David Ogilvy was an ultimate ad-man. In the letter to Mr. Calt he describes his approach to a process of copywriting.

Basically he had been doing a huge amount of research (dating 20 years back for every ad in the customers industry). He had been producing piles of writing and after that finally editing his drafts.

This is the feature I find in every great leader and product designer - they make loads of versions. They put massive amount of work in the design. Not by sole thinking about what to build but by actually building a lot of products variations. And once all the versions are done, they choose the best one.

It was the same with Charles Eames - a famous architect and designer. His process was based on producing a lot of items to finally choose the best solution. It’s that simple.

Look at Apple and the way they work - as you can read in Walter’s Isaacson Steve Jobs’ biography - before they make decision on device design, they produce a lot of iterations and 3d print them. Jobs’ decisions on a product design were based on that 3d prints.

With first iPhone - they made working prototypes which Steve Jobs was caring with him for testing. Few weeks before official premiere he had decided that the screen of the device has to be made from glass. As a result of this brand new Jobs’ requirement, they had to build an entirely new assembly line to ship.

That’s a lot of waste, isn’t it?

Working hard in design means producing a lot of waste. Waste is good because it proves that you have a choice and you choose what you think is best for you.

I am a lousy copywriter - letters of note

There is loads of bussiness advice floating around interwebs. Most of it is very general advice which is not practical and hard to use in real life.

This kind of high level advice seem to be the one that we like the most. It’s usually general enough to match a lot of different situations we are in, and it has some ethical or aesthetic message.

Being general makes them poetic so they are easier to remember and quote or even use as sort of bussines mantra. It’s usually hard to put that matra into action in a very specific situation we are facing or decision we have to make.

Goal of a bussines matra is to make you feel better, loose tention, reduce stress. Is not here to help you face reality.

There are moment we nees matras. Specialy when we need to think about future, evolve a vision, think in terms of bigger picture. Those moments are important. But those moments are rare. Most of the time you need more precise advice - you need exact recepies how to do stuff or what should me done next. Everyday kind of things - very down to earth.

I consider Seth Godin the master of this category. Seth writes very well and has some very insightful but general comments that are very esthetically appealing.

The opposite side is represented by authors like Joel Spolsky - he writes about real and tangible problems that software entrepreneurs face and how he deals with them. It’s much easier to disagree with him but it makes his advise much more practical.

I learned this distiction and I’m using it to evaluate every text I read. Poetry and prose of business are two completely different worlds and two different states of mind.

What do you think? Do you prefer more general or specific advice?

Badacze obserwowali dzień z życia dwóch grup uczniów szkoły muzycznej grających na skrzypcach.