Nicholas Bate

Methinks He Doth Generalise Too Much, Too Often

I’m sure Seth Godin didn’t really mean  “the bottom left-hand corner is the scrap heap”. A good marketeer explores the area that everyone else has rejected, especially when they reject so totally. Pay for graffiti? Er, Bansky. Invent Twitter? Er Graffiti (a Greek word, of course) was the original twitter. It just needed a handier channel. Art worthless? Chat to your friend Hugh at Gaping Void.  Chat to the thousands who spend hours (and money) in the marvellous museums of NY, NY. And Seth Godin, do you not have a romantic molecule in your body? A time will come when people will pay significantly to people who can craft a love letter on heavy hand-made paper with the lost skill of gorgeous hand-writing in a real stamped envelope. I once lived in a little Wiltshire, UK village called Lover (rhymes with the UK coastal Dover); people would travels miles to get their letters stamped at the local post office. Try the power of a hand-written thank you note! The thing is we marketeers have got to be very careful to distinguish between usefully simplifying and becoming distractingly simplistic. Just a thought.

On Latin

(And for Latin read whatever subject/s are being removed from the curriculum in your part of the world). That Latin was relevant was not the point. Is Art? Music? Shakespeare? No, it’s not relevant but it is timeless and full of eternal truths. To get to grips with Latin you need:

• to manage complexity, particularly interdependencies;
• to be logical and yet subtle;
• to understand rules but realise there are exceptions;
• to be pragmatic and yet poetic;
• to manage incredible frustration with ambiguity;
• at times wonder what the point of it all is;
• to recognise it really is hard.

Sounds a bit like life? That’s why it’s so worthwhile. Studies should be hard then Life seems easy. It strikes me that we are increasingly trying to make ‘school’ easy. But who are we kidding? Life, business and relationships are hard-that’s why they are so worthwhile. Just a thought.

More Choice, Less Happy

Surely more choice makes us happier? More kinds of peanut butter at the supermarket? More ways of getting fit? More books to read? Not necessarily, as successive governments have found to their frustration....the more that's possible, the more we want; but given that we are time restrained, the more frustrated we can feel. Do less, achieve more. Experience less, feel happier.

Just a thought.

More Schooling, Less Education

The demand for more of us to be 'qualified' continues. The demand for higher and higher levels of 'qualifications' escalates. And yet have you noticed that too many of the people around you have less ability to string together a coherent sentence than ever, are unable to think critically and lack some of the fundamental cultural references? Despite staggering investment in every level of schooling we seem to be becoming less educated.

Just a thought.

Living Longer, Aging Earlier...

We're a lucky bunch in so many ways: cool accessible travel, the kindle and cheaper quality food, for example. And of course longevity: it just keeps rising and rising; we're living longer. But you know? I worry that sometimes we are ageing earlier. We're letting go of the physical activity at an earlier and earlier age that is so essential for us, we're letting go of reading and mental discussion as soon as we're out of school which is one of the finest attributes of the humans species and we're getting damn comfortable with our lack of mental and physical 'stretch'. We're ageing earlier.

Just a thought.