Blog - Ben Guttmann

Is a million a lot?

We often use the word “million” to mean something big – but in an era of inflationary everything, do we need to size up our language as well? What does a million dollars mean? A million views? A million users? While most of us would be pretty excited to achieve any of those tallies, today this milestone falls somewhere in the middle more often than not – and that might be causing some issues.

May 9, 2023

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How to make the most of your hard-earned social proof

Why should I believe you? The way we answer that question is called social proof: reviews, testimonials, awards, rankings, and other forms of validation that show you can be trusted. But all this hard-earned validation doesn't do us any good if we keep it hidden. Here are four principles to keep in mind as you're building and deploying your proof.

May 2, 2023

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Does TV matter anymore?

This week started off with a bang. In the span of just a few minutes, two of the biggest names in cable news were unexpectedly fired. Though they’re on opposite sides of the political spectrum, CNN’s Don Lemon and Fox News’s Tucker Carlson found themselves on the same side of unemployment – and some are calling it the biggest day in cable news history. Except, does any of this matter anymore?

April 25, 2023

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I'll always love IKEA's retail magic

There’s a chance I might be moving soon. I’ve only truly moved a handful of times in my life, and it’s always a bittersweet pain in the butt. In anticipation of this move, my wife and I recently popped into a nearby IKEA to grab some meatballs and browse through a few potential design ideas. Walking the aisles, I found myself enamored once again by this somewhat magical brand.

April 18, 2023

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Twitter's done for

It’s taken nearly half a year since Elon Musk took over Twitter, but it seems that the pot’s finally gotten warm enough where the frogs are jumping. It’s sad that essentially one man can ruin something used by hundreds of millions. Twitter wasn’t perfect, but it was something valuable. And now it’s gone.

April 10, 2023

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In defense of the boring, unsexy, and unpaid

After eight years, this week, my term ends on Queens Community Board 2. The community board isn’t the sexiest thing – it's full of long meetings, tedious bureaucracy, and dusty meeting rooms. But I wholeheartedly recommend you join your community board (or whatever other similar body might exist wherever you call home). It's the nutritious part of life.

April 5, 2023

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Social media, according to a classroom of undergrads

Snapchat is dead. Pinterest has lots of love. TikTok is confusing. These are some of the takeaways from one of my favorite discussions of the semester: my focus group. Here's what a room full of 20ish-year-old college students in New York City have to say about the state of our digital life.

March 22, 2023

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Mind the hype cycle

I’ve been finding myself making the same hand gesture on a lot of Zoom calls recently. I flick my finger up, wiggle it up and down, and trail off to the right in a straight line.I draw this oscillating line when I talk about AI. Or crypto. Or the “metaverse.” Or even Taylor Swift tickets. It’s the hype cycle.

March 15, 2023

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The psychology of color meanings and associations

Color's a tricky thing. You can ask two people can be looking at the same object, and depending on who they are (and more importantly, when they are), you can get two different answers. But while it can be a tough nut to crack, color can completely change the way your brand looks and feels.

March 6, 2023

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Be so good you can be bad

In physics, our understanding of the universe “breaks down” at extreme scales. The equations and models we learn in high school don’t hold up when we look at massive black holes and at the infinitely small quantum scale – the math has a pesky habit of going haywire. The same phenomenon happens when we look at how some people and organizations communicate.

March 1, 2023

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