I suspect that most of the people here would agree with me, although it hasn't exactly come up in an overt way: the majority of kids who come to the attention of adults because of their alcohol or drug using behavior don't, fundamentally, have a drug problem. If kids are smoking pot before class, they have a school problem. If they are drinking six beers at a party and then driving home, they might have a social problem and they certainly have a judgment problem, as most adolescents do. Kids in poor neighborhoods who end up involved with criminal drug dealing gangs likely have an economic problem.

But the basic issue is not that there are bad chemicals out there and we need to sit down and talk with them about chemicals. There might be something we need to talk with them about, or really, there might not be a problem at all -- they might just be experimenting because kids like to try new things. The vast majority who do so do not end up getting into any kind of trouble at all, except for the trouble that overreacting adults make for them.

As we turn the page on yet another year, I just want to say thank you to everyone who reads this blog regularly. I would post to it quasi-daily even if a handful of you bothered to check by every few weeks or so, but it's nice to have so many of you swing by here daily. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You make my day. :)

For the next three days, I will be bringing you interesting bits of insight from the other side of the big pond. Because I want you to be able to read and understand these posts, I will translate everything into English (yes, free of charge.)

How about that!

(If you want to read the meat of this post in its original French, the link go here.)

Jean-Noël Kapferer (HEC).

2007 was characterized by the success of extremes: Low cost and luxury brands in mass market like Apple, H&M or Nespresso. We observed a polarization phenomenon in the market.

As I was intending to get back to the mind/body thing, along comes a fortuitous hook: Pfizer, the same people who give you the whorish Dr. Jarvik hawking an expensive statin that is no better than its far cheaper generic competitors (even though he has no relevant expertise and has never practiced medicine), is now marketing a new drug for fibromyalgia.

To us medical sociologists, fibromyalgia is an endless source of fascination. Like the psychiatric "diseases," it is diagnosed based on a checklist of self-reported, qualitative and subjective symptoms. There is no known etiology and there are no physical findings whatsoever. So there is raging controversy over whether there is any such "disease" as fibromyalgia.

You were driving a white Chevy sedan. I'm not sure what model, but I know it was a Chevy because the logo came pretty damn close to leaving a permanent imprint in my left calf muscle when you almost mowed me down in downtown Greenville this afternoon (see scenario #1 above) at Pendleton & Washington.

Here are a few driving tips for you:

1. Get your eyes checked. If you are required to wear prescription glasses while driving, WEAR them!
2. When making a left turn at an intersection with no "left turn" arrow, YIELD to oncoming traffic! That means cars, motorcycles, moped, and yes, bicycles. It's Saturday afternoon, you're old, and you have no reason to be in a hurry. OBEY THE LAW and wait until oncoming traffic has passed before making a left turn. Why do I have to tell you this?

This is actually no shock to me at all. Except, I prefer cats.

You Are 80% Left Brained, 20% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.

Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.

If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.

Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.

The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.

web2 nonparticipates
Originally uploaded by benbarren Just got home from a strange day of extremes, where we 4th meeting pitched some high quality VC's (rare bunch downunder) and explained the types of problems clients have that we can solve and componentize. Mr Burley afterwards rightly pointed out that we all talk too much, and one day we'll learn to listen to the question and be able to answer within 140 characters.

The afternoon then flipped around where we spent a few hours training a client's staff on how the (same tools we'd pitched in the morning) would work for the client esp at a site admin level.

Starting this week, the BrandBuilder blog will be bringing you a little glimpse of the corporate lifestyle... because we're cool that way... and we don't always have time to actually write full-length articles and whatnot. Below are your first two definitions:

"Drinking The Kool-Aid."

To accept and/or adopt the company's culture and/or delusions, as when a formerly uncooperative or oppositional employee becomes completely brainwashed, thinks management is really great, and clams up when drinking with colleagues after work; a reference to Jim Jones' cult People's Temple whose members committed mass suicide.
Bonus definition: "Employee Assistance Program (EAP)"

Excellent post on Business Pundit earlier this month:

Grossing over $150,000,000 in its first two weekends at the box office, “Iron Man” has come out of the gates as one of the top blockbusters of the year. If you haven’t seen it – believe the hype. Bar none it is the best ‘hero’ movie I’ve seen.

To shave or not to shave? The debate rages on at the office this week.

What's your opinion:

A) Shave every morning before work?
B) Shave only twice a week and sport a 24-48hr shadow at least 3 out of 5 workdays?

In what instances is it completely acceptable?
In what circumstances is it completely unacceptable?

Can some people pull it off while others can't?

"Individuals behave in a difficult manner because they have
learned that doing so keeps others off balance and incapable of effective
action. Worst of all, they appear immune to all the usual methods of
communication and persuasion designed to convince or help them change their
ways."
- Robert Bramson, Ph.D.

I will probably spend the rest of my life trying to figure out why some people are so vehemently opposed to change, progress or new ideas that they will exert more energy fighting them than embracing them.

I'm officially a Mother.

I'm a Marketer On THE Run.

Which means we now have to consider the Mother Factor.

Since I got back into the corporate side 4 months ago, it's business as usual. Well, almost business as usual.

Taking a well deserved break from drafting some brilliant business proposals for the coming year, I found this perfectly timed bit of advice in what may be Seth Godin's final post of 2007 (no worries, he'll be back in 2008). Read it slowly so it has time to set in:

Wow!
Umm… that was an easy fix!
My computer was not as ruined as I had thought it was.
I admit. I panicked.
And who can blame me?
There is nothing funny about a black screen!
But what I have to say about the recovery of my computer may be of profound importance to other Mac-users out there. So, listen up!

But first… just a little story that once again proves I am “mentally challenged.”

Mike Bawden (who was kind enough to quote me on his blog a while back) once wrote one of the simplest yet most astute observations about leadership that I have ever read:

I try to stay away from topics that involve religion or politics, but every once in a while, I have to break my own rules. If this topic offends you, I apologize in advance. Now get over it.

From Forbes.com:

Now before I get started on this little rant I just want to say I really could care less about politics and the whole big brother concept it has with other countries. But when it comes to problems in sports and sports figures, Congress needs to keep their big nose out of sport's business. I really am sick and tired of turning on ESPN and now that football is done and over with it seems like the only two things on ESPN anymore are steroids in baseball and the spygate and how congress is "interested in getting to the bottom of this". On Wednesday Roger Clemens and a handful of baseball players, trainers, and representatives are heading to Capital hill to discuss the findings of steroids in baseball. It is a day I am simply going to call "Black Wednesday". This is something that is baseballs problem not the governments.

A week before Army Gen. David Petraeus updates Congress on the war in Iraq, two new studies have found that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from especially high rates of post-combat psychological problems, exacerbated by an unusually high rate of repeat deployments.

Veterans for America’s (VFA) Wounded Warrior Outreach Program is concerned with the staggeringly high levels of mental health problems and neurological injuries experienced by today’s troops, and the lack of resources and rehabilitative programs available for our wounded.

Okay, let's imagine you're a U.S. Army psychiatrist.

Oh, so they attack your base with mortars every night? How does that make you feel?

Mmhmm, difficulty sleeping, I see.

Whenever you go out they what? Try to kill you with bombs, machine guns, and rocket propelled grenades? So do you think people are out to get you?

And how does that make you feel?

Anxious, afraid? Ah hah. Angry?

Well you know that's irrational, President Bush isn't shooting at you. And what else is bothering you?

You don't like shooting people. Well, we all have a job to do, it isn't always pleasant . . .

hands full
Originally uploaded by benbarren Topix is a quite different beast to Technorati, but by focusing on solving the "local news" business has a much healthier dynamic. It's interesting to see how they source their index of local content, and something other newspaper groups might learn from. From Local Onliner on Topix's evolution :

The view from Microsoft's new digs in Bellevue, WA (yeah, that's Seattle across the water).

Sorry about the lack of posts this past week. I was traveling and attending meetings and whatnot.

Just to give you a quick recap, here are some of the cool things I saw and did while in Seattle:

National Pubic Radio does a lot of those person on the street interviews with prospective primary voters, and while they are not good for my blood pressure, they force me to confront an inconvenient truth. Here are the Republican voters I've heard recently:

• A guy whose number one priority is getting the U.S. out of Iraq. He has decided to vote for John McCain because McCain's a military veteran, and that means he's the guy who knows how to end the war and bring the troops home. One major problem with that theory is that McCain has absolutely no intention of bringing the troops home. On the contrary, he says that he doesn't mind if they stay there for 100 years.
• A woman who says that she's going to vote for Mitt Romney because "he's a committed Christian, and he isn't ashamed of it." Uh, lady -- I've got news for you.
  

They got some pretty little women there and .. .

Oh, never mind. Anyway, my jet setting lifestyle continues as I will be in Jersey City Sunday through Wednesday for the Third International Conference on Antiretroviral Adherence. Sounds a little narrow, I know, but the subject actually is quite revealing as a test case for physician-patient relationships and communication and disease management and stuff in general.

Conference presentations aren't as strictly and paranoically embargoed as journal articles, so I will tell you that in general terms, my colleagues and I have found that if you give doctors a report about their patients' medication taking behavior, they will indeed talk about it more during the visit -- twice as much, on average, in fact. However, that does not result in the patients being more adherent to their medication regimens.

In fact, it has the opposite effect.

"such is life"

"So I was wondering, what is that exact point where a company stops caring? Stops paying attention to their customers? Stops with the phenomenal customer service? Is it when they reach a certain sales figure? A certain number of employees?"

Every once in a while, I browse what search engine keywords lead people to the brandbuilder blog. It's always interesting because I can track how people who aren't necessarily regulars find their way to our little conversations. The highest keyword returns tend to be along the lines of functions of marketing department, advertising, buzz metrics, WOMM, business practices and brand strategy. Most keywords are indeed related to the topics commonly found here.

Awesome post from Chris Brogan today:

I believe we’re going to shift back to thinking customer service and community management are the core and not the fringe. I believe we’re going to move our communications practices back in-house for lots of what is currently pushed out to agencies and organizations. I believe that integrity, reputation, skills, and personality are going to trump some of our previous measures of professional ability. I believe the web and our devices will continue to move into tighter friendships, and that we will continue to train our devices to interpret more of the world around us on our behalf.

Read the rest here.

Excellent little opinion about success (among other things) over at Seen Creative:

"You don't have the skeleton key. There are no rules, there are no templates, there are no secret ingredients. Everything is unique and everything is dependent on its own circumstance. You can write all the books, magazine articles, or blog posts you want, but someone will always be able to prove the exception. Something will always contradict. One reason these businesses are successful is probably because their founders didn't take advice from stupid articles in Wired, or try to ride the latest meme sweeping the blogosphere. They understood that every situation is unique, and they needed to approach it as such. What's right is what works, not what previously worked."

My good friend and super personal trainer Holly DiGiovine sent out an email over the weekend that struck a cord with me. Here's some of what she had to share:

When you have a goal that is as huge as the marathon-it will "keep you honest." It's not like a smaller goal that you can announce and then put off or fake your way through. Once you sign up, commit months to training, and take your first step on race day-you better have done your homework.

The beauty of this is that it goes against 99% of the natural tendencies of our culture that favors gratification without effort or devotion. But is that kind of achievement ever as satisfying? Linda Hill once told me she loved the quote, "There is no glory in training, but there is no glory without training." In no way is this more true than in running.