Iain just posted about his imminent move from Poke to W+K in his familiar, contagious style: honest, straightforward and insightful. It goes without saying that his move is a significant one for him, as well as for Poke, for W+K – and if you’re immersed in the marketing world – for the industry as a whole.

And it’s also significant for me. I imagine it is for everyone here, but we’re probably not all going to gush about it on our blogs. I’ve learned a lot from Iain – and from Poke – and blogging about it feels timely. I’m willing to take the inevitable stick at work ;)

As a final homage to Mr Tait, I’m going to share what I’ve learned in list-form too. It’s a testament to both Iain and to Poke that some of these learnings are hard to attach exclusively to one or the other. Right, what I’ve learned from Iain (and Poke):

1. keep calm

In the two years I’ve worked with Iain I’ve never once seen him lose his temper or even look vaguely annoyed with anyone. This is something I’m trying (unsuccessfully) to emulate. Poke’s culture is very special. People like each other and respect each other and this culture comes from the top. The result is that people here want to work hard for their employers without being told to. You can’t say a bad word about Iain, because he’s never said a bad word about anyone. And despite his seniority, remains one of the most patient people I’ve met.

2. embrace your inner adolescent

Iain has a frightening intellect. But he is also has the sense of humour of a 14 year-old. A genius 14 year-old, of course, which is even more frightening. He’s able to bypass the robust logic that his brain is very capable of constructing and blurt out ideas so twisted your ears want to retreat inside your skull. It’s this cocktail of sharpness and oddness that enable Iain to sit so comfortably across strategic and creative fields. He’s like Viz meets the Economist. Again, these same qualities seep from other corners of Poke – not least from Nik Roope – and all of which have inspired me to dust off my own neglected childhood neurons.

3. get your hands dirty

Poke is full of multi-talented, smart, hands-on people. Designers can code, Coders are photographers, strategists can animate and creatives do electronics. And Iain’s no exception. The fact that he gets his hands dirty with code, or copy writing or anything else, sets a tone for everyone. If he’s willing – and able – to do it, we should be too.

4. have freaky powers

Mr Crackunit’s finest management skill is his ability to make people realise things for themselves. When something’s wrong, he won’t always tell the person why. Instead he’ll ask a question. And the answer to the question (offered by the person in the wrong) will reveal the idea’s weakness. Anyone in management will know how much more positively staff react with a method like this compared to being shot down.

5. think biblical

You may be getting the message that Iain’s a clever sod. He’s also good at thinking BIG, like seeing the internet as a ‘thing’ people might want to race balloons across. Ideas like Ballonacy affect the culture of idea generation at an agency and make us regularly ask ourselves: How could this be bigger or more significant? How much does it cost to build an Ark, anyway?

So that’s my five. I’m sure there are more, but I don’t want to make the man squirm any more than I have already. I wish him well in his new role and I look forward to seeing his impact on their work. Of course, no one will fill Iain’s shoes here at Poke. But that’s not really how things work is it. New people are arriving, with new ideas and different personalities. And things will change and evolve as they always do. It’s all very exciting for everyone.

My wife and I have recently been working our way through The Sopranos box sets. Last week when a character ‘talked back’ to his mob boss, my normally charming wife turns to me and says: “He’s got to get clipped for that.” I nodded in agreement as I sipped my tea.

When you obsessively watch a show like The Sopranos, each viewing is like holidaying in their world. This particular world, of course, is the underworld. The characters – mostly in the mob – live by very different rules to my wife and I, but when we – as willing escapists – watch, we ‘buy into’ their culture to the point that we start thinking like them. [Only in the context of what's on-screen of course. I've never thought about 'whacking' her for not passing the salt fast enough.]

It reminds me of the broken window theory in environmental psychology: That a broken window sets the tone for a neighbourhood and subsequently (normally) respectful people start behaving disrespectfully towards their surroundings. This isn’t about broken morals though – that just made for a provocative title. This is about how easily people will accept the culture and rules of a new environment – and play along.

This is related to game theory – and experiential marketing – because when you’re designing a new experience for people, you are creating the rules. Like a game, or like a TV show, this new universe will set the tone for how people interact with it. And people love excuses to behave in ways they might not act on usually.

I suppose this is related to pretending. But what I’m more interested in – in this post – is people’s willingness to buy into the culture of a new environment and the possibilities that opens up.

When your job is (mostly) to create the rigorous thinking that underlies creative decisions, it’s easy to become less fluent at oddness. You were fluent when you were a kid, but now you cling to the comforts of heavily-laden graphs, market-comparisons and emotional ‘territories’.

That’s ok. It’s your job. But I recommend you also take time to think about squirrel fishing. Or rather to not think about it too much at all. In fact, I challenge you to work this squirrel-fishing video into your next powerpoint deck. Use it as a metphor for acquisition, or a product tease. It’ll do everyone some good.

My favourite shot is the dog at 0:49.

It’s funny how compelling slow motion is – especially when it creates the illusion of defying physics.

Thanks Gav

I’m afraid they’re not here, I just wrote a post about them. In fact they’re far more likely to be over at chat roulette. Chat roulette isn’t a town. Girls can’t just travel from it to other places. I’m just saying.

OK if you ask nicely, I’ll show you my tits.

I like to think of this stuff as micro-gratification. People don’t initially interact with entire things. They hear names, catch sound bytes, click buttons and read sentences. Each one of these actions has to reward the user in some way. That reward can be making them smile, making them think, or simply making them want more. It’s only after a few of these micro-rewards have occurred that people start having a relationship with the thing as a whole.

In the physical world, we’re used to more diffused gratification. We’re accustomed to trudging through our day, or week, only later to gather some sense of meaning from it. But digital interaction has taught us to expect a ‘treat’ for every small interaction. So next time you have a ‘big idea’, make sure it has lots of little rewards too.

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Update – watch from 1 minute in:

Hilarious and scary. Thanks Charles.

The guy making this micro-documentary, Casey, shares how things went for both him and his attractive female friend – and divides other users into girls, boys and perverts. Worth watching, if nothing else to compound your expectations.

Chat roulette is a great metaphor for the ruthlessly exciting culture of online engagement. Possibilities to connect are infinite and effortless but also at the constant mercy of people’s self-interest.

It’s also a good example of the importance of a good name. ‘Roulette’ tells a rich story about this experience before you even ‘play’.

This is incredible. A ‘printer’ has been developed that can create tissue for human transplant.

“The ability to make organs as they are needed would not only relieve suffering but also save lives. And that possibility may be closer with the arrival of the first commercial 3D bio-printer for manufacturing human tissue and organs.”

and that’s just for starters…

“To start with, only simple tissues, such as skin, muscle and short stretches of blood vessels, will be made, says Keith Murphy, Organovo’s chief executive, and these will be for research purposes. Mr Murphy says, however, that the company expects that within five years, once clinical trials are complete, the printers will produce blood vessels for use as grafts in bypass surgery. With more research it should be possible to produce bigger, more complex body parts. Because the machines have the ability to make branched tubes, the technology could, for example, be used to create the networks of blood vessels needed to sustain larger printed organs, like kidneys, livers and hearts.”

Crikey…

“Some researchers think machines like this may one day be capable of printing tissues and organs directly into the body. Indeed, Dr Atala is working on one that would scan the contours of the part of a body where a skin graft was needed and then print skin onto it.”

OK I need a drink.

Read it all here.