Content Creation 101 Flashcards
(382 cards)
1
Q
What type of speech makes people tune out and decide they’re done with a video?
A
“Finished Speech” that indicates the content is complete.
“Okay guys so that’s our video…”
“If you want to see more…”
2
Q
What types of things should you end a chapter with?
A
A mystery, open ended statement, or sentence that indicates more information is coming. You don’t want the viewer to believe they’ve gotten all they’re going to get from a story.
3
Q
What are the most forgotten elements of most videos?
A
Forgetting to connect to the human side of the content, and forgetting to acknowledge what people already know or believe.
4
Q
Who is your target customer?
A
The person that’s going to get a specific benefit from a product you’re designing for them.
5
Q
Is SEO or the Content more important?
A
If the watch time is high, YouTube will recommend it more often. If the SEO is good, it will get recommended more often. If the Thumbnail sucks, none of that will matter.
6
Q
What should a hook do?
A
Give the audience a reason to watch the next 90 seconds. It needs to stand out, confirm they’re in the right place, and convey warmth, empathy, similarity, and competence.
7
Q
How should we suffer fools who aren’t into logic, empathy, complicated degrees of judgment, or even open to a dialogue?
A
Gladly.
They’re as present as rocks in the sidewalk, or a piece of furniture. You wouldn’t try to change the opinion of a chair or seek a sofa’s advice.
8
Q
What are the ingredients for a memorable impact?
A
Subversion of expectation among contemporary experiences, heightened emotion, quotability, simplicity, and social currency.
9
Q
“Expert” and “Average” are stage roles. How should a person with each proficiency appear to an audience?
A
In both cases, competent, and default to the audience’s expertise. It’s easier to win an audience over when you show them why they’re right, and gently surprise them if they’re wrong. “We thought that …” (their view)
10
Q
Experts can appear intimidating or as though they wouldn’t make a good friend. How to remedy this?
A
Misspell something, make a mistake, connect to the human side. In the end you want the audience to think that it would be cool to be a fly on the wall at a dinner you were both attending.
11
Q
What are the benefits of appearing to be a “giver” as opposed to a “taker” or “matcher”?
A
Audiences connect more easily to givers, engage with them more, and are more likely to listen to them.
12
Q
How should a “giver” appear?
A
Solicit advice, make hedges, appear vulnerable, hesitate sometimes,
13
Q
Why does someone click a thumbnail?
A
Stands out, central focus, contrasting colors on page, looks like they have exactly what I want, tells a story, face indicates an agreeable tone (also tells a story)
14
Q
Tell me you have more of this content without telling me, or asking me to do something.
A
“When developing this channel…”
“Deciding the channel’s direction…”
Only mention what fits in the current dialogue.
15
Q
Improv Notes: Body movement and posture changes can affect your mood.
A
Use this to influence the mood of your narration.
16
Q
All conversations and group settings are status play.
A
In general, higher status means less movement and talking.
17
Q
If seeking to change an opinion: nagging, begging, complaining are ineffective. If the subject triggers a defensive posture, they’re closed off. What works?
A
Remaining playful, considerate, and controlled. Asking questions, making jokes, and indulging their faults.
18
Q
Humans inherently dislike those of higher status. Their pleasure centers trigger when seeing misfortune befall someone they believe to be high status. How should we use this knowledge?
A
Appear the underdog, punch upwards, be agreeable, remain humble. Admit to a common fault.
19
Q
Status Play: Low status non-defense.
A
Good way to disarm a public attacker. Agree to outlandish levels.
20
Q
Status Play is a big component of memory.
A
Remember to have fun with it and that it’s another form of contrast.
21
Q
Peter Hitchens: Any point in debate in a society that’s been taught what to think instead of how?
A
Yes! Run them through the steps and teach them a reasonable how.
22
Q
Ideas people already hold, unspoken quirks, and undefined tendencies.
A
Public truisms that others haven’t said publicly. Feelings people have about general subjects. Crystallize what the public’s opinion is.
23
Q
Recipe for how to speak to an audience?
A
1oz of passion is worth 1lb of logic and data. There must be a story, and they must be able to imagine potential.
24
Q
Audience life cycle steps?
A
Become Aware, Evaluate, Signup, Deeper Inquiry/Purchase, Use Purchased Item, Engage with Customer, Discipleship
25
1000 audiences of 1 person.
YouTube mantra to keep in the back of your mind.
26
Almost everything has a rank, rating, placement, or competitive angle. People are forced to choose a side when presented with the option and this makes the result interesting to them.
People dont just care about the competition. They care about their performance in relation to others.
27
How to decide if this is a relationship to foster or not?
Mutual Benefit? Giver or Matcher? Reasonable time requirement? If yes, add to relationships. Most will be no.
28
Givers usually maintain humanitarian appearances of some kind.
Charities, causes, soapboxes, generosity.
29
Keep acutely aware of how quickly people get bored and disengage.
We instinctively look around more than every 10 seconds, constantly seeking input. But no one can watch only their favorite show or play their favorite game on repeat for very long.
30
When people feel grateful is the best time to ask for help.
Facilitate gratitude. Make obvious what was received. Make a smalll ask.
31
Reaching the appropriate leaders minimizes hubs of influence and taps into the leader’s represented groups and stereotypes.
Model your audience by tapping into the audiences of creators who would make good allies.
32
What people don’t want to hear? The voice of our villains?
Liars, peddlers, overlinkers, contempt, anger, guilt trips. Fake opinions, lifestyles, wastes of time, and things that don’t make life better. And the beating of a long-dead horse.
33
Epictetus - Wealth consists not of having great possessions but few wants.
Base life around how you want to spend your time.
34
Givers seek advice when lacking authority.
This allows the person answering to convey authority onto them. To be seen in dialogue with someone is to be at least partially equal. Ben Franklin effect is also in play.
35
Kaizen Principle
Small incremental improvements accumulate over time.
1mile = 100 calories x 365 days = 36500 / 3500 = 10lbs
36
People are individuals but simultaneously members of several groups.
Define someone’s groups and you have a good idea of how they’ll receive what you want to say.
37
Parables
Great stories that apply to all humans, about truisms. Good ways to present hypothetical situations.
38
A good public defense always makes you the victim, never the attacker.
Condemn the attacks and don’t lash out. Then move on.
39
People feel good about consuming works of art.
Make something that appears as though it took time to create.
40
Weathering effects add time to an object.
Age increases an object’s prestige.
41
Stories/Parables need a goal, emotion, unusual circumstances, human connection to the audience, and appeal to the senses enough to transport the audience into a place.
Mnemonic storytelling. Involuntary mind palace.
42
Appeal to logic and reason and you’ll reach 10%.
Appeal to emotion and give it a face, and you’ll reach everyone.
43
Defensive
Triggered by accusation, anger, questioning. An emotion to avoid at all costs.
44
Common Ground is a way to open a dialogue with anyone. Look for it first. Compliments are the second way, especially about a choice someone made.
Common ground and approval of choices.
45
Impact is about contrast and extremity of a change.
Tension is built by expectation and elongating the assumed timeframe where the tension will end.
46
Yes ladder content.
Yes, yes, yes. Fourth thing heard is assumed to be a yes.
47
Branding takes place across multiple pieces of content across multiple platforms.
Brand is what people generally remember about you.
48
That’s a great question. The good news is ….
Make the asker (who wanted to engage) feel appreciated.
49
The internet has raised more people to high status from low status than the inverse. This suggests we should...
Play lower status, or at least err on the side of lower status.
50
Assume all audiences are busy, entitled, and ready to make split-second ruthless decisions about where their attention is going. Therefore it becomes necessary to...
Gauge where the audience may potentially tune out, re-hook them at these points, and avoid any language that leaves the audience at a stopping point where they assume the content is done.
51
One of the most supernatural abilities observable in real life is the ability to accept everything and "yes and" it all.
This is a core of improv, and an everyday application would treat life in general as a performance.
52
Ted Principles: 18 minute talk that focuses on 3-5 points and ends with...
An idealized view of the world that we'd all like to see.
53
Everyone wants others to be lower status but...
No one wants to feel sympathy for them. They're expected to sing, not mope.
54
Most people would have given up but...
You learned.
55
A YouTuber interprets the subject to the public and the public to the subject. Disaster looms where each is left to form its own assumptions.
We're helping people understand how the subject relates to the world, and how the world relates to the subject.
56
Most great work happens in small moments and time periods of brilliance.
Avoid forcing it, trying to dredge your way through it, and cut out the boring stuff that makes you avoid it.
57
A YouTuber must excel at understanding and analyzing the obscure tendencies / reactions of their potential audience. This involves...
Analyzing the problem, analyzing the public mind, bringing the two into alignment to craft a message.
If you can crystallize the tendencies of the public mind before those tendencies have reached definite expression, that's golden.
58
Best way to get someone to admit they don't know everything about a topic?
"What makes you say that...?" Asking questions about where the knowledge came from forces them to remember they don't know as much as they think.
59
Doing is as important as learning.
Otherwise higher skill is never obtained, you never become an expert, and you never remember.
60
To market anything you need a GREAT solution.
Otherwise you have little to stand on other than marketing.
61
Friendship Formula used by the CIA?
Frequency + Length + Intensity + Proximity
FLIP
62
Litmus Test for a good Ted Talk
Catch Attention? Eye Contact? Built a new idea? Each step satisfies? Enough Examples? Voice Tone Interesting? Look Rehearsed? Enough Humor? Any Boring Parts?
63
Personal Information Reciprocity
The need for people to return personal sharing with their own personal share.
64
Key Tenant of Documentary Storytelling
The story is supported by facts, and the facts do not obstruct the story.
65
"I'm not sure if it's for you but..."
"Imagine if..."
Statements that force someone to consider a point of view.
66
Authentic Authority
Competence, Insider Knowledge, Insider Verbiage, A Director's understanding of events
67
Audience Divisions and Value Skews
Depending on the stances you take, you may end up dividing your audience (on topics worth dividing over). Abortion, Religion, etc.
On the opposite end, Value Skews expand your market without alienating others.
68
The evidence of heavy advertising signifies an increased probability that a product isn't good enough to....
...spread by word of mouth.
69
To present a new idea the most effective way to present it to an audience is to...
Help them build the idea with examples, analogies, and well thought simple metaphors.
70
"Follow my passion" is egocentric. A better reason to do what we do is...
"Do what contributes."
71
Page turner beat has how many peaks and valleys?
5 peaks 4 valleys
72
Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Christopher Nolan - A movie must be better to see the second or even the third time around.
There are secrets that get revealed in the third act that add new perspective to the rest of the script.
Bruce Willis was dead all along, Tyler Durden wasn't real, Memento, The Matrix
73
I'm no expert, but here are the experts. What their experiments and data say are X. Now these people have done hundreds of hours of research, but if you elect to base your take on 5m of Twitter surfing that's your business.
I'll default to what the research says.
74
How would you feel if?
Forces the idea into someone's head.
74
How would you feel if?
Forces the idea into someone's head.
75
Humor type that can lower your status and make you more human to an audience:
The self deprecating kind.
75
Humor type that can lower your status and make you more human to an audience:
The self deprecating kind.
76
Robert Greene, Ryan Holiday, Directors referencing past works and techniques.
Connect to classic works, celebrities, quotes, respected individuals in the public lexicon to color our imagery and perception of the topic.
76
Robert Greene, Ryan Holiday, Directors referencing past works and techniques.
Connect to classic works, celebrities, quotes, respected individuals in the public lexicon to color our imagery and perception of the topic.
77
Voltaire - It's difficult to free fools from chains that they revere.
Let fools be fools.
78
Voltaire - It's difficult to free fools from chains that they revere.
Let fools be fools.
79
Physically, we have to understand how our audience is watching our content, when, time of day, lighting, weather, etc.
The physical portion of content consumption.
80
Plato - Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.
For every piece of "woke" advice, there will be a quiet majority not voicing their opinion. Those people always appreciate representation.
80
Plato - Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.
For every piece of "woke" advice, there will be a quiet majority not voicing their opinion. Those people always appreciate representation.
81
"The way I see it is you have three options..."
Choice preference, acknowledging counter-positions, providing insight into choice making process. Yields a vetted result against other options.
82
One Sentence
One Paragraph
One Page
Amazon's method for vetting whether an idea is compelling. One sentence serves as the logline of a piece of content, one paragraph serves as the hook into Act I.
One Page may be excessive in short-form content creation. A one pager can give a good high level outline of what the audience will take away from the content though.
82
One Sentence
One Paragraph
One Page
Amazon's method for vetting whether an idea is compelling. One sentence serves as the logline of a piece of content, one paragraph serves as the hook into Act I.
One Page may be excessive in short-form content creation. A one pager can give a good high level outline of what the audience will take away from the content though.
83
Explain the importance of Process Based business versus Event Based business
Process based business is repeatable, builds a brand across multiple platforms and content pieces. In process based business, you know why things work.
Event based business is a one-off.
83
Explain the importance of Process Based business versus Event Based business
Process based business is repeatable, builds a brand across multiple platforms and content pieces. In process based business, you know why things work.
Event based business is a one-off.
84
Give and Take Methodology - Setting up recurring monthly meetings. (Regular interaction is a FLIP component of building a network.) Think Entourage.
By setting up regular recurring monthly meetings, you weed out takers from the givers and matchers. You also collect new information they may have obtained since your last meeting.
84
Give and Take Methodology - Setting up recurring monthly meetings. (Regular interaction is a FLIP component of building a network.) Think Entourage.
By setting up regular recurring monthly meetings, you weed out takers from the givers and matchers. You also collect new information they may have obtained since your last meeting.
85
Explain the best interaction methodology for maintaining and growing the right relationships.
Generous tit-for-tat. Cooperate with the person until competition is engaged (or taking is evident), forgive the error once, then cooperate until they prove to be a taker again. Then engage in matching behavior. Takers will naturally filter themselves out.
85
Explain the best interaction methodology for maintaining and growing the right relationships.
Generous tit-for-tat. Cooperate with the person until competition is engaged (or taking is evident), forgive the error once, then cooperate until they prove to be a taker again. Then engage in matching behavior. Takers will naturally filter themselves out.
86
Agreeable taker = Faker. Explain the significance.
It behooves everyone to appear agreeable as a first impression. But if you notice taking behavior among agreeable individuals, it indicates the possibility that this person is a Faker - the most dangerous relationship type. Default to generous tit-for-tat.
86
Agreeable taker = Faker. Explain the significance.
It behooves everyone to appear agreeable as a first impression. But if you notice taking behavior among agreeable individuals, it indicates the possibility that this person is a Faker - the most dangerous relationship type. Default to generous tit-for-tat.
87
Importance of not generating sensory overload.
Sensory overload can obliterate the idea of intentional content creation. Stick to:
1-2 fonts in 1-3 sizes (or thicknesses)
In 1-3 colors
Consider Color Correcting your B-Roll
87
Importance of not generating sensory overload.
Sensory overload can obliterate the idea of intentional content creation. Stick to:
1-2 fonts in 1-3 sizes (or thicknesses)
In 1-3 colors
Consider Color Correcting your B-Roll
88
Logic and Data only becomes important once an audience member is emotionally invested. The hook should always have an emotional component. Stories > Supported by Logic and Data.
This is why our intro should trigger empathy by demonstrating similarity (placing themselves in those shoes), empathizing (with their way of thinking), competence (with the lingo and common knowledge), and warmth.
88
Logic and Data only becomes important once an audience member is emotionally invested. The hook should always have an emotional component. Stories > Supported by Logic and Data.
This is why our intro should trigger empathy by demonstrating similarity (placing themselves in those shoes), empathizing (with their way of thinking), competence (with the lingo and common knowledge), and warmth.
89
Always live below your means with...
The intent of growing your means. Never put yourself into a desperate position.
89
Always live below your means with...
The intent of growing your means. Never put yourself into a desperate position.
90
Agreeable givers seek advice, opinions, and ask for help.
Many creators use their social media or comments sections for this type of interaction. Make sure it's authentic and not bullshit.
91
YouTube End Screens
Focus on the YouTube recommendation and let the algorithm do its thing, OR push to one of your related videos that has many views.
92
Algorithm and watch time: YouTube is very good at keeping people on the platform. There are times where we should just get out of the algorithm's way. It's unlikely our recommendations will be superior to what the algorithm ends up with.
There is potential here that if we make a poorer recommendation to the audience than the algorithm, that the watch time of their next watched video is lower. We want to avoid this.
92
Algorithm and watch time: YouTube is very good at keeping people on the platform. There are times where we should just get out of the algorithm's way. It's unlikely our recommendations will be superior to what the algorithm ends up with.
There is potential here that if we make a poorer recommendation to the audience than the algorithm, that the watch time of their next watched video is lower. We want to avoid this.
93
Audience interaction. More is not always better, it really depends on whether the audience member's loyalty can be increased with the interaction.
Respond to people who appear to be invested in the content, instead of drive-by shooters.
94
The average person's reaction when talking to someone new is to look to disprove their take. To overcome this aversion, we need to trigger empathy.
We also need to address the common beliefs, test the noteworthy minds and conclusions in the space.
95
Mean what you say and have passion.
This is the shortcut to creating empathy.
96
Information Gaps are beneficial to your content. Why?
They decrease editing time (Casey Neistat), they inspire curiosity by leaving out part of a sequence, they add mystery so that they watch until the end, and they make the audience puzzle-solve which increases their mental engagement with the content. Scruff McGruff... Chicago Illinois...
96
Information Gaps are beneficial to your content. Why?
They decrease editing time (Casey Neistat), they inspire curiosity by leaving out part of a sequence, they add mystery so that they watch until the end, and they make the audience puzzle-solve which increases their mental engagement with the content. Scruff McGruff... Chicago Illinois...
97
Draw Down Period
A period prior to creating something where we just don't touch it. Preferably 1-4 weeks. Set a start date for creation and stick to it.
97
Draw Down Period
A period prior to creating something where we just don't touch it. Preferably 1-4 weeks. Set a start date for creation and stick to it.
98
Authenticity and Trust is the king driver of branding now.
Don't get Caught: Reusing content on multiple platforms, hawking products you don't use yourself. Never sound rehearsed - strive HARD to sound like a normal conversationalist.
99
Uncanny Valley Principle
The uncanny valley is a term used to describe the relationship between the human-like appearance of a robotic object and the emotional response it evokes. In this phenomenon, people feel a sense of unease or even revulsion in response to humanoid robots that are highly realistic.
100
Thumbnail Advice:
1. Good separation from the background (contrast)
2. 2-3 elements sticking out (picture, graphic, text)
3. Central Focus
You can use textures, grit, grain, cuts, smashes to enhance the elements. It's a step other channels won't do.
Inverse Vignette? Vignette? Color Vignette?
101
Thumbnails: Oddly Satisfying video inspiration - the moment JUST BEFORE what you really want to see happen would be a good thumbnail.
People would click just to see this moment happen. Paint roller spreading out a rainbow.
102
YouTube - Subscribers don't really matter.
Let the algorithm do its work, matching videos to people most likely to spend the most time on them. Focus on your CTR, Watch Time, and Overall Views
103
Think of your scenes like a DVD. Each scene has a name, can stand alone as its own YT video, fits into the plot of the overall movie, and has a "because" relationship to the previous and next videos in the sequence.
Tarantino scenes, Nolan Scenes, Quotable Movie Scenes (You're Killing Me Smalls, Get to the Choppa, Gonna have to Science the Shit out of This)
104
What forces are always working against you as a new face to an audience member? How can they be overcome?
Overcome skepticism with examples.
Overcome mistrust or dislike with empathy.
Overcome boredom with change and curiosity.
Overcome confusion with simplicity and repetition.
105
What does a director really do?
A director takes a lengthy and complicated written work with a proven audience and adds music, sfx, video, and pacing to it. This allows the work's emotion and empathy-inducing qualities to blossom, and lowers the bar to consuming it. Naturally, this broadens the audience and expands the written work's reach. The movie will also overtake the written work's significance. Movies are really the final evolution of written and spoken stories.
106
How important are Thumbnails and Titles?
Sometimes the thumbnail and title ARE the content to the audience. They might even comment based on the title and thumbnail without even watching the video. They might click into the video with a NEED to see something the thumbnail foreshadows.
107
Target Audience and Value Propositions
Who are we helping, and what do those people need solved?
We need to have a good idea of the former so we know what kind of 1:1 conversation we're having.
We need to understand the latter so we know what would make them stay in the room.
108
Agreeable Giver behavior.
Givers felt more energized by batching their giving behaviors into periods of 5 hours. Long enough to feel like they expended effort on the giving. This lead to an overall happier life.
108
Agreeable Giver behavior.
Givers felt more energized by batching their giving behaviors into periods of 5 hours. Long enough to feel like they expended effort on the giving. This lead to an overall happier life. 100 hours annually, so like 1-2 weekends per month.
109
When recruiting for a cause, what must we emphasize.
Ultimate victory, success, personal growth for the person being recruited, monetary or entertainment benefit, contributing towards something larger than oneself. And that their effort will NOT be wasted. Potential for their contributions to be showcased.
110
Similarity Warmth Empathy
Aptitude Reliability (Authority)
SWEAR
Similarity Warmth and Empathy -
Transport them, say their thoughts, treat self/them kindly
Aptitude and Reliability -
Address leading beliefs, authoritative sources, lingo is part of us
111
Storyboarding and Your Process
You need to know your process backwards and forwards so you can play with it and break its expectations. Then you can play with your storyboard components without breaking the success framework.
112
Marketing and Selling
Algorithms are the Future, so letting algorithmic platforms do the matching for you seems like a sensible approach. If people want other content unrelated to your algorithmic platforms, you can supply it but don't draw attention to it. Just let the interested ones connect to your off-core content of their own accord. Let them go down the rabbit hole.
113
Plan your conclusion to mirror your introduction. Always leave them with an image of the world you'd like to see happen. Be the voice for the changes they want to see in the world / in the platform too.
Always leave them with an uplifting feeling. Also obey the storytelling structure of a symmetrical, psychologically satisfying ending.
114
Movies and Marketing
All movies required marketing, and advocacy by interview shows by their leading cast members. Trailer advertisements, YouTube coverage, and advertisement from the venues hosting the movies (trailers in theater, posters).
115
Intuition Pump - Explain its Significance
Humans are intuitive machines, correlating things placed next to one another even if no relationship exists. You can build around an idea, give pieces of it, and then nudge them in the right direction to fully form an idea. Inception. The way Nolan presents the concept of someone needing to come up with an idea themselves. (which happens all the time.
116
If class B celebrities (streamers, YouTubers) were played by A list celebrities (Movie Stars).
This will probably always be a good idea. "Casting Couch"
117
Thesis / Antithesis / Learning and Discovery / Synthesis
A satisfying ending typically ends with a type of synthesis between the two crystallized opposing ideas.
118
Competition and Comparable Channels / Creators
When you find creators who are doing things similar to what you're doing, you can benefit from their keywords, audience targeting, identified trends, and the strengths of their content.
"Why does this content work."
"What could be better?"
"What processes, keywords, or research of theirs can I use?"
119
Intelligent Givers - Agreeable perception and a great first impression.
Do well for yourself by doing good for others. This requires identifying givers and matchers, avoiding takers through generous tit for tat. Don't overextend yourself, and you have a maximum of 150 key contacts.
Good you do for individuals potentially can be seen by 1,000.
120
Thumbnails - 8 hours spent designing a thumbnail, and designing multiple thumbnails to A/B test it. The thumbnail is even more important than the actual content because it influences your CTR.
CTR is the most important metric to focus on. Watch time is the next.
121
Watch time - The Initial Hook
Spend 8 hours designing the initial hook that retains the audience's attention. This is the second most important metric. You need to prove to YouTube's algorithm that the video retains viewers better than the average video. This time informs how the conclusion will be designed as well.
122
Interesting and Experimental Concept
Uploading videos in ascending length, seeing whether we can retain viewers for higher percentages, and total watch times. Release a 1 minute short, 2 minute longer video, 3 minute video.
When the watch time of the most recent video declines compared to the prior video, we move onto the next topic.
123
How to express a critical opinion?
Attacking systems is okay, attacking individuals and identities is bullying. Challenging the credentials of a group, or anecdotal testing. We never want to mudsling or attack an individual.
124
Herbert Simon (Nobel Prize Winner) - Intelligent altruists though less altruistic than intelligent altruists, will be fitter than overly altruistic individuals and selfish individuals.
Smart givers pay attention to who they're generous with.
125
Edward Bernays - The group mind is like a body of water. IT does not think but it does have currents and may be guided.
To guide a river or a current, you have to get ahead of it. You must voice a conclusion they haven't themselves decided on yet.
126
Empathy. How to collect the information you need to effectively empathize with your target audience.
You need to define your target audience (one that exists), who they are, what their habits are, what their views are, model them and understand them inside and out. When you understand the person, you can get ahead of their assumptions and needs.
127
Giver Communication - Powerless Communication
"If you were in my shoes, had this problem, were in my position what would you do?" - Very Influential method.
128
Groundbreaking - It's not as effective as one would think even if they had the answer. Think automobiles.
The boundaries people hold in their minds must be addressed carefully. Telling someone they're wrong, or they've been foolish for a long time is a good way to make them defensive. Once someone's defensive, all communication ceases.
129
Robert Greene - Stories, examples, and quotes can be used to cover different audience demographics.
This coverage gives them a chance to inhabit the source of the anecdote, example, or quote and possibly trigger empathy. Masters of their craft or subject area are conduits to their communities (Bernays, Greene, Holiday).
130
Mysteries Clickbait
The Truth
The Secret
What they Don't Want You To Know
131
Status Permanence
The reason that people donate hospital beds, park benches, buildings. (Billions)
132
Clarity is important. Why?
Lets you design for a target audience, define what your goals should be, and what valid/worthless criticism sound like.
133
Simple Platitudes - Why are they important?
Politicians, celebrities, and authors - anyone who's position requires public approval got there on the back of simple platitudes. These are the simplest way to convey a good first impression to a broad audience. Simple platitudes and body language, facial expressions.
134
Hemingway - There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
Great quote. Keep in mind for video use.
135
Priming an audience to receive an idea is often a good plan. This is similar to inception.
You use logic, anecdotes, and popular assumptions to address things around the conclusion. You give them the pieces, then build the new idea from the components.
136
Information Gaps are important to make your audience feel good. Why?
You avoid overexplaining, let them feel smart by connecting dots themselves, give them solid pieces to work with and come up with potential ideas themselves. You're giving them the building blocks, and letting them work with these. You'd never come off as superior to your audience.
137
Intro Hook
Personal stake, imagination, empathy, competence, curiosity, agreeable giver, prepared, applicable to the audience
138
Generating Curiosity
Questions to ask
Puzzles to solve
Sequences that leave information out
Violates expectations of the audience (if you were seeing this for the first time, what would you assume were coming next?)
Set up a competition
"What happens when..."
139
Mirror Neurons - Explain their significance
Mirror neurons are responsible for triggering empathy. They're triggered when we see/hear people laughing, when we listen to stories and are transported by the content, when we see/hear people feeling emotion, and when we hear or read descriptions of sensory imagery.
140
Giver Communication - A lot of you probably already know this but...
Clumsy expert...
Imagine being a young scientist presenting a new idea (with research) to a room full of Aerospace Generals and Veteran Engineers. You must respect their expertise first, play to their ego, and joke about their perceptions of you (young, new, technical, etc.). Humble expertise.
141
Act I and the Introduction are for introducing questions. (James Jani 4 questions in first 2:30)
These questions can be implied
They can be mysteries
They can be explicit
One should be the logline
The last half of Act II and definitely Act III should wrap up the questions
142
Short Form Content Idea
Take the One Page, One Paragraph down to a 60 second script. "The shortest way of telling this story."
Ex. The Onstar commercial of a mother who crashed her car on the side of the road, and the fireman came to her aid because of the automated call, and confirms her son is okay. Very reassuring tone, and that's what you'll get from the service. Good story, told really quickly.
143
How to handle negative offhanded statements. (the ones that aren't useful)
Amplify to outlandish levels. Yes and the negativity.
144
CENTS Framework
Control - Do we own the asset?
Entry - Is the barrier to entry high?
Need - Do people need or want this?
Time - Is there opportunity to automate and outsource?
Scalability - Can you scale to $200,000 per month, or 1,000,000 users?
145
Genius Fuckups
Semmelweis - Handwashing (not accepted by medical)
Vindicated by Pasteur.
146
It's hard not to be entertained when someone is delivering content in the form of a...
Jolly little kid with childlike wonder.
147
To establish competence we must do what?
We have to acknowledge what the audience already knows, what they need to know, and use the appropriate lingo. This means researching the experts and most widely cited information.
148
Branding is basically the result of repeated pairings, and a level of easily understood simplicity. But the approach must be visibly deliberate.
Stanley Kubrick developed a director "style" as did Tarantino and Wes Anderson (Life Aquatic, Grand Budapest Hotel). The style could be:
-one typical type of scene
-one type of color pairing or lighting
-style of storytelling
-type of character profile
-camera angle
149
More Genius Fuckups
Van Gogh, Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville
Gregor Mendel, Isaac Newton, Galileo
Clair Patterson (Lead and gasoline)
Experimental Idea - Genius fuckups can be kind of a neat series of videos (maybe shorts?) It has empathy and surprise built right into it. As well as social currency.
150
If you want to build a character, you need to show them making choices. All drama is really about the actions that the characters choose to undertake.
You can also add tension to the choices by elongating the timeframe the audience expects the choice to be made in, and raise the stakes. Dramatic irony can be added, music can ascend, close calls can be added, and distractions / potential disaster can be introduced. Tarantino is a master of tension. So is Nolan in a different way.
151
When editing and reviewing, always anticipate when a viewer may tune out, try to disprove, or become defensive.
Work around these moments to re-engage. Tension isn't necessarily bad if you can subvert expectations. If you find a way to make them temporarily adversarial, but then subvert the combative expectations this can even be beneficial.
152
MODEL Citizenry
Mediocre - just want to survive
Obedient - no original thought or deviation from the rules
Dependent - On job or approval from others (can't be self)
Entertained - Spend more time consuming than creating
Lifeless - No goal, no dream to work towards
153
Intellectual Discussions are dangerous. People would rather talk about opinions and events. Abstract intellectual discourse...
Not everyone has the inclination, time, interest, capacity, or requisite level of expertise to engage in this type of discourse.
154
News and Politics are tools used by the wealthy to control public discourse. What they really do is draw attention towards and away from certain topics.
If you imagine the topics broken down by keyword and related keyword, you can try to predict where the eye's focus will land next (on something in the periphery).
So the key question is "what's on the periphery of the nation's current focus that'll be relevant in the next 20 days?"
155
You get to be a free thinker if you establish yourself as an authority. But most times you need to be...
a reasoned thinker. So that the audience can make the decisions with you, or at least understand the thought process. If the thought process is interesting.
156
Debate is almost entirely useless. Even with my dad or wife. If the other party can't 100% see things on their terms then they default to the opinion they had before the discourse started.
Ask questions, ask questions, ask questions, ask questions, ask questions. Play like a therapist.
157
If people are impressed with the way you make your content, you can...
Draw new eyes to the evergreen SEO friendly videos by covering some of the trending current events.
158
Bernays - People join groups and crowds because the crowd enables them to be that part of themselves without restraint, and according to their desire. Groups also provide belonging (Maslow's hierarchy), Love, Eliminate Loneliness, and reinforce belief.
The leaders of these groups have a lot of sway over their followers. Individuals will also sacrifice some of their individual beliefs to adopt those of the group, or risk ostracism. Gangs and cults are extreme but also basic or animalistic examples.
159
Morality and curiosity are two different lenses through which a question can be approached.
Both morality and curiosity bring different implications to their approach, and their interpretations.
160
High activation emotion (table) triggered by the relationship to the audience's circumstances and experiences, dramatized through anecdote by good storytelling.
Empathy and an emotional trigger.
161
What you say is far less than important than...
How you say things, and how you make people feel. Be cognizant of the feeling you're leaving someone with.
162
Master the art of asking questions to lead people to your conclusions on their own terms.
This works with audiences too, but you have to predict how they'll respond to the questions you're asking.
163
Genre matters. People need to instinctively group you into one so they can fill in the gaps in consuming your content. These gaps can be caused by their intermittent attention, lack of understanding, or lack of interest in a portion of the content.
People use genres to make recommendations to friends, lessen confusion, identifying other related areas, and genre also helps algorithms. It helps people understand how you relate to them, and how you relate to the rest of the world.
164
"You're bound to feel..."
"When I was learning..."
"Don't worry, if this sounds confusing I was too my first time..."
Good way to express TWO-WAY EMPATHY.
165
Society - An aggregation of individuals who have sacrificed individual freedom to remain within the group. Making their stereotypes firmly held. - Edward Bernays
There are rules we'd rather not follow that we do so we can remain within our groups.
166
If your content is trying to project quality, you mustn't let people believe you took shortcuts in its creation, or that you settled in any way.
The only acceptable reason for a lack of quality is that you lack the resources to improve the quality.
167
Edward Bernays - Popular opinion is so positive... and so intolerant of contrary points of view.
When it comes to actual popular opinion, people usually hold those opinions very deeply. They are rooted in their religious institutions, scholastic institutions, family institutions, and voluntarily joined groups.
168
Competition - People will unconsciously identify with a side in one.
Usually people will identify with the underdog in a competition, or the lower status of the two options. If this distinction is unclear, they will identify with the choice they believe is most similar to them.
169
Secret of Socrates - Ask questions that people answer "yes" to, immediately. It's the Ancient Greek form of the "yes ladder". It helps to establish competence, likability, agreeableness, and warmth. It's a good way to introduce yourself.
Socrates would have spent time developing the most productive way to talk to a stranger, and get their agreement. People who agreed would have been disciples.
170
To err is human and to be more likable.
Making small inconsequential errors and gratefully accepting correction is a friend signal.
171
Each channel, video, group, or even game is a combination of several different audiences.
Gaming / Stream Tech / Twitch = Harris Heller
Three - tiered niche.
172
Just imagine...
One example of a series of words designed to trigger a person's transport into a different situation, setting, time period, etc. This transport is a key element of empathy. But being transported to a new world is also the end goal of Act I in a script.
Imagine you've jumped through a portal...
173
"Would this business succeed without good copy, the best marketing, and the best sales funnels?"
If not, the business's (or product's) actual value is lower than its perceived value. It still has value, but that value can be displaced by a better product.
174
Creative marketing example: Create an offensive billboard, write a letter to multiple newspapers as a third party claiming they were offended by the billboard.
Just a simple thought exercise where you start with:
1. Desired result (publicity)
2. Take out a billboard (publicity on its own)
3. Claim public offense (more publicity / notoriety)
The end result is creating two groups in opposition to one another, centralized around your new product.
175
Storytelling Tilt into chaos
When was the last time in a script where an unpredictable event raised the level of uncertainty in the characters achieving their goal. Perfect Storm = dead tide, hook through the hand, shark onboard.
176
Kindra Hall - Stories that stick include what features?
1. Authentic Emotion
2. Specific Details (what cops look for in a good alibi)
3. Identifiable characters (limp, eyepatch, great silhouette)
4. Specific High Activation Moments
177
Who's my audience?
What do I want them to feel?
What do I want them to take away from this content?
What actions do I want them to take after?
Be careful not to overask - definitely only ask for one thing. Default to TED guidelines for takeaways - 3-5 main points, and an idealized version of the world.
178
Bernays: We want to increase bacon sales for our client. What message should we project to the industry?
Scientists: Hearty breakfasts are dietetically sound!
Women's Mags: Bacon is part of a healthy breakfast!
Basically find the people who would read the message (women), and get an authority they'd follow to agree with your side (scientists), then print the resulting article in a magazine they read (Good Housekeeping).
179
Edward Bernays - Usually began with contacting a key individual to start pushing a message. This key individual would usually be...
A stereotypical representative, group representative, and authority among the group needed to be reached.
180
Showing equipment in a video can add verisimilitude to the work.
Adds to the authenticity and the story of how it was made.
181
Edward Bernays - Amplify the voice of the side that benefits your audience the most. Use the truth, but make it louder than other truths.
This is often how campaigns are performed.
182
People's beliefs are usually subject to:
The dogma of their parents, teachers, clergy, social, economics, and other leaders.
183
To work with the public you must understand their beliefs, biases, and bullshit. Some of it is negotiable, some of it is definitely not.
People will inevitably inherit some of these things from their groups.
184
The wisest man accepts without thought that he dwells among fools, and counts himself among them.
I am a giant fool, have been foolish, and continue to be foolish.
185
Edward Bernays - Persons who have little knowledge on a subject invariably form definite and positive judgments on that subject.
And usually they speak these judgments louder than the most educated experts on the subject. It's important to consider what they believe to be true and what source they got it from. And also to know the experts will never be the spokesperson. No intelligent person has the patience to yell that loudly at morons.
186
Most people are totally opposed to new methods of thinking and new information - especially if that information is part of the public lexicon.
Pluto is no longer a planet, the world is flat, the sun revolves around the earth, humors, etc.
187
Edward Bernays - Logic-proof compartment. Intolerance is almost inevitably accompanied by a natural or true inability to comprehend or make allowance for opposing points of view.
New thinking, especially major schism shifts, require giving in to uncertainty. It's also more time and work to restructure our existing schemas to accommodate the new information.
188
Edward Bernays - It is seldom effective to call names or attempt to discredit dogmatic belief itself. You must discredit the old authorities or create new authorities by making articulate mass opinion on the new beliefs. “Ideas can be bulletproof but everyone agrees people are imperfect.” Yet people originate all things.
To discredit an old belief, you have to start with what everyone already suspects is false, or what new information may be true. For instance, that the church may not be as pure as it's supposed to be. “Suspicion of imperfection that is revealed to be a tip of an iceberg.”
189
TRUE DETECTIVE - the name of the series illustrates the need for obvious titles in an age of media competition.
This lets the audience apply genre easily, know exactly what the show is about, and implies reality or grit to the telling. All things the show delivers on. In my own memory I retrieved it by thinking "detective show" when trying to think of the title.
190
News and Knowledge
News upsets the norm or is inherently different than the norm.
Knowledge is what the norm is composed of.
191
Sacred Cows Slain, Dominant Institutions Displaced, Groups Disrupted
It's important to know who we're pissing off and how big those groups are.
192
Build work that lasts from components that will last. Great music, great quotes and references to classics - experts. Diversity in experts quoted.
Use success to build upon it.
193
Components of a Conflict Storyline
Struggle, Suspense, Victory. These are similar components to an Event, Build Tension, and resolution.
194
When the interval between the intellectual classes and the practical classes is too great, the former will possess no influence and the latter will reap no benefit.
Is this true today though? Classes may be based more on money than intellect. Often, intellectual classes are poorer than dumber counterparts.
195
MJ Demarco - 5 Fuck You's
Freedom from work
Freedom from fiscal restraint
Freedom from hyperrealistic influence
Freedom from hope
Freedom from ordinary / routine
Hyperrealistic influence is related to the ideas presented in Simulation and Simulacra. There are realities we've accidentally created that only reflect what we think reality is. But slowly over time what we think that reality should be, versus what it actually is causes cognitive dissonance.
196
TED talk goal: Give the audience an idea that they can remember and tell others about, in 18 minutes.
This involves mnemonics, good storytelling, emotional contrast, and simplicity.
197
YouTube - 90% of your audience (minimum) will be strangers
So always make sure to talk to your new audience as new people, with a MINORITY of thoughts designed around an in-crowd.
198
Content Mnemonics
Narrative Arc
Linkable Reference for an Opinion the audience Holds
Great Quotability
Strange Imagery
Service Exceeding Expectations
199
Syd Field - Dramatic Need, Dramatic Premise, Setting, Dramatic Question (philosophy), Inciting Incident, Main Characters Introduced
All the things that Act I should introduce according to Syd Field.
200
Inciting Incident - Sets up the story and is central to the other stories (Pulp Fiction's 3 central stories)
The Inciting Incident's relevance to the other stories can become apparent in Act III (Japanese method).
201
Some Examples of Good Act I introductions that raise questions:
Matrix, Fight Club, Watchmen, House Intros
A supernatural fight, A gun in the mouth, A murder by a shadowy figure, and House intros always had a horrible event brought on by a mysterious disease.
202
Toxicity is defined as...
When a person needs to adjust who they are around another person out of fear.
203
Establish a base camp near the summit, so that you can attempt a climb when the conditions are right. Explain this.
This means that your process should have all the ingredients for virality, so that when the conditions are right a piece of content is allowed to go viral.
204
Our environment and technological breakthroughs are perfect for people who invent their own career paths.
There's always going to be a need for people who learn new technology, applications, and can tell the stories of the tech to others.
205
1000 True Fans theory
You only need 1000 True Fans to make a living at what you do. Deceptively difficult to facilitate though.
206
General Success Factors are?
Complete Understanding of your area of expertise
Complete mastery of all facets of your knowledge base
Relationships to connect you to your goals
Opportunity
207
Stories should have a personal component for the teller.
A personal component for the storyteller means that the story has stakes to the teller, which increases the stakes for the audience. Merlin Effect.
208
Examples of layered work for complex meaning. Masters fret over the details.
Nolan, Kubrick, Tarantino
209
There are two ways to convey an idea.
You can argue for the point you want to make,
or you can try to elicit sympathy for the opposition to that point. "I was fooled too."
210
Logical argument: If-Then reasoning and also Reductio ad Absurdum.
This is the "agree and amplify to its maximum to illustrate how absurd it is".
211
It is a mistake to create for attention, acceptance, validation, cheap laughs, money, or superiority.
Your endeavors should be quiet and considered.
212
Mnemonics - Simile and Metaphor
Both are useful for remembering, simplifying, and understanding a topic. The caveat is that the simile or metaphor can't be a cliche and has to be new. Otherwise the cliche will be associated with too many other images to evoke the response we need. Use simile or metaphor OFTEN. Letterkenny
213
A good way to address a topic you know has conflicting opinions surrounding it is to introduce the idea, introduce the plausible assumptions, test them, and come to the conclusion that those assumptions were wrong.
Then teach the actual lesson.
214
Trebek Effect - Asking questions that you know the answers to already makes you appear supernatural.
Trebek reaped high status from his appearance, cadence, being a television show host, and knowing the answers.
215
Stories are like cooking in what ways?
You start with your ingredients in Act I, set out on a goal, the ingredients undergo transformation in Act II, and at the end you have a new dish with a before/after comparison in Act III.
216
Dresden James - When a well packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.
You cannot proceed explaining anything without considering what your audience already believes to be the truth.
217
There's two types of people... those who X and those who Y.
More diplomatic way of separating "right and wrong" sides of the argument.
218
For new and unknown authors, bad reviews had what effect on sales?
They increased sales by 45% because the bad reviews still informed people that the product existed. "No such thing as bad press."
219
Status Elevation - Compliment someone's skill by comparing them to a well known contemporary in their field.
Kid boxes like Tyson in his prime. Like a 30 year old Hugh Jackman.
220
Competition and like-creators are resources.
Don't reinvent the wheel if there are things we can be inspired by, resources we can use, or content we can repurpose in an adjacent field of expertise.
221
Influencer - Brittany Hennessy - Never do anything that makes it harder to see your content. You never know what small roadblock will be the reason a viewer passed you over.
The same is true when considering our watch time of our videos. We need to pay close attention to potential roadblocks that will make them click off.
222
You can't achieve your potential if you're focused on what other people think. Some contemporaries and people who've been there matter. Everyone else is irrelevant.
Be content to be thought of as foolish and stupid.
223
Piggybacking Method
Using trends, celebrities, movies, anything in the current lexicon to use as a lens for your topic of expertise. Charisma on Command is good at this.
224
Mnemonics - Rare and Surprising
Well-Reasoned
Well-Referenced
Surprising and Unusual without being extremist
Positions that are difficult to disprove or argue with, coupled with memorable anecdotes, quotes, statistics, with great visuals.
225
Mnemonics - Social Currency
Surprise
Conflict
Sacred Cow Slain
All reasons to remember specific factoids in a video.
226
"How open minded are you?"
Example of a question that must be answered in the affirmative. There must be others, though.
227
Edward Bernays - Public opinion may be as much the producer of insidious propaganda as its product.
What we're really working with is what people already think, accept, and ideas that may be on their periphery that we're bringing into full view. Good example is the potential of drone warfare used in Spiderman taken to its logical extreme.
228
We are not trying to become anyone's best friend. And we're certainly not competing by trying to be a better person than anyone else.
This is the most disingenuous way to approach content creation.
229
Improv Don'ts - Blocking, Trying to Control, Being Negative, Planning instead of Attending, Trying to Control the scene
Avoid these behaviors in content creation too. Be the opposite, a positive, inquisitive, active listening yes man who goes with the flow. Mr. Rogers with less talking.
230
Forced Elements of Change - Boredom, threat, Survival Impulses, Tragedy, Job Change, "Big Noise", Disaster, News, Age, Life Changes, Location Changes, Work Changes, Product Changes, Political Changes, New Tech, Financial Collapse, Terrorism, War, Scandal, Scientific Research
New School, New Teacher, Parent Dies, Friend Dies, Move Away, Falling Out, Growing Apart, New Boss, New Job, Graduation, College, Military, New Courses, New Information (books, science), dating, marriage, kids, new country, vacation, travel, summer break, spring break, winter break, pandemic, brain chemistry, emotional change, escape, persecution, threats to your group, new laws and regulations, taxation, accidents, crime
231
If we constantly run into the same types of movies, in the same genres, does that mean stories are lesson-sharing mechanisms?
There's some validity to this. Shakespeare knew it. He knew the value of setting up very tragic circumstances, then enhancing them with supernatural foreshadowing and tension-building events.
232
Violating expectations will trigger an individual to...
...search for an explanation. It's another way to engage more parts of their brain in your content.
233
Humans model the words they read in __________.
Sequence. Imagine being in a dark room and describing it based on the first senses that would be engaged. Smell the bacon, hear the sizzling of the old cast iron frying pan, feel the heat warming up the wintry room, see the shimmering egg yolks, and taste the salty crunchiness of the tater tots.
The imagery must be specific enough to be a memory. Think memory implants from Bladerunner.
234
What draws more eyes, an untidy shelf or a perfectly ordered one?
The untidy shelf will draw more eyes. But the tidy shelf supports a brand image.
235
Similes and metaphors work better if they're...
Recognizable
Not worn out or cliche
Good contemporary references
Connect with a little-referenced area of interest
Billions and Letterkenny are really good at this.
236
Tribes were usually composed of around ___ individuals.
150. More than that and the relationships start becoming too impersonal to remember all the necessary details to deepen them.
237
Triggering moral outrage by presenting unfair circumstances is a good way to interest an audience.
I think social media is kind of based on this approach.
238
Even chimps punch upwards. They tend to rally for the underdog.
When troop leaders are toppled, it's usually because a gang of low-status males has conspired against them.
239
Humans sort themselves into groupings based on many factors. One of them is the implied "power line".
Those above the power line are the "haves" and those below it are the "have nots". People usually identify with the "have nots".
240
Dramatic Question / Logline / Theme are all ways to refer to...
...the broad stroke that connects a story to its human component. The one tree trunk connecting all of the branches on our story tree. A significant component that needs to influence every scene in a script. And reflects a basic human truth.
241
Humans inherently dislike those of higher status. Wealth, good looks, popularity, and qualifications.
Humans will always want to see the status of others lowered. Justin Bieber. Kardashians. Hiltons.
242
What are some good story motivators?
Moral Outrage
Disgust, Disease, and Rot
Threat of Humiliation and Loss of Status
You can see many of these play out over human history or play out on Television.
243
Villains only need to be more evil than...
The main character. Plenty of movies have unlikable protagonists, but their villains are much worse than them. Tarantino films, Scorsese films, Dexter, Billions, etc.
244
Nuanced unanswerable questions that require making a choice, but not necessarily solving the problem are better than neat plot points.
Neat plot points have their place in parables and fables though.
245
Origin damage can lead to a sacred flaw which the characters build their lives around. First out of pride, but ultimately the flaw is their undoing or holds them back.
It's a way to make a character interesting, and start empathizing with how they interpret the world around them.
246
Knowing the goal, destination, why's and reasons allow people to put perspective in situations.
It's another strong mnemonic device that helps the audience remember why we're doing what we're doing, and fill in gaps in their attention. It's a really good device for someone who's hearing a story for the first time.
247
Connection to others + shared status of the group or status within the group + a shared goal leads to the togetherness of a community.
So you need:
-A social area to connect with others (Discord, Comments, Patreon)
-A status ranking method (Discord roles, Patreon tiers)
-A group name (usually just "guys")
-A shared goal to work towards with the community. The story will always be one of success or failure.
Fraternities, Band of Brothers, Team Hardship
248
Goal progress feedback loop - lets people know they're accumulating something.
Mario coins, XP and levels, gives rewards so they can level up more, etc.
249
Dramatic question must be posed repeatedly and serves as the through line. The answer to the dramatic question may be attempted several times until arriving at the answer.
The dark night of the soul raises the stakes, provides for a revelation. A thoughtful downtime before finally getting to the answer. It's science. You must begin and end with the dramatic question.
250
The purpose of a narrative is to...
Transport the reader. This is where memories and new beliefs can be formed.
251
Plants (which get revealed in act III) are best done in conversations or introductions you're writing that don't yet have any special significance. We know what the introductions, act set pieces, and different parts of the script must do at different times. But we can come back later and fill in vague conversations or introductions with...
Plant imagery. Which will enhance the second watching of our movie / video. Unclear if this is a good method to use for a documentary or not. Depends on whether people want to watch something multiple times.
252
Checkov's Gun
When a scene shows a gun on a wall and doesn't use it immediately, it better be used later as a payoff.
253
How do you forget a memory that causes an emotional response of embarassment or shame? (aka a “shame attack”)
Pair pieces of the memory to other positive memories you have with those pieces. Biking through the woods with Dave. Bushido Blade with Chris.
254
How to refocus on something useful when you note something useless is happening or a negative experience is occurring?
Mindfulness, 10 breaths, pick up your checklist app and start working down the list.
255
Memorable gimmicks?
Earworm Jingles, Who’s that Pokemon challenge, DARE acronyms, open deposit box for their creativity
256
Time>Body>Mind>Others
Respect your sleep and workout schedule.
257
Is it possible to use google search volumes and trending to predict whether something is valuable?
Attention = Currency. Yes. Works on YT, the Market, anything that needs eyeballs.
258
High Value Low Effort Edits?
Motion from stills, animated fonts, mographs, particles, 3d layering, ink masks, typewriter effect, slow motion, speed ramping, parallax, 3d camera, motion tracking text, easy ease/bounce
259
Patience is a skill hedge funds can’t employ.
Patience also separates humans from animals. Forethought and planning are similarly related.
260
ALWAYS BRIDGE THE UNKNOWN…
WITH THE KNOWN. Celebs, Movies
261
4 ways to induce curiosity in a Title and Thumbnail
1. Present a puzzle
2. pose a question
3. exposure to a sequence of events but unknown resolution
4. violation of expectation
262
Dramatic Question should be proposed repeatedly through the narrative.
Dark night of the soul MUST be in the story
263
Animals are passive and reactive. Humans are too, until we engage iur forebrains. Said differently…
Humans who aren’t paying attention or are ambivalent are animals.
264
Fastest ways to bifurcate your audience and piss them off?
Serious arguments about Men vs Women (50%), Ageism (teens are aholes 50%), classism (especially poor people 50%), geography (definitely southerners), racism, and creed. 10,000 vs 1M. And that’s before quality and watchability. Dont screw up the broad swaths.
265
Cognitive Biases - What is Anchoring?
The tendency to rely to heavily on a limited subset of information, usually the first detail or story heard. This can be compounded if the story includes personal anecdotes of a few individuals. This increases the effect to the listener, and makes the bias harder to recognize and overcome. It's best not to directly contradict someone's firmly held belief. Strongly related to the confirmation bias, which is what happens when this belief is challenged.
266
Cognitive Biases - Apophenia
Relying too heavily on short runs of data and also making incorrect assumptions about pairs which may or may not be related. It's basically the tendency to draw correlations between anything and everything, which can be totally false.
267
Cognitive Bias - Availability Bias, Recency Bias
Tendency to overvalue information or over attribute the likelihood of something happening due to recent information. Casinos use this by drawing attention to one individual's big wins so that others overestimate their ability to repeat the same reward. The same works negatively, with E-coli stories.
268
Cognitive Biases - Confirmation Bias
Searching for information to confirm our already held beliefs. Strongly related to the Anchoring Bias
269
Cognitive Biases - Egocentric Biases
The inability to trust the due diligence or ability of others. Overestimation of one's own ability. Objectivity illusion, and the illusion of having deeper explanatory depth than an individual actually does. Overconfidence in oneself, and dismissal of others' expertise. Inability to recognize a lack of objectivity, or bias. Biases wouldn't exist if people could recognize that they had them.
270
Cognitive Bias - Zero Risk Bias, Dread and Loss Aversion, Pseudocertainty Effect
Fear Related Biases - Risk avoidance is prioritized over gain. Risk taking is engaged in to avoid a negative result, but not taken to grasp a gain. The pain of a loss has twice the intensity of the happiness of a gain.
271
Cognitive Biases - Immediate Payoff Preference
Exactly as it sounds. People tend to value the short term over the longer term.
272
Cognitive Biases - Specificity vs Generality
People tend to overvalue highly specific information over the general, when the general tends to be more important or applicable. It's like the lesser known details are more valuable because they were harder to obtain. But the bigger trends governing an action tend to be more important. Think big picture.
273
Cognitive Biases - Neglect of Probability
People are very bad at estimating probabilities of things occurring. Subject to availability bias, so when something bad happens they tend to think it will happen everywhere. This is a particularly usable fear bias.
274
Cognitive Biases - Framing Effect Biases
Contrasting objects presented next to one another, small denomination effects - how information is presented DOES matter. Otherwise the news would be much harder to spin.
275
Cognitive Biases - Gambling Fallacies
Hot hand, sunk cost, and gambler's fallacies. Doubling down because of a loss, to regain the loss. Overestimation that a small streak will continue. Leads people to make bad mistakes.
276
Cognitive Biases - Zero Sum Bias when presented with conflicting information.
People tend to view competitions or conflicts as zero sum games. They have to win at all costs. This can be compounded through the availability bias, and the primacy effect. People will defend their weakly established but firmly held beliefs based on anecdotal evidence, and then commit to what they believe is a zero-sum game when those beliefs are challenged. This is the behavior we see on social media.
277
Cognitive Biases - Siding with someone biases
Belief Bias - Evaluating a statement based on the believability of the conclusion. Ignoring other key details.
Illusory Truth Bias - Believing the Occam's razor solution is the correct one regardless of the appropriate level of complexity required
Rhyming as Reason - The rhyme-as-reason effect, or Eaton-Rosen phenomenon, is a cognitive bias whereupon a saying or aphorism is judged as more accurate or truthful when it is rewritten to rhyme.
278
Cognitive Biases - Simplicity Preferences
Curse of knowledge - knowing more makes thinking about a subject and its complexities more difficult for the one w/ the knowledge. Also stresses people out. Staying conversational is the optimal level of expertise, for anything that one isn't totally acquainted with. Speed reading can help with this.
Default Choice Bias
Occam's Razor Bias
Belief Bias - Believability of the Conclusion
Overexplaining Bias - Disbelieving someone who gives too many details
Status Quo and System Justification - The Matrix, tendency to desire that things stay the same. Newtonian - object at rest tends to stay at rest
279
Cognitive Biases - Deference to Authority
Milgram Experiments. Hustlers know all about this and happily exploit our automatic deference to authority figures. People will hand over credit cards to people they think are waiters, car keys to people they think are car park attendants and give access to their house to people they think are from the water board.
280
Cognitive Biases - Herd Principle or Social Proof
The desire to blend into the crowd, follow what people are following, and doing what people are doing.
281
What do people love talking about the most and how do we use it?
Themselves. Studies (including those conducted by Harvard's social sciences lab) have concluded that the act of self disclosure lights up several parts of the human brain. Including those associated with cocaine, sex, and good food. A highly pleasurable activity.
In content creation, we can use this by:
1. Giving them something to tell to other people. (Social Currency)
2. Giving them something to self-disclose, because it's pleasurable. (Comments)
3. They'll come back to read responses to their comments later. (Leading to more views.)
282
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Male Female dynamics, Women are genetically predisposed to gauge the male's willingness to invest in care of woman's genetic legacy. This includes especially herself, children, her family.
Males on the other hand have essentially two buckets - one for just impregnation, one for impregnation and care. Depending on the traits observed, emotions and feelings cause unconscious pegging to one category or the other. The distinction being the one with the least confusion of whose progeny they're carrying tends to receive continued parental investment.
283
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Con artistry and imitation are essentially built into many species. It's evolutionary efficient for a "flexible" nature to yield many impregnations without the responsibility of rearing young. See sunfish and bluegills.
The population of "upstanding and caring male parents" must always be about 50% at least. While the benefit for males that try to cheat the system is increased amounts of offspring. You can't have a total population of cheaters though, otherwise nobody takes care of the young. The quantities will tend to normalize.
284
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Reciprocal altruism aka Tit for Tat is the optimal strategy. This gets bucked when the payoff for cheating the system once is large or the players will never see one another again. So in hunter-gatherer communities, cheating or stealing wasn't advantageous, but in anonymous encounters is more often profitable.
It means that if you don't know your neighbors or strangers, they probably feel an evolutionary pull towards taking advantage "because they'd prolly do the same to me". Also someone who travels or lacks a permanent residence wouldn't feel any restraint in "shitting in my own back yard". Because it isn't their back yard. Simply watch out for strangers, renters, travelers, vagrants, and lock your shit up.
285
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - All people are deeply sensitive to public opinion. They both seek positive opinion, avoid negative reputation, feel shame, and tend to fit into the moral norms of their culture.
This drive for status causes people to engage in gossip, trading information, following societal norms, generous tit for tat, reciprocity, playing up one's strengths, downplaying one's weaknesses, overstating others' weaknesses, following the rules, and join groups based on it. Like water, people seek the path of least resistance to obtain status.
286
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Dishonest action, cheating, and stealing and otherwise criminal activity is engaged in by low serotonin (low self esteem) individuals. Chemically reinforced, they identify the preferred roads to serotonin increase as barred to them.
Criminal activity may be engaged in by someone who's low income, low education, morally destitute, viewed as a pariah, because they believe that breaking the rules in a group of other outside-core individuals will give them the status they seek. They believe they have to break the rules because the society that established the rules doesn't serve their interests.
287
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Division of labor in the animal kingdom was common, so was the sharing of resources. If one had too much, they could share to create alliances. Then if another found a boon, they would reciprocate. This is the basis for tit for tat.
Tit for tat and resource sharing is built into human nature. The more the resource affects the organism's survival, the more emphatically accepted it will be. Social, Financial, Food, and information.
288
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Humans are wired for gossip.
Evolutionarily, it made sense to know who was sleeping with who, who knew where the best food was, where to get a sharp rock, how to make a fire, which things were poisonous, etc. Information exchange was vital, so we were built to exchange it. The most used currency for humanity has always been and will always remain to be information.
289
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Humans being built for reciprocal altruism means that they're also built to detect deception.
People are very sensitive to gauging what they're owed, and forgetting what they owe.
290
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Humans live in a hierarchical society. We know who's high and who's low. We allocate our efforts as such towards the pursuit of higher status. Therefore we favor those of high status and we allocate little effort and understanding to low status people.
Though it stands to reason that elevating someone like ourselves to higher status would cause us to be elevated as well. EG Humans are social climbers by nature.
291
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Chimpanzees can't lead alone, they need a group of friends. The same is true of humans. The ability to command and lead a group is what defines a leader.
Socially, our leadership tends to have a few trusted individuals who work in their best interests. In return the leadership shares the boon of their station with them.
292
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Humans tend to compare their status to those very close to themselves in the status hierarchy. To those just above themselves in particular.
Theory: You can increase the NUMBER of people drawing comparisons by appearing relatable to them. The more alike you are in demographics and history, and the more problems you share in common the more mental effort they'll spend comparing themselves to you.
293
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Humans all play up their positive traits as much as possible. The tools used to do it differ depending on the social environment. The Navajo for instance would never overtly covet power, but one wishing to have power would let himself be SEEN AVOIDING the coveting of power.
Depending on the social environment, this affects the way people virtue signal. It also adjusts the effectiveness of the different types of virtue signaling. In every society there will be a "too ambitious" or "too self aggrandizing" individual that's really annoying and untrustworthy.
294
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Natural selection does not care about honesty or dishonesty, and most organisms don't either. Organisms do what they have to to survive, and pass on their genes.
This also means that emotions will still convince us of our worth regardless of our actions. I'm sure many criminals have very high opinions of themselves, or at least want to.
295
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Humans are very good at self deception. We have a brain that can convince us of anything. If we chemically want / seek something unconsciously, we tend to feel a way towards that thing.
Then our brains trick us into thinking that getting that thing, often at our own detriment, or the detriment of others, is the right thing. In the end, our brains are tended to be wired in a way where we pursue pleasurable impulses without thinking we're bad people.
296
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Darwin was selectively blinded to individuals qualities earlier in his career when he thought that the person's status could be helpful. Later he revised his opinions but only after the relationships' usefulness had run their course.
This plays into humans tendency to social climb. But his brain also plainly emphasized the good and omitted the bad to his own benefit. As his status rose, it became less relevant for his brain to cloud their flaws. "The higher one rises, the clearer he sees the mess below."
297
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Status elevations cause people to re-evaluate where they stand within their groups.
If your status is elevated, you may not belong in your low status group anymore. It may sap your resources as well.
298
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - It's a human status arrangement for high status people to want the adulation and minor assistance of the young and ambitious. The younger person basically reinforces what the person thinks about themselves, helps them do things, defends their statements and theories, and the higher status individual shares resources, knowledge, social connections, and status.
This is the natural state of humans. Find a mentor and find an apprentice for yourself. Keep climbing.
299
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - It's human nature to solicit trusted opinions to see if people feel the same as you do about a mutiny. Prior to someone's status being forcibly decreased, there is usually some kind of "shadow council" of people coming together to share opinion and draw consensus.
A group of lower status people will gather together to achieve a goal. Under the guise of feeling, they form a mob. It's the leader's job to muster defense by doing the same.
300
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Humans seek status, addicted to social esteem literally, dependent on neurotransmitters, are totally ingrained amongst one another and define ourselves by one another, and are all self promoters and social climbers. Our generosity and affection have selfish streak underlying them.
We are right to say that we never dislike people without a reason. But the reason is often that it is not in our interests to like them. Liking them won't elevate our social status, aid our acquisition of material or sexual resources, help our kin, or do anything to make our genes prolific.
301
Evolutionary Psychology - Moral Animal, Robert Wright - Remember nobody follows the baseline human experience at every beat. But most people do most of the time. If you want to understand why humans behave the ways they do, think back to the 150 member hunter-gatherer pre-written language societies we evolved in.
The more power you have, the more you need. And any slippage will make you feel bad, even if it leaves you at a level that once brought ecstasy.
302
Originals - Adam Grant - Originals find the mistakes in the "default" settings.
Income Inequality - Compared to the people in the highest income bracket, people in the lowest income bracket were 17 percent more likely to view economic inequality as necessary. After finding that disadvantaged groups consistently support the status quo more than advantaged groups, researchers concluded "People who suffer the most from a given state of affairs are paradoxically the least likely to question, challenge, reject, or change it." This is not surprising. People who refuse to make decisions will have decisions made for them.
303
Originals - Adam Grant - 1. Why does the default exist? 2. Research the area 3. Have a realization about some higher truth
When we become curious about the dissatisfying defaults in our world, we begin to recognize that most of them have social origins. Rules and systems created by people, who naturally seek to make that system work for them and not necessarily for others.
304
Originals - Adam Grant - School actively discourages creativity. Creative students are often labeled troublemakers by their teachers. Child prodigies are hindered by achievement motivation, and once they pass an intermediate level in the need to achieve, there is evidence they become less creative.
The more you try to please others, the less creative you are.
305
Adam Grant - Originals - Originals often were risk averse in every other area but the one they chose to take chances in. They controlled what they were able to and focused on making their pursuits work.
Doubts were normal, they caused the ideas to be vetted and checked by peers.
306
Adam Grant - Originals - Quantity is the path to quality, especially when feedback is available. Creators tend to rate their creations more highly than others, The most original works are generated during the periods of highest output.
There's a site called Upworthy, which has a rule that you need to generate at least twenty-five headline ideas to strike gold. Fellow artists and creators are your best critics. Cast a wide net and use the drivers of human behavior to decide what will work and what won't.
307
Originals - Adam Grant - The creator of Segway started with an invention, and then went searching for a problem to solve using that invention. What he should have done is use the market to pull, (or presenting a problem), then developing a solution to the market's problem.
The issue is that markets don't often know a problem exists. Still, you should establish a need prior to committing. CENTS! Control, Entry, Need, Time, Scale!
308
Originals - Adam Grant - When we judge creatives, we focus not on their body of work, but its peaks.
Originals has a high correlation to the ideas of a Blue Ocean Strategy.
309
Think Again - Adam Grant - Think like a scientist. Resist the urge to preach, prosecute, or politick.
Treat your emerging views as a hypothesis and test it with data.
310
Think Again - Adam Grant - Define your identity as "values curiosity, learning, mental flexibility, and searching for knowledge."
As you form opinions keep in mind factors that would change your mind.
311
Think Again - Adam Grant - Seek out information that goes against your views.
Fight confirmation bias and echo chambers by actively engaging with ideas that challenge your assumptions.
312
Think Again - Adam Grant - Beware of getting stranded at the summit of Mount Stupid. Dunning Kruger - where amateurs think they're experts, is a common and very real effect.
Reflect on how well you can explain a given subject.
313
Think Again - Adam Grant - Harness the benefits of doubt. Reframe the doubt as an opportunity for growth.
This allows for competence in your ability to learn, while allowing you to recognize what you don't know.
314
Think Again - Adam Grant - Embrace the joy of being wrong.
I love being wrong, because it means that I'm now less wrong. Don't be afraid to laugh it off, laugh at yourself, and improve on the next go round.
315
Think Again - Adam Grant - Other people can help break an echo chamber.
Learn something new from everyone you meet, build a network that challenges your beliefs, and don't shy away from constructive conflict.
316
Think Again - Adam Grant - Practice the art of persuasive listening to ask better questions. Increase the number of questions you ask other people.
Ask people HOW they would do something, believe something, put a belief into action, get them to SAY HOW.
317
Think Again - Adam Grant - Ask someone "what evidence would change your mind?"
This question probes how possible it may be to convince them on their own terms.
318
Think Again - Adam Grant - Ask how people originally formed an opinion. Many of our opinions are arbitrarily formed.
Thinking about our opinions' origins is a good way to determine whether they were validly formed.
319
Think Again - Adam Grant - Acknowledge Common Ground, Remember that fewer reasons are often more persuasive, reinforce the individual's freedom of choice, and have a conversation about the conversation occurring (taking a step back to see the conversation from above).
Understanding can only happen on common ground, over-talking makes people defensive and bored, people need to feel free to choose so inception can happen.
320
Think Again - Adam Grant - Illustrate the complexity of polar decisions, contingencies, caveats, expand the emotional range of the conversation.
321
Think Again - Adam Grant - Throw out the ten year plan. Planning fewer steps ahead can keep you open to rethinking. Rethink your actions, not just your surroundings. Schedule a life checkup. Make time to think again.
These are good opportunities to contact your "challenge" network.
322
Blue Ocean Strategy - Blue Oceans expand the market by looking for NONCUSTOMERS first, and accesses these customers through a value skew.
Cirque du Soleil - Rethought the circus, took away what was expensive and not essential. Added a story, intellectualism, art, and made it more like a movie theater. Took the circus experience upscale.
323
Blue Ocean Strategy - Value innovation comes from driving COSTS DOWN while also driving BUYER VALUE up. It's not a function of trying to make things cheaper. It's adding features and spending $ on the right things that make your product good.
Part of it is also cutting costs for nonessential features taken for granted, or removing the customer's pain points.
324
Blue Ocean Strategy - Finding blue ocean opportunities involves looking across alternatives and non customers. If middle class newbies find wine intimidating, how do we make one that's not?
Stealing away viewership from another channel isn't as efficient as growing the market for similar types of content.
325
Blue Ocean Strategy - Use a STRATEGY CANVAS to map your industry. The X axis is the different factors that companies compete on in your industry. By mapping these competitors' value curves, you can identify Blue Ocean opportunities they've missed.
You deliberately take space that they haven't occupied. You innovate your own through identifying theirs, eliminating waste, reducing core offerings, raising the value of features that support your strategy, and creating new features the industry doesn't traditionally have.
326
Blue Ocean Strategy - A good strategy has FOCUS, a SIMPLE TAGLINE, and DIVERGENCE from competitors offerings. So it's easy to explain what it is, and how it's different.
The four actions for creating Blue Ocean opportunities are Eliminating waste and confusion, Raising required features (or even price if that's core to our margin requirements), Reducing features the industry competes on (like Cirque going from 3 rings to one ring), and Creating new features on the value curve.
327
Blue Ocean Strategy - Reconstructing market boundaries. Look across alternative industries - cirque looked to theaters, Home Depot looked to home contractors, Look across strategic groups within industries (Mercedes BMW luxury group vs Toyota and Honda economy group). Look across the chain of buyers and customers (may identify a unique up-chain or down-chain opportunity. Look across Complementary Product and Service offerings. If someone needs to use a car to get from the airport, solve the issue for them.
Alternative Industries, Industry Groups, Different Customer Types (resellers vs customer direct), Complementary Products, and Functional or Emotional Appeal to buyers (many industries are saturated with one or the other). Also look across time, PAST and FUTURE. Shapeable Trends, and history.
328
Blue Ocean Strategy - Map your company based on Pioneers, Settlers, and Migrators. Each company needs some of each, but Pioneers are the Blue Ocean guys. Settlers main the current profit drivers, and migrators are somewhere in between.
Every company needs Pioneers, Settlers, and Migrators
329
Blue Ocean Strategy - Tiers of Noncustomers (people we target for Blue Ocean Opportunities)
Soon To Be - unsatisfied with the current offerings or minimally use them, ready to try something new
Refusing - consciously choose against your market due to expensive options or offerings don't meet their needs
Unexplored - Blue Ocean distant from our market
330
Blue Ocean Strategy - Blue Ocean Strategy sequence
1. Is there buyer utility?
2. Is the price easily accessible to the target mass of buyers?
3. Can you attain your cost target to profit at your strategic price?
4. What are the adoption hurdles in actualizing? Are you addressing them up front?
If all are yes, then the idea is commercially viable.
331
Blue Ocean Strategy - Six different utility levers to customers
1. Simplicity
2. Fun and Image
3. Environmental Friendliness
4. Reduces a customer's risk
5. Improve customer productivity
6. Convenience
332
Blue Ocean Strategy - Blue Ocean Strategy and the CENTS framework from Millionaire Fastlane are strikingly similar in their discussion of high barriers to entry and customer needs.
Pricing strategy may include new pricing models such as timeshare, slice-share (hedge funds), freemium, etc.
333
Blue Ocean Strategy - Talks about fair process and intellectual fairness. Everyone who works with you needs to feel intellectually valued and recognized for their worth.
Golden Rule applies.
334
Blue Ocean Strategy - Renewal is necessary. Once someone is successful at any given time, copycats will emerge. Once supply exceeds demand, the ocean is now red. Then it's time to expand the market again. If you're already the dominant leader, stretch your advantage out as long as you can.
Value innovation will always drive Blue Ocean Opportunities. Remember that comes from reducing costs and increasing the value to the customer.
335
Blue Ocean Strategy - you should always be keeping alternatives and value additions in mind for content creation
Content Creation is the process of continually creating Blue Oceans. We use alternative industries every day (typically those with celebrities, movies, games). Plus you have to continually assess your market to see whether the waters have been turning redder with time.
336
What does the incredible success of music videos tell you about YouTube?
WATCH TIME is all important - people watch songs till the end.
WATCH % is all important - Songs get recommended to people looking for music more often.
REPEAT VIEWING is all important - songs often play on repeat or get added to playlists.
Keywords aren't necessarily important.
Everything else can be nonsense, including the title, as long as these three factors are in alignment.
Music links to other music by genre. Define your genre by YouTube's metrics.
How can we get at least two views out of our demographic?
337
Best literary device for constructing a mind palace in the audience?
Simile and Metaphor, because it creates the place and the peg in the memory.
338
How to build a strong Simile or Metaphor?
Take a word with a visceral reaction like “delicate”. Pair it with the opposite, for comedic effect and a pattern break. “like a chainsaw” And sandwich with something that fits the first word. “vasectomy”, “lobotomy”, “colonoscopy”
339
Friend Equation = FLIP
Frequency
Length
Intensity
Proximity
But it also includes what? From Hooked - By Nir Eyal
Variable Rewards (like gambling, gaming loot boxes) - Variety in information; See Give and Take
Utility (Usefulness of Information, Necessity of that Use); Hooked - Nir Eyal
If a connection is refreshed frequently enough, it becomes habit even if its utility is low.
Connections with high utility, if too infrequent, never deepen. TL;DR Frequency is more important than utility to develop habitual (unconscious nonthinking) interaction.
340
“And then there’s you” intro.
Earcatching, starts with an infographic hook that’s just an impressive visualization of a batshit stat.
341
“The power of YOU”
Talking directly to the audience is an effective way to make them pay attention.
342
Audience Proxy
A character that takes the POV of the audience, asks the same questions they’re wondering, etc.
343
Foot in the Door Technique
Small or agreement or request that sets up a consistency reaction/line of behaviors. Small ask, big ask, multiple asks. Can also just be agreements.
344
Best lines from X property.
Turns of phrase can be learned and used if habitual. Need a turn of phrase diary, or a turn of phrase generator.
345
Video traffic comes through suggestions.
But you still need to address the most searched questions on keywordtool.
346
Hooked Model: Twitter and YouTube comments included in product as a store of value trigger.
Discord, Twitter, YouTube, Website Materials
347
Speaking fast expresses passion, urgency, excitement, and emotion
Talking slow expresses importance, sadness, confusion, the seriousness of a point
348
What is “dead channel” and “dead topic” farming?
Commentary documentaries on the fall of a channel. That channel’s audience will be tapped by the algorithm indicating new content about that creator. Works the same with popular evergreen videos. (Megachurches)
349
Storytelling - Scientists wired some people watching a James Bond movie up to some medical devices. While watching, their heart rates increased and they began sweating. Noteworthy though, they began secreting oxytocin.
Oxytocin is a chemical that lets us know who we should care about. "Empathy Drug". It's how we identified members of our tribe.
350
Fox News is good at hyperbolic narratives designed to trigger ANGER. Anger sparks the "affect heuristic" which leads people to speak before they think. This commitment to say or feel something dumb causes them to commit to the role and the community.
Then it lures people over to the "in group of ordinary Americans" using "we" language. This causes "identity motivated reasoning" where any data presented that contradicts what the group stands for is felt by the individual as an identity attack.
351
Cambridge Analytica targeted inches and other marginal groups displaying the "dark triad" of narcissism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy.
These groups were targeted to join fake left or right wing groups and mobilized. There's something here about people who view themselves as "deserving of more", "better than", "open to manipulation", and lack of empathy/disregard for societal norms.
352
Cambridge Analytica found the most effective way to target people's behavior was by using the big 5 OCEAN personality traits.
Openness, Conscienciousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. By bucketing people into these categories, they could identify that people with higher levels of a specific trait were better students, for instance. The TL;DR is to know the traits of your average demographic.
353
Thinking Fast and Slow - We remember how the experience felt to us, when it was at its best or worst, and when the experience ended.
So when making content, remember that people will remember the climax, general feeling, and the ending. (three things)
354
Daniel Kahneman - "This drug protects children from disease X but has a 0.001 percent chance of permanent disfigurement."
The better performing version was "One of 100,000 children who take this drug will be permanently disfigured" because it brought to mind the idea of a disfigured child. It has to do with the proximity of "children" and "disfigured" in the sentence.
355
Daniel Kahneman - People are constantly fed information about events, and the likelihood in their minds of these events occurring relates to the frequency with which they hear the stories.
This is why people overestimate the likelihood of winning the lottery, finding successful business A, getting killed in a terrorist attack, etc. It's an example of availability bias but the fact of the matter is people overestimate the likelihood of random events because they don't hear about boring ones first.
It's likely that our news completely debilitates our ability to estimate probability.
356
Sometimes we need a character that asks the same questions that the audience is asking at that very moment.
We can use a stand in character to do it, or we can speak in their voice. "You ask yourself..."
357
Every piece has an intention. Heroes and Villains also have a primary intention. Even in non-fiction stories, we should focus on the character details that are relevant to their intentions.
This prevents extraneous detail from being presented. The details should also indicate that the villain and hero are the perfect tools for their intentions.
358
People's attention basically follows two things:
1. The News - Coverage from the news networks, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube Trending
2. Marketing - Movies, Games, Products, Companies - these all spend marketing dollars to direct eyeballs toward themselves. So this is the same idea as trendjacking.
They're spending their marketing money on your content's success. This is reflected in channels that cover Tesla, Apple, Movies, Beauty Products, etc.
The NEWS attention is reactive.
The MARKETING attention is researchable. You can predict when things will increase in search volume and trend volume with: movie and TV release dates, product release dates, game release dates.
It's worth mentioning that the PAST is also a viable approach if the video you want to create is going to be EVERGREEN.
359
For the FUTURE we look to Release Dates, Trailers, Seasonality, Search Volumes
For the PRESENT we look to NEWS, and we can track trending data and search volumes
For the PAST we look for evergreen videos that are still gaining views monthly
Pretty standard. Don't forget that where marketing money gets spent, eyeballs will go.
360
Popular Non-fiction books are a good thread for SEO. Keep apprised on present-year top selling nonfiction.
Attention comes from marketing spend. Books get marketed. Plus we have access to sales and review data, and also the content of the book itself. It's one step removed from being video content as well. Kind of perfect.
361
What does good film structure / formula allow us to do?
Take chances and do silly things like in Indiana Jones and Everything Everywhere All at Once
362
How long does a news cycle last?
Researchers found that most stories struggle to last more than 4 days. One week for major stories and multi-week for existential threats.
363
Smash cut?
Abrupt cut to an unrelated scene sometimes in the middle of dialogue.
Casey Neistat cut.
364
How should twitch streams be most accurately classified to inform the content creator’s efforts?
Second screen content. Something left on in the background while the user focuses on other primary content (like their game). Users want to listen (podcasty) to a streamer while they’re playing the same game as they are.
365
Define the appeal of large streams.
Being a fly on the wall during an unusual theater-like performance. An actor, two/three debators, subject matter experts, or sideshows playing while directly observing the “mass reaction” of the audience (also both a single character as well as a mob).
366
Describe the audience for a large stream.
Part mob, part fly on the wall observer, subject to groupthink, waiting for something to happen on screen B while engaging in another primary activity on screen A. Their expectation is to be able to yell something from the bleachers and have EITHER the chat, or the streamer, react to their input. An impact on the content of a live show, and a superficial level of interaction.
