Unlearning 101

The Tale of the Junky Carrot

What do you do if you want to sell more carrots?

One thing, apparently, is to begin viewing the world from a different perspective.

Recently, Fast Company, published this insightful article describing how the creative team at Crispin (an advertising firm) helped BoltHouse Farms increase sales of its pre-cut baby carrots.

How did they do this? I'll let you read the whole article but they began by questioning assumptions. To wit, one executive said he wanted carrots "to be junk food."

This might sound ridiculous but his reasoning was sound: Baby carrots share many of the same characteristics as junk food -- they're "neon orange, crunchy, dippable, and kind of addictive." (The team at Crispin also argued that it was only slightly silly to spend money telling people that carrots were healthy.)

I would submit that Crispin's work is not only an excellent example of seeing the world differently and questioning assumptions, it is also a wonderful example of turning a problem into an opportunity.

Interested in other health-related unlearning madness?

How About Trying This Corny Idea

Non-Pleasure for Pleasure's Sake

I am currently reading William Irvine's book, A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy and stumbled across this paradoxical -- or, at least, counter-intuitive -- idea: Denying yourself pleasure can lead to pleasure.

How?

Consider eating an ice cream cone or, perhaps, a pleasant dessert. Undoubtedly, such an experience would be pleasurable. What people often forget is that the opposite may also be true. In the case of not eating ice cream or dessert it is possible that you may also experience pleasure by being pleased with yourself for showing self-constraint.

Halfsize It

Many of us have been there: Staring into the mirror and wondering how we picked up those few extra pounds around our waists, hips, thighs, etc. In my own case, the answer is pretty simple. In addition to not exercising enough lately, I have also been eating too much.

This past weekend my family and I visited my sister and brother-in-law in Chicago and we had a number of wonderful meals. In each case, though, the portions were more than I could handle. The problem is that I still tried to handle them. The end result being that I ate more than was necessary.

My wife, who shows more restraint than me when it comes to handling large portions, ended up leaving extra food on her plate.

The question, which occurred to me only after the third such meal where I ate too much and my wife left extra food on her plate, was: Why don't we split our orders?

By doing so, not only would I not overeat but my wife wouldn't waste food. Furthermore, we'd both end up saving money. It is the proverbial win-win-win situation and yet I still haven't unlearned my habit of ordering full meals. To unlearn it helps to remember that, often, less is more.

What Isn't in the News

It was the biggest story of the year and perhaps the biggest story of the decade or maybe even this century. Surprisingly, it has quickly faded from the view of most people.

What story am I referring to? It's not the BP oil spill. It was the announcement in mid-May that man had created artificial life. (For a quicker primer on the topic I encourage you to read this excellent article in the Economist -- which to its credit is the only major publication I am aware of that accorded the story front cover status).

I mention this because unlearning requires you to see what isn't there. In the case of artificial life just because the main stream media isn't covering the field that doesn't mean it isn't going to have a huge impact on you or your business. It is. And if you are in the health care, agriculture, chemical or energy industries, I believe it is going to require a massive amount of unlearning much sooner than most people realize. 

As The Economist wrote, the creation of artificial life could "prove mankind's mastery over nature in a way more profound than even the detonation of the first atomic bomb."  

Unlearning Procrastination

There are five frogs sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many frogs are left sitting on the log? 

The answer is five.   

 Why? Because there is a big difference between deciding to do something and actually doing it. 

This is a particularly important point to recall on the day after Thanksgivings -- the official start of the Holiday Season. Undoubtedly, millions of American's over-indulged on food and drink yesterday and millions more will continue to do so over the next few weeks. (I would add that millions more will also continue to do so over the course of their lifetime ... but America's growing obesity problem is another story altogether.) 

Come January 1st, many people will "resolve" to lose the weight they have gained over the Holidays. Rather than engage in this annual -- and largely ineffective -- ritual, I'd like to suggest an alternative: "No Weight Gain December." Rather than promise to lose excess weight in a month's time, you should simply commit to not gaining any weight in December. 

The plan has three distinct advantages. First, you can begin today; second, not gaining weight is a more realistic goal in the sense that it doesn't require any dramatic change in your current behavior; and, three, if you are successful, it might provide the necessary inspiration and motivation come January should you resolve to begin losing weight.

Absolut Unlearning

While TiVo-ing through the Daily Show with Jon Stewart this evening, I stopped to watch an ad for Abolsut Vodka. (It is posted below for your viewing enjoyment.) It is a clever bit of advertising, but before you rush out and purchase a bottle, I suggest you review this now four year-old article entitled "A Humble Old Label ices its Rivals." In a blind taste test (which is one of my favorite unlearning tactics), a humble $13 bottle of Smirnoff smoked the competition, including the likes of Grey Goose and Ketel One.

As further evidence of the silliness of spending $20-$50 more per bottle for a fancy Polish, Russian or Finnish vodka in a sleek and well-designed bottle, it is worth recalling that by definition vodka is defined as a "neutral spirit, so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or some other material as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color." In other words, all vodkas, by definition, should taste the same!

If this still isn't enough for you, consider this: almost every vodka producer buys its neutral spirits (which have already been distilled from grain) from companies such as Archer Daniels Midland.

Related Post

Unlearning Starbucks

 

To Unlearn: Try a Blind Taste Test

Yesterday, I encouraged people interested in unlearning to "trust but verify" their instincts. One area where this technique might save you some money is to have a friend or loved one give you a blind taste of your favorite (and perhaps expensive) wine or coffee along with that of a lesser brand.

Interestingly, a few years ago researchers at Stanford gave a group of wine experts a blind taste test of five different wines. The only information provided was the price of each wine -- ranging between $5 and $90. Not surprisingly, the most expensive wine was identified as the best. What is interesting, though, is that three of the wines (the $5, $45, $90 bottles) were the same wine.

In other words, it was not the inherent characteristic of the wine (i.e. a"charismatic Cabernet Sauvignon with a full-bodied flavor and a hint of cherry and oak") that the tasters were reacting to, it was the price.

Now consider some of your favorite wines, coffees and chocolates. Are you really reacting to the superior taste -- or the inflated price? If you're unsure, take a blind taste test.  The results may very well encourage you to unlearn some of your expensive habits.

Unlearning Spaghetti, Mustard and All Foods

Malcolm Gladwell gives a fascinating talk on why we now have 36 different types of spaghetti sauce. It wasn't always this way, but the food industry has unlearned thanks to a man named Howard Moscowitz:

Unlearning Expensive Technology

Late last week, it was announced that NASA had, pardon the pun, pissed away $154 million by creating a urinal/water fountain system that didn’t work. To witness how a more simple technology can have huge implications down here on this planet, watch this amazing video (Note: it is a little graphic, but it helps to remember that these are the real life conditions under which billions of people must actually get their water):

In many ways, the example of this technology as compared to the $154 million failure reminds of that old story about how NASA spent millions of dollars to create a pen that would allow its astronauts to write upside-down in the low-gravity environment of space. They were successful, but so too were the Russians--they simply used a pencil.

The Next Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

It is not likely to replace the invention of sliced bread in terms of popular business cliches, but new research indicates that a different type of packaging (one which contains cinnamon oil) could keep bread fresher for a longer period of time. If true, this could require food processors to unlearn their current tactics for fighting mold (e.g. ultraviolet light, sterile packaging, chemical preservatives, etc).