what makes an idea interesting hey everyone is vicki today we are answering the question vicky how do i articulate my thoughts so that my ideas spread now this is part two of the series on articulating your thoughts effectively if you haven't watched part one which covers the basic framework that also steve jobs uses to share his ideas in a clear and understandable way then check it out here i'll leave the link in the description as well but if you already have the basic framework today i want to talk about how do you get people to go from okay i understand what you're saying to this is amazing this is interesting i love it and i want to share that with other people if that's something you want to do then keep on watching to keep things organized this is how the video is structured first we'll talk about what makes an idea interesting in the first place then we'll talk about a four-letter framework that will help you structure your thoughts so that other people find your ideas interesting we'll show you some examples and if you stick to the end i'll show you a bonus four letter framework that will help you compound the interest generated with your idea let's get to the first part so first what makes an idea interesting for that we have to understand the paradox of human nature that we are both neophilic and neophobic meaning that we love and hate new things we love new things because of one of our evolutionary characteristic neoteny which means that we retain some juvenile some child-like characteristics like curiosity like our love for learning that lifelong learner is an evolutionary trait where it allows us to learn collective intelligence collective culture it allows us to adapt that's why we love new things we need to be able to learn to evolve but on the other hand we are also so scared of new things things that are familiar to us are those things that kept us alive they didn't kill us so there is a mere exposure effect that you may have heard of which means that just by merely being exposed to something someone we unconsciously like that thing or that person better so these two opposing forces are constantly pulling and pushing us when we decide if we like an idea or not and with all this you might already intuitively know the answer to the question what makes something interesting and studies have been done on this for example academic proposals of new novel innovative ideas don't tend to get funding as much as those ideas that are just building on something more familiar a new twist to something that already exists so in this way we want to be new but not too new in order for others to find an idea interesting and this brings me to the four letter framework that will help you structure and guide the way you articulate your thoughts which is maya this comes from the amazing industrial designer raymond loewy who's behind names like coca-cola shell nabisco what he found was that people love new things but they can't be too new or in other words most advanced yet acceptable maya so how do you use maya you have to balance the surprise with the familiarity so let's think about the idea that you want to present is it on something new or is it on something that's familiar and you're sharing a new perspective depending on the two you'll take slightly different approaches if you're talking about something new you have to make sure you make the connection to something familiar for the audience in order for them to find your idea interesting and not too out of this world this is exactly what unicorn startups do as well when they first started like airbnb for example they called themselves ebay for houses once airbnb is a bit more well known uber then came in and said we are airbnb for cars so this idea of attaching something new to an existing idea in order for people to be more open to it is very important now here's the first iphone ad hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello oh hello barney hello hello hello hello hi how you doing there yo hello hello hello hello hello yo yo hello hello hello hello hello so simple but this is the exact structure right share the context and then bam here's the new idea that will change your life you just want enough curiosity apple's not explaining what is so great about these ads because they will explain later on do not explain what this new thing is that is key what you want to do is spark curiosity right you do not want to be like every other academic out there with amazing ideas before everyone because they're just going into the details and assuming that people are interested no what you want to do when you're sharing something new is tie it back to something familiar give people context and show them that hey this is something new that's related to something you already know and why don't you find out more and here let me show you another example from apple [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] see how apple started with a familiar scene right someone sitting in front of the computer and listening to music this is so key that it's not boom this is something completely new check out how innovative this is no you want to bring them into the story with you if you're sharing something new because there is that rejection of new things if it seems too novel you really want to give people context to help them envision how this new thing is going to fit into their lives now if you're talking about something familiar here is how to use maya you have to instead of providing the context you want to inject surprise right away let's use another iphone example except not the first one but one where now everyone in the world knows about iphones [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] see how now it's not about the context as much as focusing the viewer's eyes onto the specific parts that you want to draw out if you're talking about something familiar and you're sharing your unique take on it something new about it then you want to immediately guide people to focus on those things because now context is boring context is everyday life there are a few elements that you want to focus here first you want to focus on the aspiration why did you come up with that new way of looking at things right to keep it fresh to improve someone's life to improve that old idea and combine this with an element of surprise this is my favorite emotion when it comes to storytelling when it comes to sharing an idea especially a familiar one because in order to get people to pay attention in order for people not to write you off you have to give them that bam pay attention this is new right iphone did that with someone tapping their foot and before their foot even hits the ground everything is downloaded with 5g that's pretty impressive right and they've done that throughout the ad so use aspirations add an element of surprise and now you have a new take on an old idea and since you made it this far i'm sharing with you the bonus four letter framework to compound the effect of maya and that is the framework ada i've talked about this in detail in another video but the simple breakdown of ada is attention interest desire and action ada is the fundamental of marketing and marketing really is the art and science of getting someone to be open to your message right and so when we share an idea and we want that idea to spread we should definitely use marketing principles if you look back at the ipod and the iphone ads you'll see that they use exactly the ada framework with maya for the ipod it starts with attention right which links to the familiar then in interest it shares why this new approach is revolutionary while being set in the familiar context then it's desire right sharing the awesome new benefits and why you wouldn't want this in your life and then it ends with action guiding people down the customer journey for the iphone we also start with attention right injecting that element of surprise whoa this close up and then i see a person whoa look at those new cameras then you go into interest right allude to familiarity while going to desire of sharing the awesome new benefits and why you would want this then action getting people to find out more maya plus ada equals idea sold let me know in the comments if you like these structures if you like these examples check out the other videos i've mentioned subscribe like if you haven't already and i'll see you in the next one bye