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Recently, I've had several conversations with clients about rewards and why we compete. So, when I came across this snippet from Lifehack.org, it prompted me to share a different perspective:
Author of "Motivation from the Inside Out: Rethinking Rewards, Assessment, and Learning" and "Beyond Bribes and Threats: Realistic Alternatives to Controlling Students' Behavior", Alfie Kohn wrote this piece for the New York Times in 1993 about rewards in the workplace not motivating employees the right way.
Kohn suggests that these rewards act the exact same as punishments and create negative work environments.
I call BS on this simplistic presumption. The problem isn't the reward itself. The problem is misunderstanding the person's motivations and thereby offering the wrong reward.
Our whole lives are motivated by an internal sense of worth, measured by "rewards" — both internal and external. We're each addicted to our own reward system. It stains every action we take.
The same applies to the buying process, and to your website.
Creating personas, profiles, and buying perspective for our clients is what we do each day at Future Now. This work is based on our instrument of choice, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Myers-Briggs is commonly used among psychologists, and has the largest database of respondents. Millions take this test annually.
According to the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (define) — which is based on Myers-Briggs but inspired by the ancient Greeks — people default to four primary temperaments:
In our work we focus tightly on how people prefer to behave in the buying process, so we label each temperaments differently to reflect just that. In Future Now-speak:
People tend to be surprised when they test themselves and find they're an SP, SJ or NF. At this point, they'll often say something like "Well, this doesn't make sense… I'm extremely competitive!" Of course, most of the successful people we work with often are. Just because you're not an "NT Competitive" doesn't mean you don't compete fiercely; you just compete for different reasons and different rewards.
The Spontaneous often competes and is primarily motivated by the thrill of the winning experience, the adrenaline rush.
The Competitive often competes and is primarily motivated by big-picture status, the trophy on the shelf.
The Humanistic often competes and is primarily motivated by the success of the team, one for all.
The Methodical often competes and is primarily motivated by the satisfaction of a job well done, winning is it's own reward.
Of course, you'll likely see a little bit of yourself in each of these — depending on the situation — but you may find one more appealing than the others.
Does this apply to your website? Of course!
Since buying usually triggers reward centers in the brain, these four types of motivations are relevant to the buying process. If you promise the wrong rewards, you'll create a negative buying experience. Here's somethings you can do in your product descriptions:
For the Spontaneous, briefly describe the thrill/experience the product provides.
For the Competitive, show them how the product will advance their goals.
For the Humanistic, show them how the product will positively affect others.
For the Methodical, describe in detail how the product will help them get things right.
If you have a minute, share some examples with us of websites that push your reward button — and let us know your temperament. Not sure of your own type? Take an anonymous (and free) online test.
I'm a bit biased, but I love this post, Anthony. The funny thing is, I thought I was an "NT Competitive" last year, when I wrote this piece on how to write for different personality types. Turns out I'm an "NF Humanistic"… I test close to NT, but it's not my preference.
I've also found the same phenomenon with the word "intuitive". Everyone likes to think they're an "N – iNtuitive" but it's just about how you process information. It's not saying that "Sensing" types don't have intuition, or that "Judging" types are constantly judgmental. "Perceivers" are fully capable of passing judgment, often with less information. I should know. I am one.
My favorite example of a site that's perfectly tailored to Humanistic types — without the touchy-feely stereotype — is Pownce. It's a cool service, but the copy is even better.
I attended a Future Now seminar where they asked the audience, which temperment most describes you? At first, people we reluctant, they weren't sure whether or not they were methodical, or spontenous? etc. SO finally, a few guys held up their arms claiming they were spontenous. They were asked to browse through a site and display spontenous actions. To their surprise, they weren't spontenous at all! They turned out to be more methodical/competitive in nature which was impacting the way they navigated through the site. Anyhow you make at a great point Anthony about promising the wrong rewards creates a negative buying experience.
[...] One of our seminar attendees helped us notice something interesting about "Corporate DNA". Something wasn't "write" with her company's messaging. They're large, well-known and have spent decades projecting themselves as a Humanistic culture, with massive, ongoing radio and TV ad campaigns. So, the first thing we noticed on their website was that the copywriting was tailored for Methodical types. (To read more about how we classify personality types into Competitive, Spontaneous, Methodical, and Humanistic, click here.) [...]
You actually point out another critical point. People may have a preference for a particular type. In other words they may tend to prefer being spontaneous but depending on what they may be browsing (something they are unfamiliar with for example) they may change modes of behavior to more methodical.
[...] Myers-Briggs Temperaments: Why We Compete, Reward & Buy [...]
[...] the bottom of the page, regardless of where their web surfing takes them. This appears to relate to how different personality types interact with the web. Each type prefers to navigate in their own way, and particular groups, like Methodicals and [...]
[...] the four dominant personality types, the slower-paced Methodical and Humanistic fans were the worst hit. Methodicals were upset [...]
Decoding Personality: Why We Compete, Reward & Buy…
Our whole lives are motivated by an internal sense of worth, measured by "rewards" both internal and external. We're each addicted to our own reward system. It stains every action we take. The same applies to the buying process, and to your websi…
[...] this "Brand" carries though to their web site, where the Methodicals can find out the details of why they are the best choice. I would kill the scroll box, of [...]
Great post! It seems to me that these traits may be as well related to the values that consumers associate with particular product or service… IBM has done some research on this (see post on my Modern Metrix blog: mmx.typepad.com)
[...] four Temperaments as described at Future Now: The Spontaneous ("SP"; Sensing-Perceiving) The Competitive ("NT"; iNtuitive-Thinking) The [...]
[...] Anthony Garcia of FutureNow, Decoding Personality [...]
[...] be an investigative reporter, go undercover by transforming myself to think like various different personas to analyze my client's online performance, and help them make changes that ultimately lead to [...]


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Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > If Only With Luck Came Love
Chapter 40 Reviews
Sam noticed a cut on his forehead, partly hidden behind his hair. Sam had always been under the impression that vampires could heal themselves. This cut wasn't healed. Not even close to being so.
Without thinking - Sam never seemed to think things through anymore - she walked forward and brushed his hair away so she could inspect the wound.
He flinched slightly at her touch. His expression showed surprise. Surprised that she would get this close. Surprised even that she would touch him.
Her brow furrowed as she ran her fingers lightly across the cut.
"Where did this come from?"
She now seemed to have taken control of this entire situation. Taken the more superior role. Erased any fears and doubts that she may have had, or at least hidden them so that they did not show.
"No where. It's nothing." He said.
Outsiders should never know.
He hadn't moved away from her touch yet. He should've but it'd been so long since he'd had such contact. He revelled in her touch, her hand resting on the side of his face.
"It looks like it hurt." She said softly. She wondered if he even felt it when it happened.
He shook his head and finally she dropped her hand back down to her side.
Truthfully, it had hurt. The person who did it had intended it to hurt. They'd intended to make him suffer through their torture and only this one cut was a visible reminder. There were many more.
Sam walked into her darkened lounge room and sat cross-legged on the sofa. She looked back at him, maybe even challenging him to follow, to take a seat.
He looked at her. Not moving but surprised by her relaxed demeanor. Did she feel comfortable enough around him, a vampire - one who had attacked her, nonetheless - to actually lower her guard? To.... trust him?
"You know, it's alright. You can sit down somewhere. I won't bite." Sam smiled sardonically.
/I might though/, he thought.
Despite his better judgement he went and took a seat on the sofa directly opposite her. He leant forward, leaning his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands.
"Is this what you want? A vampire in your house? Unpredictablility?" He asked with slightly raised eyebrows. He wanted to know, he wanted to push her to the point when she wouldn't feel so trusting of him. Because she shouldn't.
She was silent. Maybe that was what she wanted.
"No." She said. Then she shook her head, "I don't know."
He sighed, moving so that he could kneel in front of her. He took her hands in his, flinching as he did so, thinking she would shrug away. She didn't.
"You need to know what you want." He said. "I made a mistake the other night of attacking you and once again, this morning by being outside your house." He paused for a moment, hoping maybe she'd say something. She was still silent. "Now you need to decide whether letting me into your house was a mistake or not. I don't want to do anything I'd regret, nor do I want you to."
"I don't know you." She started, her hands were still cradled in his. "I don't know why you attacked me the other night and I don't know why you were here this morning so while you're here in my house I'd like you to tell me why. Enlighten me."
"Fine." He stood up. "That's completely fair."
Now he was pacing the lounge room. Sam was still seated on the sofa, waiting for him to explain himself. She needed to know and now seemed like the perfect opportunity to find out.
"I'll tell you.."

subset: commoncrawl


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Harry Styles is forever being followed by paparazzi everywhere he goes, and it's became clear that he's just had enough!
Who can blame him?
As Harry was leaving his London home, he was approached by a photographer who asked for an autograph for his daughter Ella, who is a huge fan.
Harry, being the sweetheart that he is, obviously made time to write this youngster a nice message..
At least that's what the photographer thought. As he grabbed a piece of scrap cardboard from his car, Harry jokingly wrote "To Ella please tell your daddy to go away love from Harry x
Although it was a slightly mean message, it's clear that it was just a little joke, a joke that has turned into Ella's most treasured possession.
In fact, seven-year-old Ella loves the personal message so much, she's even had it framed and taken it in to school to show her friends!
We have a feeling that she will keep that forever, we would!
Awww, we want a personal Harry message


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Videogames are not good for you. Videogames are a waste of time. They isolate children. Kids never go outside to play. They just sit there and stare at the TV all day.Hey kids! If you liked videogames, you'll love work!
"I'm not too pleased with some of the content of videogames either... sex, violence, over-the-edge action. That can't be healthy for anyone. I liked videogames when they seemed simple and not so all-consuming... Frogger, Pac-Man, now they were some righteous characters that never picked up a prostitute or blew a cop's head off." -- Page 2Meh, I say. MEH! This sort of Banduran monkey-see-monkey-do mindset is getting tired.
"If I had a choice, I would want to include these distrustful folks in finding solutions. I would prefer it if they understood. I would prefer it if they could see the long sequence of events that is going to address their fears and create the medium they will inevitably love and participate in, whether they expect to or not."I love that games like Rock Band and Wii Sports are de-mystifying video games for many, and that the scene for "casual" games like Bejewled and Peggle has just exploded over the past decade. It's hard to pick up any of those and hold on to one's stereotypes about video games; at worst, one has to acknowledge video games aren't all (or even most) like Grand Theft Auto. In the end, widespread acceptance of gaming will come down to sheer demographics: more and more adults, having grown up with video games, have already made adult gamers a huge proportion (perhaps the outright majority) of the gaming populace, and that percentage will only grow. I believe our Metafilter TF2 league only has one teenager, a 19-year-old college student. It gets harder every year to demean and ostracize a growing segment of the general population.
"What's sad is that their ideological, ignorant, hostile, one-dimensional attitudes oversimplify one of the most beautiful problems in human history. It makes me very sad that many of these people will die fearing games. I would so rather include them, but they have to meet us in the middle or become sad, lonely, reclusive luddites.
"In the end, we will stamp them out if we have to, but it would be nicer if we all tap danced our way into the future together."
is there anything in video game land that is the relative equivalent of, I don't know, Moby Dick, or The Great Gatsby, or Anna Karenina, or that old Mefi standby, Lolita?*ahem* BioShock.
IndigoJones: True enough, esp. on the low end of fiction; but at the other end of the spectrum, is there anything in video game land that is the relative equivalent of, I don't know, Moby Dick, or The Great Gatsby, or Anna Karenina, or that old Mefi standby, Lolita?The notion that games should be judged as narrative and judged against other forms of narrative has seriously fallen out of favor in recent years, even when you are talking about games that do have an explicit narrative. What is happening is an emerging form of aesthetics that considers both the rules of play and the artistic artifacts that go with it.
nebulawindphone: Fine. Let's compare them to other forms of play. Where are the video games that have the rich meaning, cultural importance and vital social function of spin-the-bottle, surfing, go, baseball, the Running of the Bulls or "playing house"?Of course there is a catch 22 here in that many of these things only have social meaning because they are multi-generational traditions: baseball since the American Civil War, go for several centuries, and spin the bottle since the 50s. That "cultural meaning" is something that exists outside of the game, not within the rules or objects needed to play it.
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MADISON (WKOW) -- Three months ago, the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) was looking at its final volume and the end of its 50-year run, due to federal sequester cuts and the recession.
Its chief editor Joan Houston Hall and her staff were all facing unemployment.
"I had to write my own layoff letter for the chairman to sign," Hall said.
However, about a month ago, donations starting coming in, with enough to keep DARE afloat for at least another year.
"What's been gratifying in the last few weeks is that whole coalition has come together again. We've had federal help. We've had university help," Hall said.
This includes a gift of $100,000 from an anonymous donor. This proved to be enough to continue developing DARE's online edition, which launches in the fall.
"One of the wonderful things about the digital edition is that whenever we include a quotation from one of the people who made an audio recording 50 years ago, you'll be able to click a little icon and actually hear the person speaking," Hall said.
Besides the online edition, DARE will also be conducting a new pilot study asking Wisconsinites 1,800 questions. For example: What do you call the device you use to change the channel? Or the machine you use to withdraw money?
With additional funds, DARE is safe for another year. Though, Hall says they'll continue looking for funds.
"There's still a tremendous amount to be learned. And it's important for us to learn the phrases and the pronunciations of our regions," Hall said.
Hall also says that funds had slowed down because they'd gotten to the letter "Z," causing some people to think their work was done. However, with six volumes and an online edition on the way, Hall says their work is never over as long as our language keeps evolving.
For more information about DARE, click here.


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'Homeland' and '24' Creator Howard Gordon on Terror, Tyranny, and TV as Art
The man behind post-Sept. 11 TV opens up about his background, what goes on in writers rooms, and what he's working on now
HG: We were actually shooting the fifth or sixth episode [of 24] when 9/11 happened. Suddenly we had this show, one that hadn't even aired yet, and it was the zeitgeist. That suddenly became the prism through which so many people viewed the world, and I joined on the bandwagon. Jack Bauer became this guy that who was adept at navigating the failure of bureaucracy that we had suffered, that we couldn't be protected by our intelligence agencies, that they didn't see this coming, this massively plotted attack. Jack became the guy who cut through the bureaucracy and went after the bad guy in a very American way. And he did it in a day! I mean, talk about fast service. That was in some ways the most binary narrative.
The other side of it was that I was accused of promoting Islamophobia, promoting torture. Jack did nothing that Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis or Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry didn't do. And by the way, no one mentioned a thing until Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, which shows you the dance between television and current events. Jack Bauer in the first few years after 9/11 was a total hero. Suddenly, after Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, Jack Bauer is a little darker. Suddenly, what Jack does isn't so kosher anymore. So, a character now has to account for his own existence in the real world.
AN: You can't control current events.
HG: Jack became a dark, conflicted character, and he even had to confront a new reality. How do you do that without denouncing the essence of the series itself? And saying that Jack is a torture-mongering Islamophobe?
LL: So, here you are finding yourself accused of all sorts of things that I imagine were very new and jarring for you to hear, to learn that you're that guy. So, do you … What does one do?
HG: You have to listen. You have to ask questions and not have the answers. You really have to stay fluid enough to say, "I may not believe Jane Mayer's article in The New Yorker entirely, but there's something here I can't ignore." Jack has to account, as a character in the fictional world of 24, for the way that our country had to answer for Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. He had to acknowledge that it's not that easy. That if he's going to do this, if he's going to be a tough guy, and he's going to shoot first and ask questions later, that there's a price to be paid and he's going to have to pay for it, he's going to have to feel guilty at the very least, he's going to have to at least understand that it's not that simple. That he's made mistakes.
LL: Is this the post-Sept. 11 theory of television? That we should all be less interested in answers and more interested in questions?
HG: Yep. And I think that it's a good philosophy in life, too: People with too many answers are people to be worried about.
LL: We've seen ironically little of that before.
HG: When I grew up, my early television mentors told me something very didactic: Your heroes can't make mistakes. I'm amazed that was even ever true.
LL: Speaking of early mentors, let's pull back for a minute. How did you get into television?
HG: I assumed I would be a doctor or a lawyer. There was no other path for people in my world. My father was a dentist, my mother was a school teacher and a guidance counselor, and there weren't that many paths for someone who wanted to make his living making things up. But I had a really acute failure of imagination—I realized after I graduated that I hadn't taken any science classes, so I wasn't going to be a doctor, and then I overslept for the LSATs. But I'd always loved television. I was a poet, actually. I wrote poetry and I wrote short stories, but I loved television. It wasn't ever movies—I never aspired to write movies. I just grew up on television in my house, but I knew no one and had no connections and didn't even know what a script looked like.
LL: Wait, so you're 8, 9. What are you watching?
HG: Star Trek, That Girl, Room 222, Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, Batman.
AN: When you say you loved television …
HG: Roots! It made me think about my life, what it was to be alive. Roots was seminal. TV movies like That Certain Summer or Brian's Song, this was a golden age of television back then that was so immersive.
AN: Did you see TV as an art?
HG: I did. I had none of the sort of parochial view of television, that it was an idiot box. I took it very seriously. I was aware of the level of wit and cleverness and also immersiveness. A movie is a two-hour event. Somebody can work on a movie for years and years, the lights go down and they go up and you go home. But these TV characters that you live with from week to week and year to year was something that was very powerful.
LL: Having kind of been in this position myself as a kid, and having a lot of friends who did this, when you start understanding that you're very serious about TV, you start to think about it a lot. You analyze. What were you noticing that you liked about particular shows you followed?
HG: I don't think I grew up articulating this or being conscious of it, actually. I just really did not know what else to do. I had nothing else to do. I actually had applied to graduate school in creative writing and found myself more interested in trying at a television career. Again, I didn't know how one even went about it. I didn't know anybody who did it. But I was young enough to go out to L.A. with my partner Alex Gansa—who, like me, was an English major who also had no plans—and so I convinced him that I had this great idea for a miniseries on the life of Lord Byron. We got out there, and as it turned out no one was interested in Lord Byron. And I couldn't even get my hands on a script, to learn what it looked like. So, we literally transcribed scripts of television shows we had taped by hand and broke them down on index cards. That was our crash course the summer after graduating.
AN: You autopsied them.
HG: Pretty much. We deconstructed television episodes of shows we liked—St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues. I was more of the TV fan, Alex was not. He and I had forged a love of Saul Bellow. We were both huge Saul Bellow fans.
AN: Favorite Bellow story?
HG: Humboldt's Gift. Herzog is great, but Humboldt's Gift. I was fascinated with Delmore Schwartz. Anyway, we went out there and we became SAT tutors. I started an SAT preparation company, and we were very successful. Had I stayed doing it, I might be publicly traded now. … Instead, one of my students was the daughter of a producer who offered to read our St. Elsewhere spec script. He read it and invited us to pitch stories. In those days you could be a freelance writer. That doesn't exist so much anymore. There was actually a time when there was an executive producer and one or two story editors, and the rest were freelanced out. Those were the days you could actually schlep your story ideas and pitch them, sell it like Willy Loman and then go to the next show. That's what we did. Within a year, by 1984, six months after getting out there, we landed our first script. I have not stopped working since. If you graphed my career it has almost been at 45 degrees. It's had some zigzags but I've been mostly employed since 1985.
LL: What do you learn when you make the transition from a kid who's sitting and listening and transcribing to, say, your third gig in?
Continue reading: one of the last analysands in Beverly Hills
Malcolm Gladwell Has a Theory for Everything—Except Inscrutability
The pop-sci writer's new 'David and Goliath' peddles counterintuitive stories but lacks a soul


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Art by Francesco Francavilla
With the last LR issue (#25) in stores tomorrow, I thought to put together all the 25 covers I did for this run since issue 1 plus the 5 I did for the Lone Ranger and Zorro mini that came out right before this run. (that's almost 3 years of uninterrupted covers for this great series written by Ande Parks and drawn by Esteve Polls)
Missing drawing the Ranger, Tonto, and Silver already :(
Uncanny X-Men by John Romita Jr.
(Source: tattooedcomicguy)
Phil Noto ~ Superhero Candids
My favorite is Sue staring at Johnny in the UN Lobby.
Jim Steranko
(Source: dirtyriver)
Esad Ribic is a master of using lighting and perspective.
-My favorite one is the first image. He only fully rendered a few parts of Thor's left arm, Mjolnir, his mouth, and his nose. The rest is just suggested by the shading. I look at Esad's work and I see a lot of echoes from the great illustrators of the Turn of the Century (1900-1901) and the Golden Age of Comics.
This guy is GOOD. I found these convention sketches on:
Yeah. These are sketches. Not fully finished works.
Like a said, he's good.
He is fantabulous.
A new photo of Steve Ditko is circulating the net. Taken by Martin Greim in Ditko's New York studio in the 1970s.
(Source: liveandletflyy)