mondaydots

thank you! mondaydots hits 50,000 views on youtube

Thank you everyone for your support over this past year. It has been a year and a month since I started mondaydots and really appreciate all the support and comments. We hit 50,000 views on YouTube! 

I am finally starting to kick the sleep deprivation from my new son and I have some new posts brewing. The one I am really excited about is on "fundamental attribution error". Stay tuned! 

Thanks again! Here's to another year! 

- jeff

 

computer aided engineering dots

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Jeff Waters, a long time reader and supporter of mondaydots has made his first dot video! You can find the original blog post on his blog, Life up Front. Jeff uses a great story to help the viewer (aimed at the Computer Aided Engineering, project management, and new product development audience) understand the need for the Space Claim product he sells.

Really nice work Jeff! Keep it up and I look forward to your next dot video!

sorry about the posts misfire - I'm now a Dad!

I was in the panic and excitement of the delivery room and accidentally fired off a couple of posts to the mondaydots blog when they should have gone to family blog to update our family members around the world. I apologize for the inconvenience.

I am a proud, first time parent of a big baby boy! 

Kai Jeffrey Monday was born at 12:07 pm PDT today! He is 9 pounds 7 ounces and 22 1/2" long.  Hopefully I have a little dot prodigy on my hands!

 

release the keynote files

I am really excited to let you know that I am releasing the raw Keynote files from my mondaydots videos/presentations. 

I have had quite a number of requests for these files from viewers and one of the core reasons I started the blog was to help people improve their presentations. 

I hope these files help, and if you make something incredible - please be sure to share it with me and I will repost it (with your permission) so everyone can learn from it too!

gamble model: download "the gamble model" file

why dots?: download "why dots?" Keynote file

cuts! panic! value?: download "cuts! panic! value?" Keynote file

goals and alignment: download "goals and alignment" Keynote file

disruptive innovation: download "disruptive innovation" Keynote file

mind the information gap: download "mind the information" gap Keynote file 

I can't post them all, as some include images I purchased from iStockphoto.com. Posting them would violate my license agreement. 

I would like to start posting these Keynote files with every post. This will encourage me to use my own images or draw my own for future posts (be very afraid!).Thanks for reading and I look forward to your feedback. 

mind the information gap

watch "mind the information gap" on vimeo

In reading "Driven" and "Made to Stick" I stumbled across an incredibly interesting idea. It's called Information Gap Theory. Dr. George Lowenstien wrote a paper about it in 1994 and it works like this: when we come across something new that is not explained by our previous knowledge or experiences, an information gap is formed. If you are a designer, creator or communicator, understanding how to use this gap will have great rewards. 

brand animation

Tudor "Doru" Girba emailed me this past week with a cool animation he built inspired by the mondaydots technique. It is a great testament of what you can build with three simple shapes. Nice work Doru! Check out the full post: "Tools and magic" on his blog.

relativity and immediate gratification

watch "relativity and immediate gratification" on vimeo

note: Ever since I started mondaydots my friend, Professor Doolittle, has encouraged me to read Back of the Napkin. I finally did this past week and I can easily say it is one my favorite books. I used the SQVID process from his book to refine some of the ideas in this post. If you are interested in the drawings, you can find them here

Transcript

Most people believe that the inherent need to satisfy immediate gratification stems from greed, a lack of self control, or the ability to sacrifice a smaller short term gain for a greater long term gain. While I agree, I also think that some of our short sighted decisions stem from the natural way we compare alternatives in the decision making process.  In fact I think the real cause of immediate gratification can be found in this picture from Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational". Which of the darker dots is larger? In this illusion it looks as though the dot on the left is larger. If we do a quick measure, we can easily see that the dots are in fact  the same size. Even with this newly minted knowledge if we loose the ruler, our eyes go back to seeing the dot on the left as being larger.  

coloadvisor dots

Shirin over at ColoAdvisor.com/ recently created his first mondaydots presentation explaining what his company does. It is a solid first presentation and I look forward to future ColoAdvisor presentations! 

principles of contribution

Watch "principles of contribution" on Vimeo

Transcript:
In our last post we promised a follow up for making your contribution social media ready. We have a few basic principles that if followed can help your content avoid being ignored and capture the attention of your second and third circles.

The first of these principles is to lead with passion. Find something you are passionate about and pursue it. We see so many people using social media just for the sake of using the technology or for shameless self promotion. If you aren't passionate about your work it will show in the quality. If you want your contribution to capture attention, put your heart and time into it, there are no shortcuts. 

contribution = rockstar

Watch on Vimeo

Social media and networking have fooled a lot of people and companies into thinking they are rockstars. Unfortunately the ease of access and near zero cost of distribution have created an internet that sounds a lot like this. (bad music playing) The abundance of fake rockstars have created an audience that is willing to be your friend, but not willing to listen to what you have to say, buy your product, or help you get a job.