The Upward Path

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The control reaction driving the world

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There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t.
– Robert Benchley

There are a zillion ways to classify people, and one of the most important is by mental elasticity.

Most of us like to know what’s what. If the picture of the world in our head is a good map to what (and who) goes where, that makes us feel secure. Some of us can tolerate a fair bit of bending, twisting and horizon expanding. Some can’t stand much at all, and have a strong need for the world and their place in it to stay simple and consistent.

And some people, of course, want systems and structures and hierarchies to stay put so they can keep their position at the top of the heap.

So when people start talking to each other from anywhere to anywhere, and cross-fertilising ideas, and doing business by going round established institutions, that generates resistance. It comes from people who rather like the old ways of doing things: clear hierarchies (especially with themselves at the top), people divided into distinct communities, and uniform ways of thinking.

The changing world rubs against their worldview and produces reactions of fear and anger. And they respond by trying to create greater control.

The fact that the world is changing creates cultural forces to enforce structure and lock in vested interest.   [Read more…] about The control reaction driving the world

You can’t find the perfect title for a mystery project

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Every so often I see a post: “Can you guys help me choose the best blog name/post title/domain name/book title/book cover?”

People at computerBecause I’m a helpful sort of person, and my skills often enable me to unlock this sort of thing, I sometimes try to engage with these.

And often I end up frustrated because the person prevents me from giving the help they’re asking for.

For instance, they give a list of four titles and ask people to pick the one they like best. But the titles sound like they’re referring to four different pieces of work. So I ask, can you tell us a bit about what your project is so we know what we’re aiming for?

Most often, that doesn’t get answered.   [Read more…] about You can’t find the perfect title for a mystery project

The age of illumination

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This piece is an excerpt from my ebook ‘Crowd/Control’, now available on Amazon.

Crowd Control coverWe had the Industrial Age. We had the Information Age, which slid into the Communication Age of putting information to use. We saw ourselves from space as one planet for the first time, and then set about making it a technosocial reality.

If you had to classify the times we’re in now, or are moving into, what sort of Age would you call it?

I’m juggling a few different words for it. It could be the Age of Consciousness, or Psychology, or Illumination.

Use the brain, Luke

I’m not talking about consciousness and illumination in a woo-woo airy-fairy sense. It’s very practical.

We’ve learned to do amazing things, and more all the time. But what we’re increasingly bumping into is ourselves.

Our brains were wired up a long time ago, in ways that don’t always suit the modern world. For instance, if you’ve ever had a panic attack you’ll know that our threat detection and adrenal response systems are not always very smart.

Our social structures are based on principles that no longer hold (and some that never did).

We routinely mess each other up.

The world, and our fellow travellers on it, desperately need us to solve problems, to redesign the way we do things, to free human potential and build for happiness. Yet our sludgy conditioning makes us pretend these things don’t exist, or to scramble for illusory advantage, or to trot out maxims that will keep things safe and stable and low-energy.

I think the tide is turning on all that. I think more and more people have had enough of it. They look at where it leads and say it’s not good enough.

This is the age when we look inside ourselves and reorder our ways of thinking and being – or get brought down by the world they have manifested.  [Read more…] about The age of illumination

Crowd/Control – book launched

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Crowd Control coverMy new book Crowd/Control is now out on Amazon!

Although I like delving into practical communication advice, it’s in the service of social change, and I spend a chunk of time thinking about that.

Why is the world like it is? Where are we going? Why haven’t we fixed these problems yet?

This book is about that. It’s about looking at changes in the world in the recent past and near future, with a particular interest in the psychology that’s driving them.

The first part is about Cultural forces. I argue that the internet’s gift of communication beyond borders has accelerated a lot of things. Among those are two powerful mindsets or movements.

Some people have seen the opportunities to join together in common causes and interests, and combine skills and resources to make things happen. I’ve called this the crowd movement.

Some people find the loss of familiar structure (and of privileged positions) threatening, and respond by trying to enforce more structure. I’ve called this the control mindset.

This isn’t any kind of universal theory, but it’s a lens I find useful for looking at events in the world. The two aren’t setting out to oppose each other, but they are pulling in different directions and influencing ideas.

The second part of the book is about Surfing the fluid world. It’s a collection of short articles on a range of important topics, like technology, work, business, health, media, climate and social gaps.

A lot of talk about the future is rather techno-utopian. I wanted to broaden out and talk about the resource implications and social trends that are at least as important in our unpredictably evolving world. Crowd and control are woven through these. I’ve made some predictions, but a lot of the point is to give perspectives and raise interesting questions.

So I hope that has made you interested in checking it out. It’s an easy read and not too long, with plentiful dollops of humour and wordplay.

But there’s an important thread too. I believe we’re in a time of choosing between an upward path, employing the best of our values and gifts, and a downward path where our lower selves drown us in the problems we’ve created. The cultural forces of compulsive control are trying to close off the possibilities we need to follow, and the windows for action may not last forever.

So the book also has a call to action. It asks you to hold up to the light the things those in positions of power want you to believe, and to speak out from your true values for the kind of world you really want to see.

 

Crowd/Control: two mindsets shaping our future by Tim Gray is at Amazon stores for the UK, US and elsewhere.

It will be coming to other ebook stores in the near future.

 

London Book Fair 2013

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Show floor at London Book FairOn Monday and Tuesday I was at this show at Earl’s Court, London. It’s a great big event where the publishing industry converges to show off titles, make deals and discuss the future. I went last year for the first time and enjoyed it, so I was back again, though not for the whole three days. Here’s what I thought of the stands and the seminars I went to.

Stands

Last time I walked every aisle to soak it up, but this year I didn’t need to see all the stands by remaindered book sellers and big publishing companies. The bit of most interest to me was the digital publishing zone. It seemed smaller this time, with less stuff of interest to a smaller operator. I wonder whether that illustrates a cycle. In 2011, I gathered, the traditional publishing industry was freaking out about ebooks; in 2012 there was much talk of integrating them into their operations. Maybe now it’s just seen as part of business as usual?

[Read more…] about London Book Fair 2013

On the pricing of ebooks

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I just had this experience. Someone recommended a book. Sounded interesting, might get, wondering about print or ebook format. Grabbed the Kindle sample to test it out, liked what I read. Kindle book price is £11.15. Process stops for further internal debate.

By the way, the book in question is Winning the Story Wars by Jonah Sachs. It looks good and relevant enough to my interests that I will end up getting it, and if I do I’ll post a review. That price is about the same as I can get the hardback for if I look at Amazon’s marketplace sellers. Regardless of comparisons, it’s too high as an absolute number.

You must price ebooks lower than the print version, by a margin that’s notable in the mind of the customer. Yes, they offer some benefits that print books don’t, but most consumers won’t be thinking about those.

  • Customers know they’re not getting a physical thing, and they know that the physical thing has production costs. So in their heads there’s a sort of natural justice that says the ebook costs you less so it should cost them less too.
  • You own a print book, and can lend, give or re-sell it. A lot of people also think it’s  a preferable reading experience, though that’s eroding. Folks are gradually waking up to the fact that you only rent ebooks. You can’t share them freely, and if Amazon or whoever wants to take them away from you it can. (This is going to be an interesting field to watch in the next couple of years.) With print you’re paying for an object; with ebooks you’re paying for an experience.
  • Marketing of ebooks is all about speed and convenience. It’s about being able to find something that interests you, check out a bit more about it, click, payment happens behind the scenes, content appears instantly in your hand. Maybe there are people who are wealthy enough that the £10.00 barrier doesn’t trigger extra caution, but I think for most people it will. Don’t put barriers in the way of people saying yes.

Finally, of course this is all context-related. I personally sell PDF books priced at $10+ in the roleplaying game market. So maybe I’m just talking about where the expectations are set at Amazon and similar stores, and you need to think about the psychology of each sales channel’s users.