother doesn’t.  She’s voted for the nominee from her party of choice for the last 20 years.

There’s got to be a better way than this.

My dear friends,

You have not been forgotten.  It’s true, I’ve taken basically a hiatus from my posts here to launch the creative community at Save the Artist. It’s an amazing group of artists from all walks – photographers, designers, chefs, stylists, painters, writers, and more.  If you haven’t seen it yet, make sure to check it out.

The good news – my wife Heather started this week with Save the Artist and her photography business full time.  So it’s an exciting time in the Clemons household.  There’s also a few more big projects in the works that are equally as awesome.

With the blog, that means I’ll have more time to post here.  Well, not really have more time but more like have resolved to organize my time better to allow me to.  You’ll get a mix of thoughts just like you have in the past as well as any noteworthy articles, links, etc. that I find during the day.  I work with some incredible ladies and gents at my day job  and the links that people share during the day are well worth the reads.  They range from treats like the Granny DJ to new thinking about businesses and design.  I think our group here is the perfect place to share both post-length, original articles and the other things that pop up in my world each day.

Some people focus on certain things with their blogs – art, technology, media, politics, or whatever.  I find that I can’t really do that.  Marco Arment calls this The Blogger Trap and I agree.  So you’ll get to experience the things I love – creativity, Apple products, Xbox, The Walkind Dead, and I’ll even throw in some photos of my cute niece every now and then. I do my own thing and just tell my simple, creative story.

So that’s it.  With 2011 in the books and 2012 full of promise, it’s a good time to show love to this blog again.  I hope that’s cool with you.

And if you still haven’t, head over to Save the Artist. This is my wife’s full time gig now so show her some love!

-Chase

But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. ~ Ira Glass

 

It feels like I’m living this gap right now.  That’s what being part of a creative community is so important. They help me push through this. To fight through it. And to help me realize, I’m not the only one going through it.

-> There is this Gap via Save the Artist