As Erik Duval, my fellow "snowflake" knows all too well from my incessant ramblings over the years, I’m of the sincere belief that the purpose of life is happiness. By this I mean happiness or joy of the very deep, profound kind: experiencing great joy in your own life and living your life to help others to experience great joy in their's. So while recently watching TED Talks, I was intrigued by a talk from 2004 called “What can we learn from spaghetti sauce” by Malcolm Gladwell on finding happiness with spaghetti sauce. Malcolm’s talk is about his long standing fascination and respect for the work of Howard Moskowitz, a world renowned expert in “psychophysics” and author of Selling Blue Elephants.
I found the whole thing to be a fabulous example of the Snowflake Effect. Here's an excellent use of 17 minutes and 42 seconds of your valuable time.
In Malcolm’s description of what he gets from Howard’s work, he noted for example how Howard has been instrumental in changing people’s thinking in the food and beverage industry. Prior to Howard’s interventions and insistence with the food and beverage industry, “everyone was looking for universals”, “looking for one way to treat all of us”, “something to please all of us”, “finding the rules that govern all of us”, and being surprised or puzzled when they failed to be successful in doing so.
These are very similar to the questions Erik and I are raising in our focus on the Snowflake Effect. Why it is that we seem to live in a world designed for sameness when we live in a world inhabited by unique "snowflakes"? In Malcolm’s estimation, the biggest change in science in recent years has been “the movement from the search for universals to the understanding of variability”. Obviously you’ll need to listen to Malcolm’s TED talk to understand the context, (one of my ulterior motives here), and I ‘d also highly recommend listening to Howard himself, such as in this interview of Howard by Phil Windley on Technometria.
To me, Malcolm was articulating a great example of the Snowflake Effect on spaghetti sauce, science, and coffee. The reason I think Malcolm is so passionate about happiness and Howard’s work (he has been writing and talking about his hero consistently for many years) is summed up in his closing line in this TED talk where he explains that he thinks the most beautiful lesson of Howard Moskowitz is “that by embracing the diversity of human beings we will find a surer way to true happiness.” Couldn’t have said it better myself, Malcolm! This is why Erik and I are so passionately pursuing a better understanding and awareness of the Snowflake Effect.
Your article is really very unique view.
From this article I learned a lot.
http://www.nike-star-shoes.net/LeBron_James_Shoes.html LeBron James Shoes
Posted by: nike outlet | January 18, 2010 at 11:16 AM