Lowther Rinse Repeat

Dumbing it Down - The Problem with the Lowest Common Denominator June 24, 2008

I’d like to thank Buzz Bishop for twittering the link to One Degree’s article ‘Why “dumbing down” is smart‘.

The basic gist of this article is that if you want to capture the largest possible demographic for your product/blog/website/etc that dumbing it down is the easiest solution. The article then goes on to say that the average American reads at an eight grade level and that 30% of web users have a low level of literacy – the author does not give the definition of low level of literacy, but if an eighth grade level is the benchmark, I would venture to say that the bar has not been set very high. The author then details some statistics on what ‘low literacy’ readers online habits are and suggestions for you on how to reach them.

As an online marketer, I can see how this information maybe beneficial to increase your readership levels and to try and gain the largest market penetration available, but as a person, this article horrifies me. The ‘dumbing down’ of North America is a major problem. Just look at the current US Primary season, it is no longer admirable for the candidate to come across as educated, informed, and knowledgeable. No, the candidate needs to be just another ‘fellow’. Jon Stewart said it best - and I am completely paraphrasing here - I want my leader to make me look like an idiot and I want him to be the smartest person in the room. Intelligence is something that should be valued and strive for, not something that is shunned or looked down upon in the main stream.

You find this problem of chasing the lowest common denominator everywhere though. Just take the two local Vancouver newspapers - The Province and The Vancouver Sun. I believe - and please correct me if I am wrong - that they are at a 6th grade and 8th grade reading level respectively. This is a very sad state of affairs. We have a free public school system that goes to the 12th grade. Granted, not everyone completes high school, but should the vast majority of us not be able to read at that level.

Our education and intelligence is not like riding a bike, these skills do not stay with you forever; they diminish over time if you do not use them. So this move towards the lowest common denominator is a race to the bottom. The information contained within the article is great if you think that this is an admirable or desired outcome, but I don’t think it is.

The last sentence in the article was “So if you want more readers, sounding “dumb” online really is the smartest way to go.” Well I’m not OK with that. If what it means to increase my readership is to make myself sound uneducated and just one of the folks, I’m more than happy to keep my readership levels low - and this goes for the corporate sites I work on as well. I will not be part of the ‘dumbing down of North America’ epidemic that is happening. I do not want to race down to the lowest common denominator!

As an aside, one of the suggestions in the article was to use Microsoft Word and calculate the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease of your writing. This blog post received a 10^th grade reading level and a 60% reading ease. I am glad that I fail at the authors suggestion even though I don’t think this article is difficult to read.

Day 1 at Survivor Bootcamp June 23, 2008

I’ve just got back from my first day at bootcamp. Wow…do they ever work you and this was the ‘easy’ day.

The goal of bootcamp is simple - it is a group personal training regiment, designed to kick you into shape. According to their website “Our goal is to promote fitness and its many benefits to individuals of all ages. Join our small classes and you will run, hike, weight train, develop core strength through Pilates, and sweat through a fun and intense circuit every week.”

The bootcamp location that I signed up for is the one under the Cambie street bridge by Coopers Park.

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The first day was about assessing your current fitness level to give you a benchmark on which to see the endurance and physical improvements that you’ve gained from the training. Below is my fitness test:

- Push ups in one minute (girly ones): 22

- Sit ups in one minute: 30

- Plank hold (you balance on your toes and arms and see how long you can hold it - I did the girly ones though where you balance on your knees) - 1:35 *the longest of all the girls!!

- Squat hold (where you lean against a wall and pretend that you’re sitting on a chair) - 1:07

- 1 km run - 5:40

Then there were the measurements:

- Right Bicep: 10.5 in

- Chest: 38.5 in

- Abdomen (they measured across your belly button and not your narrowest part - kinda didn’t love that bit): 32 in

- Hips (again not where I’d think to take it - we did it across the largest part of your butt): 40 in

- Right thigh: 23 in

- Calf: 13.5 in

So in 4 weeks I’ll give you my final scores to see how far I’ve come in just a month. Already, I can see where my strengths and weaknesses lay.  I seem to be really good with endurance and core strength and need improvement in my upper body strength - I also seem to be a bit weak in lower body strength.  I’m really looking forward to improving my weaknesses as well as my strengths.

We finished the day with a upper body and brief core workout. Judging from today, they are really going to kick my ass and I love it. I’m looking forward to feeling and seeing the results. I’ll keep you posted.

The Problem with Allergy Medicine - Inflated Drug Efficacy June 16, 2008

I always know when summer is approaching by the onset of sneezing fits and the overwhelming desire to scratch out my eyes- yes, I am talking about allergies. I am allergic to just about everything that you find outside. But, I can deal with this because it means that summer is almost here and I love summer.

I deal with my allergies by seriously medicating myself with antihistamines. I love antihistamines, they are great. They eliminate all of my allergies, except on the worst of days. I have tried pretty much every brand of allergy medicine out there and I’ve found that Aerius, by far, works the best. Originally, you could only get it prescribed by a doctor, but in the last couple of years it has turned into an over the counter medication.

Aerius is expense. I’m good with this. It cures my symptoms and allows me to enjoy the great outdoors in my favorite season. As you can see in the picture , it costs $31.99CDN for a pack of 30, or $1.07 per tablet. This really is quite a reasonable price if the efficacy of the medication is 24 hours like stated on the outside of the box.

This brings me to my MAJOR PROBLEM with allergy medicine in general. It NEVER WORKS FOR AS LONG AS IT SAYS on the box. And it’s not even off by a little. I find that 24 hour allergy medicine works for maybe 6 hours and on bad days I need to take 2 for it to really work (keep in mind that these are the extra strength ones). I have a problem with this. So if you do the math - on a bad day I’m taking about 5 or 6 pill (well above the maximum daily recommended dose). So now instead of paying $1.07 to cure my allergies, I am paying between $5.35 and $6.42.

The drug companies need to be upfront with us on how well their medicine really works. It allows the consumers to make informed decisions regarding their selection in pharmaceuticals. Without this information, when we, as consumers, make pharmaceutical purchasing decisions they are not optimal decisions and this can lead to consumers that are unhappy with your product - such as me with this blog post. I will continue to purchase Aerius, as I find it works the best and I’ve found this issue is consistent across brands. But, I will, without hesitation, switch brands if I find a product that is as good or better. I would be a far more loyal consumer had they been more upfront with me before I made the product purchase.

Really? That’s Not a Lighthouse I See! June 12, 2008

Mark this up to another case of accidental porn, but I can’t imagine how the design team behind these gummies didn’t see the resemblance. Check it out for yourself, what do you see?

Day 1 in Banff - nextMEDIA Conference June 6, 2008

Yesterday I spent the day driving up to Banff for the nextMEDIA conference with Dario - and when I say all day I really do mean all day, we spent at least 10 hours in the car driving up here.  But it was worth it, BC is beautiful, actually that word does not describe it, breathtaking is a far better adjective.  The only downside of the drive, was the constant rain.  And!!! I finally got to see the Rockies from below 10,000 feet.  They are simply awesome - although I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t a sign saying that we’d entered the mountain range.  I guess that the big swath of mountains should have been enough of a hint though.

I noticed something on the drive up here.  People in BC are really bad at naming things.  Sometimes they were just boring, used or kinda stupid and other times I’m not quite sure how they missed the innuendo that went along with their name.  We had The Golden Rim, Skunk Cabbage Trail - OK I seem to have forgotten most of them after a nice full nights sleep - but, I’ll catch and write them down on the way down so that I can update this.  Although, my favorite was a billboard for a medieval theme park - the sign read “2 Adventures, 1 Stop”.  Dario and I spent a good 5 min giggling over that one (if you don’t know what I’m referring to, I will not submit you to it, but it involves a couple of girls and a cup).

I’ll update this post tonight once the days festivitites have ceased.   I now must find some coffee.