The need to reframe social good issues is something the MPI team has written about before. When an issue becomes polarized, and the media comes to believe a ‘balanced’ story must include two opposing extremes as if both were equally valid, then it’s time to create a new frame (a mental shortcut or narrative) about [...]
Last week I was honored to attend the Ronald McDonald House Charities International Conference in Chicago. The night before sessions started, I was channel surfing in my hotel room, finding nothing satisfactory on TV, until I ran across a PBS Series, American Masters, highlighting Carol Burnett. Memory Lane I know — I’m showing [...]
Philosophers have long loved grappling with paradoxes — paradox-grappling is like no other exercise for the intellect. Perhaps the most famous paradox of all — Zeno’s Paradox — actually has a lesson in it, even for those of us who don't usually grapple with such things. Zeno's Paradox Here is how Zeno’s paradox goes: the [...]
This cyclical marketing debate frustrates me: Is marketing a science, or an art, or some trendy mix of both? The cycles can suddenly make clients feel pressured to produce data-driven rationales in the midst of a successful multi-year campaign, or conversely, suddenly want to ignore the numbers entirely and focus only on the ‘artistic expression’ [...]
Noodling is what I call it. Everyone has his or her own way to describe where good ideas come from, but for me, noodling just sounds like how it feels. The Temptation That first flicker of an idea asks to be shared and explored, gently — wherever it originates. You may not recognize it yet [...]
I was talking with a friend recently about the impact of technology on our brains. This is an old and dear friend from my childhood, a writer and expat who lives in Italy, and someone I don't get the chance to talk with as much as I'd like to. She said: "I'm so tired of [...]
What do you do when the page is blank? As I look outside my window and see the mountains of surrounding, deep, clean, crisp, clear white snow banks — I think about how many things I love that are white. New clean white sheets on a freshly made bed, fluffy white mashed potatoes, white jeans, [...]
