Whether you're giving a presentation or convincing your boss you've got a great idea, making your ideas stick in people's minds isn't strictly a measure of its brilliance. Developer and blogger Zachary Burt examines how to make sure people remember your ideas.
In his post, Burt examines a book called Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, which suggests that ideas that stick out in people's minds share some common characteristics they organise with a handy acronym: SUCCESs. The idea is that ideas that stick are Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and a Story. Using the Dunning-Kruger effect as an illustration of the acronym, Burt notes:
Simple: incompetent people are overconfident, and competent people are too humble in their self-appraisal.
Unexpected: common sense would dictate that experienced people realise their strengths, and the incompetent should be aware of their weaknesses.
Concrete: it's not just an abstract notion like "zeitgeist", but instead something very real that we can experience in our everyday lives.
Credible: it was discovered by two researchers.
Emotion: hearing about it heals our self-esteem. Maybe we're better than we give ourselves credit for! Indeed, not giving ourselves credit where credit is due is a cognitive error dismissed by Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.
But it's not a Story. Oh well. Alligators escaping into NYC sewers is a story, and that's one reason it became such a sticky urban legend. However, the D-K effect is on Wikipedia, and in the digital age (where, I would guess, most of the conversation about the D-K effect is being held) linking someone to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect is similar to telling them a story. It's definitely not the same thing, though, as storytelling is a human tradition that probably has some interesting properties entirely outside of my awareness.
Burt's post is a good read and worth considering next time you're putting together a presentation or epic email. Photo by kevindooley.
How To Make Sure People Will Remember Your Ideas [Zachary Burt via Hacker News]
Comments
Be the first to comment on this story!
Comment Voting
Up Votes
Down Votes
Only logged in users may vote for comments!
Please log in or register to gain access to this feature.
Get Permalink