I was browsing through the Feb issue of IEEE Spectrum and I came across this quote in an article on e-newspapers…
Bluntly put, there is not much future for the once-a-day distribution of highly perishable information, printed with ink on thin sheets of expensive, chemically treated wood pulp.
If you think of it this way, there isn’t much of future for the paper newspaper.
But then I remembered the “flip test” on Andrew McAfee’s blog. Andrew describes a panel discussion about the future of the book. Here is what he says…
As the discussion was heating up about the inevitability of the electric media, someone on the panel (I wish it had been me) proposed a flip test. He said “Let’s say the world has only e-books, then someone introduces this technology called ‘paper.’ It’s cheap, portable, lasts essentially forever, and requires no batteries. You can’t write over it once it’s been written on, but you buy more very cheaply. Wouldn’t that technology come to dominate the market?”
Now I bet you are rooting for paper books.
Good examples of clever framing of the problem. Control the framing and control the debate/negotiation/selling/solution. Works all the time!
Hi Sharad,
Man has 5 sense organs namely eyes to see, nose to smell, ears to hear, tongue to taste and skin to touch. An experience consists of combination of these sense organs.
Print media gives him a richer experience because it involves touch and sight (sometime smell also!) People would continue to pay for more value. I guess the print is more convenient and ‘personal’ than the electronic media.
For example, with so many efficient personal productivity tools in the market, the most popular one still remains the “to-do-list” made of scrap paper and pencil. The reasons are the same. Convenience and the “Feel Factor”!
What do you people think?
Thanks,
Arun.PC
Sharad,
Thanks for another thought provoking article.
I was reading about Charlie Munger recently and here is what Charlie says referring to great mathematician Jacobi.
‘Invert, always invert,’ Jacobi said. He knew that it is in the nature of things that many hard problems are best solved when they are addressed backward”
Guy Kawasaki just posted “Frame or be Framed” on his popular blog. Although he talks of framing in the context of politics, all this is applicable to business as well. Worth a read!