Day 51/60: Apple Caviar?? And, experiment like Peter Pan (never grow up!)

Apple is starting their marketing flywheel… now charging $40K for a Caviar Vision Pro

How to accomplish experimental tasks?

In a famous experiment, Kindergarteners outperformed CEOs, Lawyers, and MBA students by using one simple strategy.

Here it is: “The more you f*ck around, the more you find out.”

THE EXPERIMENT

Each group was asked to build the tallest tower they could out of:

-20 pieces of dry spaghetti

-1 yard of string

-1 yard of tape

-1 marshmallow (which had to end up on top)

THE RESULTS (multiple trials across geographies):

26” - Kindergarteners

22” - CEOs

15” - Lawyers

10” - MBA students

Let’s look at MBAs vs Kindergarteners to understand why:

MBA Students in Action:

-Start thinking and talking strategically.

-Shared ideas + asked smart questions.

-Generated options -> picked a strategy.

-Divided tasks -> started building.

Kindergartners in Action:

-No strategy, question or discussion phase.

-Abruptly grab materials.

-Started building -> Created multiple iterations.

-Spoke in short bursts “Here! No. Here!”

The MBA students (and all adult groups in the study) look like they are cooperating. Observing psychologists call it something entirely different: Status Management.

Status management is the unconscious scanning and negotiation we do to understand & establish ourselves into:

-hierarchies

-roles & responsibilities

Evolutionary psychologists argue that we are wired for it. Ensuring we BELONG to a group in a necessary way keeps us safe.

Until our status is made clear to us within a group, our brain will be partially working to figure this out. As a result, we can’t operate with our full creative capacities.

The Kindergarteners don’t waste energy.

They just experiment.

When something fails, they immediately try something new.

They work energetically together.

The kindergartners are not more intelligent. They work in a smarter way.

As the week begins, Founders… remember:

-summon your inner child

-Leave status management behind in the workplace

-Prototype->Test->Repeat (more cycles > more talking)

-“The more you f**k around, the more you’re going to find out”