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Slide 2: seeing things • we’re in the business of “seeing things” • a symptom for some people • a business model for the rest of us • our clients depend on seeing things early and clearly, on grasping new patterns • pattern: product idea, campaign theme, BFI, innovation, positioning strategy, new media play • it wasn’t there naturally at MIT • so I started wondering what are the mechanics? • are there patterns to pattern recognition?

Slide 3: recognition becomes cognition • It’s not pattern recognition, exactly • it’s not an act of identification • oh, there’s a pattern • or this is an example of that • it’s finding a match between – something swirling in the client’s world – something swirling in our heads • and this is a matter of making patterns • cognitioning them (apologies to Elvis Presley)

Slide 4: two categories of useful patterns in our heads • 1. prefabricated ideas – all that reading in college and since – patterns at the ready – this is kind of like pattern recognition • 2. purpose build, custom made – ideas we make on our own

Slide 5: intellectual appliances • these patterns are a little like blenders or toasters • they are created to solve a particular problem simply and well • we surround these ideas with all kinds of worshipful regard and a certain amount of hocus pocus • better to think of them as practical devices

Slide 6: 1. prefabricated patterns • Oh, that’s like kinda like … • what Simmel says about social imitation • Freud on the “preconscious stream” • that’s very Buffy or Simpson’s • that’s very Burton or Jarmusch • getting a fix on something • it is a kind of bagging and tagging • it helps us think • take an evanescent idea and give it shape and form • an intellectual appliance (like a toaster)

Slide 7: a case in point • yesterday NFL threatened to ban long hair • a violation of personal freedom • football players as Roman gladiators • controlled until sacrificed to owner greed • but if you use Daniel Bell’s distinction between instrumental and expressive individualism, a more elegant argument emerges • one cannot be allowed to extinguish the other • the issue leaps up when seen through this lens

Slide 8: 10 ideas • 1. Kauffman on • 6. Granovetter and messiness as a good strength of weak ties thing • 7. Surowiecki and • 2. Goffman on public wisdom of crowds life as a stage • 8. Levitt: what • 3. Brooks on business are we in multiplicity in social • 9. David Weinberger life (Bobos) and the new • 4. Blue Oceans structure: small • 5. Shirky and pieces loosely joined emergent categories • 10. X on porousness

Slide 9: 2. purpose built, custom made patterns • starts with noticing • my Sahlinsian instruction • an alert had sounded in his head • full alert, what was this? • the point is not to be glib • noticing as a brute activity • do it often and easily • (PSFK every morning)

Slide 10: our heads teeming • things we notice • things we’ve heard • things we’ve read • the way the client likes to think about things • all swimming about • not consciously entertained • but quick to manifest • there is a process at work of which we are unaware

Slide 11: An example • I was talking to Teri Rogers • and a couple of half-patterns emerged and rushed together • 1. Just-in-time • 2. Just-enough • These are really still in the works • I am doing pattern cognition “under glass”

Slide 12: possible pattern 1: just-in-time • the world is more responsive • the things I need to get the job done are there at hand • some simple improvements: – messages by SMS or email – packages for FedEx – airline tickets on line, tickets produced at airport – gmaps on your iphone as you step out of the subway • the concierge effect, invisible order • everything at hand just as and when we need it • the term is from Taiichi Ohno, Toyota car assembly plants, early 1970s • we use it more broadly as a way of thinking about how our social, commercial, urban worlds reengineered and made available

Slide 13: possible pattern 1: just-in-time in design • more metaphorically this time • objects that comes with intelligence built in • so that the intelligence of the designer leaves the object, passes into my hand, runs up my arm, enters my brain, and becomes an idea, • 1) I know how to operate this thing! • 2) I must be a genius! • well, no, it’s the object that’s a genius • it delivers what I need to know about the object at the very moment I need to operate the object

Slide 14: possible pattern 1: is this something or is it nothing • the Letterman question • am I “on to something”? • and if I am on to something, am I talking about it in the right way, with the right tag • is this “just in time” or something else • if it isn’t this, then what?

Slide 15: possible pattern 2: just enough • Yale economist Barry Nalebuff: Honest Tea • Sugar, like most goods, has a declining marginal utility. One teaspoon takes away tea’s bitterness. Another adds a nice sweetness. That’s where we stop. • a new model of consumption? • as opposed to the “Denny’s model”: all you eat and at least 3000 calories more • 1950s: America the bountiful, land of plenty • every American duty-bound to consume heroic quantities of sugar, salt, fat, nicotine, alcohol, sun (to say nothing of carbon) • all the world is a resort culture • we have been scaling this back • but perhaps now we have an idea for scaling this back • rework the fundamental terms of the bargain?

Slide 16: the patterning process • we are always coming across things like Honest Tea • PSFK every morning, a stream of Ohs! • we want to keep all of them as candidates, keep all of them in play, and see if confirmation is forthcoming • a couple of days ago: • Newman’s Own Sweet Enough cereal • Oh becomes Ok • this pattern is forming

Slide 17: ideas cohabiting in your head • so, for most of us, the ordinary world finds our heads teeming with possible meanings • and in this case, in my conversation with Teri, while talking about real estate, these two ideas fell hopelessly in love • teeming becomes teaming • they leapt up and said “we belong together” • just-in-time and just-enough together forever?

Slide 18: But do they (belong together)? • well, kinda, sorta, maybe, if you squint your eyes and tilt your head, sure • now the task is to find the pattern that brings these ideas together

Slide 19: what do we call this and what happens when we do? • The “engineering” option: – calibration, engineering, delicate mechanics – Tokyo and trains that arrive on time – a clockwork, wheels within wheels, the Clockwork American?i • Escher “the world inventing itself” option: – escalators, things that emerge just as you need them to • The Game Space option – that game renders to the right when we go right, dream time, a new time-space thingy • Synchronicity option – too badly damaged by that Police song? • a new bargain in the consumer society? – we get more as we take less – we are enabled, not indulged • Argh: none of these is quite right

Slide 20: the new bargain of the digital age • I like this last one, imperfect as it is • it invites us to rethink the consumer proposition globally, expansively • look, we can say, consumers are no longer consumers • the point of goods and services is not to indulge the consumer, but to enable them • we are getting more instrumentality, even as we use less stuff • we are becoming more vaporous, more virtual, less weighty, less punishing to the planet • less voracious and more active • notice that this still might not be an idea • and certainly I haven’t yet found the right tag • my hope is that somewhere out there is a client someday will go, “right, I could use that”

Slide 21: the new urgency • 5 reasons for better pattern cognition • 1. the sheer ferocity of change • 2. clients are all in the innovation game • 3. they need more ideas more quickly • 4. “black box” creativity in deep disrepute • 5. we have made pattern cognition a private activity, we do not share our intellectual appliances with enthusiasm

Slide 22: next steps • pattern cognition is a private activity • even when conducted in a “brain storm” • the patterns at work in our heads often remain proprietary software • we never reveal the code • it is time for us to think more explicit about the patterns we use to find patterns • it’s time for us to share these patterns

Slide 23: Pattern cognition in summary: 1. applying prefabricated patterns • Daniel Bell as a case in point • our parents are thrilled, liberal arts education vindicated • by this time, you would think we would be better at this • time to break with the business press model • almost uniformly hopeless • too long, clumsy, inelegant and insufficiently illuminating • maybe PSFK will treat us to periodic reviews of best ideas found on blogs this month

Slide 24: pattern cognition in summary: 2. building our own ideas as we go • Just-in-time as one case in point • Just enough as a second • not exemplary but the ideas that happened to happen this week • we can follow up here but sharing half formed observations • there are conversational rules about how “half baked” a thought can be • we need to change these rules, these tolerances • (or get new friends)

Slide 25: Pattern cognition in summary: 3. brute noticing, Sahlinsian! • noticing stuff in the world • nothing happens unless this does • not assimilating • not being Mr. or Ms Smarty Pants • not grabbing at things • but letting the world put us on notice • no, we don’t “get” this • stopping to think what we would have to think to think this • listening for what might be patterns

Slide 26: Pattern cognition in summary: 4. patterns make more patterns • this is the climb from small patterns to bigger ones • in the case of our rush to a meta-pattern for just- in-time and just-enough, we climbed very far indeed • a whole new bargain • really? anthropologist, please! • but this really is the high rigger stuff and the most fun possible • we need forums for this • PSFK here too?

Slide 27: seeing things • we’re in the business of “seeing things” • our clients depend on seeing things early and clearly, on grasping new patterns • pattern: product idea, campaign theme, BFI, innovation, positioning strategy, new media play • it wasn’t there naturally at MIT • so I started wondering what are the mechanics? • are there patterns to pattern recognition? • I hope this was useful

Slide 28: • you can reach Grant McCracken at grant27@gmail.com