Skip to main content

Weekly Wednesday Wisdom: You can learn from Chip Kidd

Wisdom for Miloh: Not all frauds are bad.

I "met" Chip Kidd about seven years back at a book signing. You can read a bit about it here.

The image below is from one of the books he signed. I realize he was just goofing around, or maybe not, but I think there's a nugget of awesomeness.


Although I know it would put Chip Kidd in a state of depression for years to hear that he's not my favorite fraud I have to say that P.T. Barnum holds that place in my hear. Phineas Taylor is actually a hero of mine. He was an incredible salesmen... Maybe the best.

The dude made a fake Cardiff Giant and then when the "real" Cardiff Giant was found out to be a fake he billed his as the Fake Fake Cardiff Giant... People kept coming to see his fake.

He also came up with the "This way to the Egress" signs... Freaking brilliant if you ask me... But if you ask others he's a fraud.

That's just the tip of the iceberg of Barnum but I'm not under the gun to do a whole report on him... However, Miloh, when you have to do your first expository report (haven't used that word since 10th grade) I'll make you suggest you do one on him.

Barnum, and others, paved the way for modern marketing... What I do... Really it's the same thing he did... Smoke, mirrors, telling the truth in your own way... Yeah being a fraud isn't the worst thing ever.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New Giveaway: ABC's for Expectant Dads - 10 awesome copies

Winners have been picked for the giveaway. Todd was so nice as to give all who entered by the deadline a copy of his book. Thanks all who entered...I sent an email to you for your info. Please email me (info on the header) if you don't get that email. Rommel I could not find your email...please let me know your contact info. A bit ago I found Todd Lieman in Twitterland and he sent me a copy of his book ABC's for Expectant Dads: The Ultimate A- for Dads-in-Training. I'd looked at a bunch of expectant dad books and I thought most were terrible. I did pick up The Expectant Father and I liked it but I haven't looked at it in months. I think it's tough for dad's because we're just reading about what's going on with the mothers and it's easier to hear it from them. Staci is reading so much that she keeps me up to date on things I should know and I'm sure most expectant moms are the same. I'm also luckily in that doing this blog has connected

The Cat in the Hat Knows Pretty Much Nothing About That

I find myself saying it a lot but we don't let Miloh watch a lot of TV... Mostly because it goes a bit against Montessori at home (although we're pretty reform with that) and also because we, read I, watch too much and we don't want Miloh in the habit. On the list of things he does watch is The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That. Netflix is our friend in the mornings so he will get a bit of that or Sesame Street while the person who's on duty that AM tries to actually wake up. And Miloh truly loves the show. He calls it hat and pats his head. He let's us know that there's a fish on screen every time the fish comes on screen, he dances and says "Go, go, go" when they sing that song. Unfortunately since we really only watch on Netflix we've only seen eight episodes... But this gives me time to really think about the show. Here are some problems with it: The Cat in the Hat actually really knows almost nothing about everything. He does

Dear Scott the Paleontologist – the response... Wait sorry... the awesome response

In my last post I asked some incredibly pressing questions to Dr. Scott Sampson aka Scott the Paleontologist. Questions that any parent of a Dinosaur Train fan wants to know... I got a reply and I have to say Dr. Scott is hilarious and pretty awesome... But I'm a fan of science humor... So here are his responses in line with mine. They're in blue because that's the color of most of  Shiny Pteranodon. Dear Scott the Paleontologist, My son Miloh and I are fans of Dinosaur Train and as an avid fan I have some questions regarding it that I hope you can answer: The train is a steam engine. Does it run off coal? If it does use coal is there a possibility that greenhouse gases from that could have lead to the extinction of dinosaurs? How come this isn't a theory? Very interesting question. Yes, to the best of my knowledge, the Dinosaur Train runs on fossil fuels, but we actually do have an episode upcoming where we investigate alternative fuel trains. Given that