
How To Make Sure People Will Remember Your Ideas - zackattack
http://www.zacharyburt.com/2010/07/how-to-make-sure-people-will-remember-your-ideas/
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gruseom
That's a good insight about Dunning-Kruger meeting the criteria for a sticky
idea. I think the fit may be even better than you say. Everyone knows somebody
who overestimates themselves in an annoying way, and I think DK hooks up with
these memories instantly. So while DK is not a story per se, it might as well
be; it releases stories in the brain.

I'd add another reason for the surprising catchiness of the Dunning-Kruger
Effect: it's easy to say. Seriously, say "Dunning-Kruger Effect" several
times: it's easy to say and actually feels good, like you've said something
really substantive. Sounds trivial, but I bet it isn't.

Edit: oh and here's another: it's self-flattering. Who, on hearing this
principle, has ever thought, "Oh, that's just like me, always overrating
myself"? No. We all identify with the competent hero, unappreciated even by
himself.

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usaar333
Slightly OT, but from reading about the Dunning-Kruger effect:

"Across four studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the
bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated
their test performance and ability. "

I find myself wondering -- how do you (formally) test someone on their humor
ability?

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gfodor
Good one. (sorry, if you didn't get the joke, you must be overestimating your
humor skills.)

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adn37
Zach, I like your articles.

Though, I think they could be made easier to read by adding sub sections, so
the structure of the article may be understood at once. My 2 cents!

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dmix
I agree, excellent content but a few headings would make this more readable.

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dotBen
Is this a meta-joke? I.E. because his post was less-readable maybe you began
to forget his ideas in it?

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dmix
Any content online should be clearly structured and scannable.

For example if you read a reference at the bottom of the page to something in
the middle, it helps to have headings to quickly find what was mentioned.

This is important when people have attention spans of 3-year olds, as they do
when reading online.

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drawkbox
The Dunning-Kruger effect actually started to become known on the web in 2006
that is when I read it on Damn Interesting:
<http://www.damninteresting.com/unskilled-and-unaware-of-it>

I think recently though it hit internet pop status.

Sounds like a case of the The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
<http://www.damninteresting.com/the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon>

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mcknz
Dunning-Kruger perhaps not so simple...

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1494732>

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wdewind
Actually the analysis of DK in this article doesn't make the same mistake the
author of THAT article is referring to. Both are good reads though.

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powrtoch
I spend a lot of time thinking about what makes songs catchy. It's trickier
than you might think (if you don't take the bottom of the barrel approach of
endless repetition). One day I plan to have an algorithm for this.

Most of these ideas mesh pretty well with my theories on that. Of course, I'd
love to see some predictive tests before I declare anything psychological
fact.

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petercooper
Believe it or not, some work has been done in that area:
<http://news.discovery.com/tech/music-hits-algorithm.html>

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powrtoch
That's really interesting, I appreciate the link!

To clarify though, my ideas are geared towards actually generating the tunes
to begin with, not analyzing them afterward.

It's too bad this thing isn't open-source and is stuck behind a paywall, seems
like there's a lot to be learned from it.

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sliverstorm
Alternatively, just make everyone hate you with a burning passion, and you
will NEVER be forgotten.

The villains carry on much longer in our minds. How many people who know
Hitler's name remember Truman, Churchill, and FDR's involvement in the war?

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GavinB
Another important quality for a sticky idea is a cool name. Intriguing names
is one of the qualities that makes TV Tropes so addictive.

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llaxsll
Interesting. Even if you actually scope it down to the name, some of these
principles still hold true. For example, take flickr - its simple, and
unexpected as syntax. Kind of when I think of it now, it might be part of the
reason why I remembered it in the first place. Althought now with everybody in
Web 2.0 using some sort of an interesting syntax.. it is not as unexpected,
and thus not as memorable anymore.

