Conspicuous Authenticity
[This is a piece I wrote for my employer, Fast Horse. ]
When I saw two articles in a week that covered the booming Williamsburg craft moonshine industry, I knew that smug had gone mainstream. You’ll see no shortage of people riding overpriced vintage bicycles with ironic sunglasses this spring, and soon you’ll spot people shouldering their NPR tote bags on the way home from the farmer’s market. I’m guilty of all these things (excluding the tote), but I get a little disgusted feeling if I hear someone mention about their compost setup and taste in indie film.
Andrew Potter’s recently published book, The Authenticity Hoax, explains the phenomenon of conspicuous authenticity – the process of buying specific goods and experiences to express our status and wealth. As public displays of conspicuous consumption have become less acceptable and people have accumulated houses full of clothes, cars, and gadgets, people have developed new ways of distinguishing themselves. If you like the idea of purchasing White Dog and telling your friends about the bearded Brooklynites who work the stills, you may be guilty of conspicuous authenticity.
So what’s wrong with buying local food and handcrafted furniture? Potter says that these conspicuously authentic products are positional goods; they are only valuable in that not everyone has access to them. If everyone owned a pair of custom Argentine leather shoes, then it wouldn’t mean much. Potter argues that underneath our good intentions we are trying to show wealth, status, and sophistication. We buy seemingly authentic goods for the very reason that we can and others can’t.
Here’s the thing: I absolutely love many of these psuedo-authentic products and experiences I have fun buying local meat, brewing beer, and I’m considering buying a locally-made wool sleeve for my laptop. I completely buy into the ideas and philosophies behind hand crafted and custom goods. I like to have the chance to tell a story behind a thing; it’s more fun to explain how your screen printing buddy made your shirt than to say “I got it at Target.” Maybe I am a conspicuous authenticity consumer to the nth degree, but I don’t think that it’s a bad thing to be able to tell a story about what you buy. We’d be a healthier and happier bunch if we knew the stories behind our food, clothes and toys. We’ve all collected loads of junk that we keep in the basement and then toss when we move. I don’t think that we should focus on accumulating stuff as much as we do, but given how much we consume, it could be worthwhile to believe in what you buy. Or maybe I’ll just move to Williamsburg to get my judging on.
image courtesy of dontcallmeikke on flickr
But we don’t want to go outside.
image courtesey of debaird via flickr
[I wrote this for my employer's blog - Fast Horse.]
I don’t know if Barack Obama eats granola, but if he does, I hope he keeps it a secret. Obama recently launched his “America’s Great Outdoors” initiative to encourage conservation and outdoor recreation. It may be a first step toward bigger environmental legislation, but right now it’s a loose set of policy guidelines and listening sessions. Our introduction to “America’s Great Outdoors” is heavy on family vacations to Yellowstone and light on the Birkenstocks. It’s about seeing Old Faithful, not about atmospheric CO2 or wetland destruction. Obama hopes to tap into a nostalgic American outdoor culture of outdoor recreation, but I wonder if he’d be better starting from scratch. Americans spend considerably less time outside than we did in past decades, and children especially are spending more time indoors. The United States does not have a cohesive national outdoor culture. We have granola-crunchers, hunters, boaters, and extreme sports enthusiasts, but I don’t think these groups cross paths very often. Our mainstream culture takes place on screens, in cars and at home. Perhaps America is too big and too diverse to support a national outdoor culture, but I’d love to see one.
To see what a national outdoor culture could be, let’s look at Norway. There’s a Norwegian saying that captures the essence of their outdoor culture. On any given day with nasty weather, you’ll hear someone say “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” The phrase says a lot, but mostly it implies that it’s better to be outside than inside, and tells you to suck it up, it’s fine outside. The Norwegians drill in this somewhat mandatory outdoor appreciation early. On rainy days, you’ll see kindergarten classes walking single-file in their rain slickers. In the United States, being outdoors is about doing something: biking, fishing, running, etc. In Norway, it’s just about being outside; you don’t need to be an athlete to have fun. But this outdoor appreciation makes for a lot of accidental athletes. I know many fit 20-something Americans who have been cross-country skiing at what they think is an impressive clip, until they are passed by a 75-year-old man on his father’s birch skis.
It’s not that Americans don’t like to be outside. Many of us are emerging from the winter and getting outside whenever we can. The hottest ticket in Minnesota right now is to an outdoor Twins game at Target Field. But if Obama wants to tap into our outdoorsy side, he’s going to have to pry us away from our glowing screens and tell us to get off our butts. Where’s a Norwegian kindergarten teacher when you need one?
Planning for the Cycling Bunch
(I wrote this for my employer’s blog – Fast Horse. Check ‘em out)
It’s a great time of the year to ride your bike: we’ve just had our first taste of 60-degree days in Minneapolis, one of the nation’s top cycling cities. Bicycling enters the public conversation every spring, around the same time that Midwestern flooding prompts a bizarre national Fargo-Watch and March Madness replaces work.
Last week, Lance Armstong and Tony Kornheiser of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption engaged in a social media brawl after Kornheiser went on an anti-cyclist rant on his Washington, D.C., radio show. Cyclists responded in a huge way, enough to make Clear Channel ban on-air cycling talk. We could keep bickering away online, but as marketers and culture-watchers, I think we should take this opportunity to take a closer look at the mindsets and motives of cyclists.
It’s easy to pass off bikers off as spandex-wrapped Tour de France wannabes or granola-crunching packages of flannel, but I think that we should look at individuals’ transportation choices in a bigger way. There’s a mindset, lifestyle, and ideology of the bicycle-riding population that marketers and planners should be aware of. It’s impossible for me to lay down any final judgment on cyclists, as they are a vastly diverse and quirky bunch (including the author) but I’ll try to give some insight into these populations.
Cyclists ride for many different reasons: fitness, convenience, raw fun, personal finances, the environment, etc., but they all ride for a reason. No one hops onto a bike at 7:00 a.m. in the middle of winter for no good reason. Many cyclists need to know the reasons behind their actions as well as the products and services they choose to buy. Not all cyclists are environmentalists or 3% body-fat specimens, but they make direct connections between what they do and the results of those actions. This is not to say that motorists are oblivious to their actions, but cyclists may pay particular attention to the effects of their purchases and lifestyles.
Geography and transportation infrastructure matter in a big way for cyclists. I’ll gladly pay a bit more at the hardware store that’s within biking distance than deal with a cheaper place located off the interstate. Many riders are confident enough to ride on the nastiest streets at all hours, but for recreational cyclists, bike lanes and streetlights are necessary. Bicycle parking can be the best of times and the worst of times, all at once. You can usually park your bike very close to your destination, but you have to think about the chance of someone ripping off your saddle or wheels. Stores that provide adequate bike racks get more of my business.
Many cyclists have a community-centered mindset and they may shop accordingly. You’ll see tens of bicycles outside of the local Co-op, but very few lined up outside Arby’s. They have strong feelings about public space, public funds and public decisions. The experience of cycling practically demands a community-based worldview: on the bike, there is nothing between you and the terrain, the traffic and the elements. Smaller communities are also important to many cyclists. After a week of cheating death on icy urban streets, there’s something reassuring about spending time with other people who commute by bike and can tell you that you’re not the only crazy one. Local bike shops often depend on a core of riders who swing by on evenings and weekends to talk shop and occasionally buy something.
Performance-enhancing chemicals are no small matter to cyclists. Doping has been a part of bicycle racing since the earliest days, and the connections between bikes, coffee and beer are many. Peace Coffee is delivered by bikes, New Belgium Brewing Company was inspired by a bicycle trip, Minneapolis boasts at least three cycle-based coffee shops, and Pabst Blue Ribbon shares a weirdly intimate relationship with urban cyclists. I can’t say much more about this bicycle-chemical connection beyond my observation that cyclists depend heavily on caffeine and alcohol, will do anything for them and love every minute of it.
Also, they’re sort of weird.
The Pint-a-Thon is Underway!
How’s your marathon training going? Time to switch gears and dig into the Pint-a-Thon? Here’s your chance. You can pledge to drink Finnegans during the month of March and be entered to win a sweet pub party. Finnegans is a Minneapolis-based beer that gives 100% of its profits to charity. I’ve been volunteering with them since early this year. Be a hero and check this out. The riverdancing squirrels and roller-skating “lerpicorn” will make it worth your while.
Surviving Off The Grid in Nerdmerica
- (via catandcow.davidguay.com)
.
(I wrote this for my employer’s blog – Fast Horse. Check ‘em out.
In my short time in the professional world, it’s become clear that the nerds will soon rule the world. Employers are looking for candidates who know an industry and have the technical toolkit to help adapt to new economic models. It’s a rough scene for the nerd-impaired: venn diagrams pass for humor, and you couldn’t avoid watching the entire United States geek out about the iPad a few weeks ago. But the reports of Nerdmerica may be overblown. A recent study by the Department of Commerce showed that 30% of the United States never uses the internet: no email, no facebook, no Farmville. I’d love to report that people are taking a break from the digital world to focus on the simpler things, like spending time with their families and beard-growing. The bulk of non-internet users, however, report more troubling reasons: they don’t own a computer or have the skills to go online.
Think for a second about where you’d be without the internet. I’ve found my last job and apartment online, and I don’t see myself severing my digital ties anytime soon. I’m concerned for the millions of people on the wrong side of the digital divide. Our ability to improve ourselves professionally and seek out important information increasingly requires high-speed internet. How many well-paying jobs welcome applicants who don’t have email addresses?
The online tools that empower individuals — education, social networking, and health information — are inaccessible to many of the people who could benefit most from them. Many cities offer free computer and internet access at public libraries, but there is never enough computer time for everyone. When we seriously underfund our libraries, we’re not just cutting magazine subscriptions, we’re trimming a service that our neediest citizens rely on. But I’ll get back to something nerdy.
My favorite web designers are the ones who obsess over accessibility and usability. While their peers are enthralled with html5 and gesture-based interfaces, they know that an absurd number of web users still use IE6. These designers aim to serve the needs of everyone, not just the early adopters. My favorite graphic designers are ones who think of the least-capable and confused people and find a way to get them to understand.
Good design and planning processes are few and far between, but they can account for the vast diversity of technology ability and accessibility within a population. How does your company meet the needs of those who are off the grid? Do you have systems in place to identify technology accessibility obstacles and then address them? (hint: twitter keyword monitoring is not the best place to start). I’d love to hear how organizations have had success including the non-nerds among us.
A Little Piece in the Newspaper
.
A friend of mine asked me to write a column for the Albert Lea-based group Paths to Peace. I wrote a few words about the value of learning languages and how it changes our outlook. Check it out in the Albert Lea Tribune if you’re interested.
Olympic Design: Lamer, Vaguer, Duller
[I wrote this for my employer's blog - Fast Horse]
Once every four years, people around the world rediscover their passion for curling, speed skating, and skeleton luge. I’ll certainly be tuning in to the Olympics to see my favorite skippers and sweepers, but I’ll also be on the lookout for excellence in Olympic design, or at least a few mediocre examples.
Olympic host cities face a difficult design challenge: they must capture the essence of their nation’s people, place and history, while simultaneously expressing openness and invitation to the entire world. They must offer a few core elements of their culture and country without running the risk of possibly offending anyone.
The organizers of this Olympiad must try to please innumerable constituencies within Canada and around the world. This is design by committee on the world’s biggest stage. The Vancouver organizers gave a nod to their native Arctic population in their logo. While you can learn a interesting story about the Inukshuk, most people will only see a multicolored person–one with a less-than-Olympic physique.
Designers do best when they work with clear constraints and goals. When they are forced to accomplish everything and please everyone, they default to vague shapes, multiple colors, and make no real statement. You get swooshes, stickmen and butterflies. The results are entirely forgettable.
This always happens during the bidding process, as countries work overtime to please their backers at home and appeal to the highly political IOC selection committee.
Before we give up on this design challenge, let’s remember that new beginnings are part of the Olympic ideal. Sochi 2014 has a url in its logo, and I like what the London Organizers are doing for 2012. After the grandeur and formality of the games in Beijing, London is calling for a return to raw sporting fun in 2012.
The logo took a lot of heat when it was released in 2007, but I applaud the designers for taking a chance. The logo skips the pointless graphic element, sticks to two colors, and might even be in style by 2012. Cheers to the London organizing team and designers at Wollf Olins for taking a chance. What’s the risk? Everyone already likes the logo that they remember.
Risk, happiness and why you should do dangerous things
(I wrote this for my workplace – Fast Horse)
During my freshman year of college, I saw this image on the cover of someone’s textbook. I asked the student what he was studying, and instead of the usual “Bio,” “Business,” or “Busch Light,” he pushed up his glasses and wheezed out the words “Actuarial Science.” After pretending to know what that was, I found out that an actuary calculates the risks and costs related to insurance and investment policies. As a long-haired, Frisbee-chasing 19-year-old, I thought this was the silliest profession you could imagine. I stayed away from all things math, insurance and corporate in the years following that encounter, but I’ve recently become fascinated with concepts of risk and how they shape our world.
I’d like to share a smartly done video that crunches the numbers of the mortality risk behind a few everyday choices. I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to watch it. (It involves bacon sandwiches, biking and a disturbing samba scene.)
It’s good to know that you have a one in a million chance of being killed for every six miles you travel by motorcycle, but it becomes especially interesting when Dr. Risk juxtaposes the danger involved in an activity with the joy that activity brings him. He notes that humans have a distorted sense of risk and often believe the world to be more dangerous than it really is. Dr. Risk chooses to participate in a few relatively risky behaviors because he feels that the happiness those activities bring him is worth it.
I’m glad that a risk expert has it figured out, but what about the rest of us? SXSW kicked off 2009 with a keynote that dug into the relatively new science of happiness. A central theme in this field is that humans are notoriously bad predictors of happiness. Would you rather win the lottery or become a quadriplegic? Think for a second, then flip a coin. Both groups report similar levels of happiness.
We’re in a tight spot: We don’t know what is dangerous, and we don’t know what makes us happy. I’m no expert, but I think it helps to think short-term. Long-range financial security doesn’t do it for me, but I love nothing more than spending time with friends, getting outdoors, and eating and drinking like a king. Regarding risk, the only thing I remember from junior high gym class is the statistic that shows that young people are most likely to die in car accidents or drug overdoses. Older people encounter their biggest health risk in preventable diseases. So I’ll avoid drunk driving and feel free to challenge my metabolism.
Dr. Risk considers himself “a professor of risk encouragement.” I suggest that we be good students and eat sketchy sushi, bike the Greenway at night (while keeping eye out for falling shopping carts), and hop on a snowboard. Don’t take life too seriously; you’ll never get out alive.
Top Beers of 2009
illustration by John Holcomb - Shorthanded Studio
[***I wrote this in early January for my workplace - Fast Horse ***]
There’s no better time than the holidays to sit back and have a good beer. Except perhaps during hot summer evenings, football games in the fall, spring afternoons when it’s 51 degrees (but feels like 85), at the end of any bicycle ride, and every Friday and Saturday evening throughout the year. In any case, there’s no time like the present to look back at some memorable local beers and to look forward to a malty, hoppy, fully fermented 2010.
It’s no small task to select my top five Minnesota beers. The Minnesota beer scene has exploded in foamy, beautiful mess the past couple years. A number of upstart breweries are pushing the envelope of extreme beer, while others are carving out a traditional niche. In no particular order, the following beers are five of my favorites. Some were new in 2009, some have been around the block.
1. Surly Smoke (Brooklyn Center, MN) It’s hard to know where to start with Surly. They’ve shredded our taste buds with Furious, blackened our teeth with Darkness, hurt our brains with Cynic, and we liked it. I enjoyed the Thanksgiving-time seasonal, Smoke. It’s a Baltic Porter that uses smoked malt and is fermented with lager yeast. It’s then aged in oak barrels for a few months. It’s like drinking coffee that you roasted in the campfire and then dropped in some bitter chocolate.
2.August Schell MaiFest(New Ulm, MN)Schell’s can always find a reason to celebrate. They will release a special anniversary beer, a Hopfenmalz, in honor of their 150th anniversary in 2010. They hold Bockfest— an annual frigid, early February festival in New Ulm, and they produce a winter seasonal (Snowstorm), an Oktoberfest, and others. My favorite this year was the Maifest Maibock. It’s a big (7.2% abv) blonde and hoppy doppelbock that grabs you by the horns. It’s a deep-gold color with a bready malt presence, but the hops take control and don’t let go. Spring can’t come soon enough.
3. Fulton Sweet Child of Vine (Minneapolis, MN) Hailing from the Fulton neighborhood of southwest Minneapolis, Fulton Beer was new to the scene in 2009. They’ve released one beer, an IPA with something to say. Sweet Child of Vine is packs the aroma and bite of Simcoe and Glacier hops in an attractive package. It’s copper colored with a solid malt foundation, but it’s really about the hops. They dry-hop with more Glacier hops to lend a bold hop clarity. Fulton has more beers on the way in 2010. I’m looking forward to the Libertine: a complex red ale that leverages an impressive lineup of British malts, including Maris Otter and malted rye.
4. Brau Brothers Pilz(Lucan, Minnesota) I know that extreme times call for extreme beers, but there’s something great about a beer that shows restraint and gives a nod to tradition. The Brau Brothers deliver a measured pilsner—Pilz— that gives your brain a chance to recall the Czech brewing traditions but works equally well when you’re mowing the lawn. Brau brought in yeast from Bohemia to make a pilsner that’s clean and bright. When I finally make the trip to dusty Lucan, the first one I’m having is the Pilz.
5. Flat Earth Belgian Style Pale Ale (St. Paul, MN) When the bottle label has a picture of a German Shepard chomping on a waffle, you know you’re in for a treat. This beer pours with a nice tall head and delivers a set of spicy Belgian flavors. It brings a slightly sweet toffee malt and minimal hops. It’s refreshing way to mix up your beer styles. The Belgian flavors of pepper, cloves, banana, etc., aren’t for everyone, but they give your tongue something to think about.
There are so many beers and breweries I left out. Town Hall brewery and the Herkimer always have something good on tap. Consider this list a start. 2010 looks to be a big year on the Minnesota beer scene. There are new breweries opening up: Lucid, 612 Brew, and others. I’ll be brewing up some beers that currently exist only in dreams. I’m getting thirsty already.
Cheers to you from Fast Horse! May your 2010 be happy, healthy, and soaked with local beer.