#018 – The Observer & The Participant

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#018 at a Glance:

• Quote that will get you thinking: Easy reading...

• Podcast you should listen to: The marketing secrets of Apple and Tesla revealed by an advertising executive.

• Mental Model: The Observer & The Participant.

• Interesting Phenomenon: The 300-year Gap in Irish Inventions.

• Tweet I liked: Everything you want is on the other side of THIS.

Quote that will get you thinking:

This is incredibly accurate.

The amount of times I’ve read something written by some of the authors I look up to such as Ryan Holiday, George Orwell, George Clason, etc, and thought, “Wow, I wonder how many iterations it took them to perfectly phrase this sentence,” or “I wonder how many hours of writing it has taken them to reach a point where the articulation of their thoughts in a written format is so clear and precise”.

I’ve got so much respect for authors.

Podcast you should listen to:

The Diary of A CEO E165: The Marketing Secrets Apple and Tesla Always Use – Rory Sutherland

Rory Sutherland is a senior advertising executive and the man who understands why some ideas connect with people and why some ideas don’t. He’s an author, columnist, and trailblazer in the world of marketing and advertising.

Rory and Steven discuss the concept of how we value things, making something bad to give it value, and why businesses are focusing on the wrong thing (just to name a few topics).

Listening to this podcast, it felt as though I was getting a peak behind the curtain into the marketing and advertising hacks employed by some of the most successful organisations of our time. Incredibly valuable.

Listen or Watch on Spotify here. Listen on Apple Podcasts here. Watch on YouTube here.

Side note – if you’re not willing to listen to the entire episode and would prefer to watch my favourite 45-second clip from the chat, I posted it on my Instagram a couple of months ago here.

Mental Model:

The Observer & The Participant 

I came across this concept while listening to a podcast between Mark Bouris and Ed Kavalee the other day – and it’s been playing around in my mind ever since.

It essentially revolves around the following question:

In life, to what extent are you an observer or a participant?

A participant is someone who is in the midst of life. They are moving about, doing their thing, going from one place to another, mostly unaware of how they fit into the world around them. Their focus is comprised almost entirely on the here and now. They see the world mostly from a 2D lens.

An observer is someone who steps back from all of the noise. They analyse things from a higher ground and examine the world through a 3D lens. They dedicate time to wrapping their head around complex human behaviour and questioning the motives behind the decision-making of others. They are the type of person to sit back and watch the quirky interactions of strangers at a coffee shop.

You can’t have observers without participants and (I would also argue) you can’t have participants without observers. Each of us plays these two different roles at different times.

Sometimes, we become extremely involved in our lives as a participant. We’re running around from job to job or place to place and are constantly ‘doing’. To use a basketball analogy, we’re on the centre court and are active in every single play. In doing so, we tend to become easily fatigued and subsequently deprive ourselves of the benefits of analysing the game from a different perspective.

But at other times, we are an observer watching on from the grandstand. We’ve examined everything possible and are still too afraid to get off the sidelines and get into the game.

There’s certainly a balance to be had here – I’ll leave you with the same question:

In life, to what extent are you an observer or a participant?

Interesting Phenomenon:

The 300-year Gap in Irish Inventions

The 14th century AD in Ireland was quite rugged. Marked by a series of clan feuds and power struggles which had a ripple effect across the social structures and cultural development of the region as a whole, it wasn’t the best period in the country’s history.

Yet despite the political and social turmoil, the 14th century also saw a range of cultural and artistic development. Music and poetry flourished, and there was also the invention of Caid which was a precursor to what we now know as Gaelic football (that crazy sport that is a mix between soccer and rugby).

However, it would unfortunately be a lengthy 300-year period between inventions for the Irish because it wasn’t again until the 17th century where there were again a series of inventions such as Irish road bowling, modern chemistry, Boyle’s Law, and drinking chocolate.

So, what’s the explanation for this 300-year slumber?

The invention of Irish Whiskey in the 14th century.

The numbing effects of alcohol…

Tweet I liked:

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading!

Grateful for your support.

Stay hungry, stay humble, & stay curious. ⚡

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