In this episode we discuss the phenomenon of organisations working to keep alive a problem for which they are the solution.

It was observed and written about by American technology writer and consultant, Clay Shirky and has thus been given the name The Shirky Principle.

Through many examples, we explore how prevalent it's been in the world of products and consumables and try (but in all honesty, probably fail) to offer advice on how to avoid falling foul of it oneself.

We conclude that it's definitely something much easier to spot in others!

Here are some useful links if you want to find out more about some of the bits we discussed:

• Clay Shirky's book on Cognitive Surplus
• Jono's sketch on the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom chain.
• Mitchell & Webb Toothbrush design marketing comedy sketch
• Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
• Sketchplanations on the S-Curve

Please consider giving us a review or subscribing to our podcast on your podcast player. It really helps.

We'd love to hear your stories of any experience with The Shirky Principle.

Ping us an email to: [email protected]

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We spoke with mechanical wristwatch designer Gordon Fraser, of Marloe Watch Company, to hear his perspective on the pros and cons of product design when you set out to be different.

It's not always a given that your customers want dramatically different and perhaps there are times when you should swim against the current and others when you should let yourself go with the flow.

The real skill comes from experience, to know which mode to activate when.

Gordon also speaks about the need to be allowed to dream as an antidote to creative blockages.

Could this mindset help with any endeavours, be they creative or otherwise, in your world?

Additionally, we reference:

• Jono's Prints & Performances sketch.
• Approach Buffet from both Sides sketch
• The British Museum Clock Gallery

Please consider giving us a review or subscribing to our podcast on your podcast player. It really helps.

Please also consider ordering a copy of Jono's Sketchplanations book: Big Ideas, Little Pictures. Out now!

We'd love to hear your stories of creative mindsets and how you've overcome any barriers.

Ping us an email to: [email protected]

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Music.

It can be a very personal thing. It can be most powerful when shared.

It's on the radio, in our headphones on the commute, at the gym, on TV ads, in our favourite movies... what would the world be without it?

And what would the world be without the people who create it?

This episode, we interrogate singer, songwriter, producer, and friend of the show Franc Cinelli to find out how he goes about creating new music.

Where does it come from?

What are his processes?

And how does creating music relate to other areas of creativity in our lives?

if you're a regular listener you may or may not be aware that it's Franc's music we use on the podcast.

Most notably:

Driver - as our intro music.

The Impossible Breaks Free - as our transition into the episode's sketch-specific discussion

Julius Play His Winning Ace - (my favourite) at the end of the Listener Comments that round off each episode.

Find his music here on Apple or Spotify

Here's some good stuff to check out that we reference in the podcast:

Short Film: From Somewhere - Franc talks about his music making

Axis of Awesome - songs that use the same 4 chords

Steal Like An Artist - Book by Austin Kleon : 10 things nobody told you about being creative

And what would an episode of this podcast be without referring to another of Jono's sketches: 3,500 lifetime reads

As always, we'd love to know your thoughts about our discussion and you can email us here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We think beaches are great!

What about you?

In this episode:

• We discuss how beaches are prime spots for enjoyment for all ages and at any time of year.
• We talk about how they can be places for excitement and adrenaline; places to encourage creativity; places for quiet contemplation; and places that bring perspective to life.
• Tommy goads Jono into a debate about what's better: Mountains or Beaches.
• We share our best beach-find stories
• and as ever, we bring in a few of Jono's other related sketches:

+ Sea Jellies and Sea Stars

+ Types of surf breaks (waves)

+ The Anatomy of a wave

+ The Strand Line

And here's the photo of "the bomb" found on the beach up near Middlesbrough.

We'd love to hear from you about your best finds or your most memorable moments at the beach.

Email us: [email protected]

All music on this podcast series provided by the very talented Franc Cinelli.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we ask ourselves if we've reached our professional peaks and if we now fall foul to the Peter Principle, having tipped into our levels of incompetency.

Amongst many other clever things, Jono applies the principle to Football Management.

Tommy gives his insight to how relevant it is managing at the very top of a business.

And I tell how my capacity to teach stuff is severely limited by exactly the kind of incompetence the Peter Principle is based on.

Where do you feel you or maybe more interestingly, where do those around you sit within the Peter Principle?

Here are some useful links if you want to find out more about some of the bits we discussed:

• The Peter Principle was first proposed by Canadian educator, Laurence J. Peter . In one of his books, he also said that "noblest of all dogs is the hot dog; it feeds the hand that bites it."
• Creator of The Paula Principle is Tom Schuller
• The Dilbert Principle
• The Generalised Peter Principle sketch
• #1 Rule of Indoor Games
• The BBC Peter Principle sitcom with Jim Broadbent on YouTube

Please consider giving us a review or subscribing to our podcast on your podcast player. It really helps.

Please also consider putting in a pre-order for Jono's Sketchplanations book: Big Ideas, Little Pictures. Out very soon.

We'd love to hear your stories of any experience with The Peter Principle.

Ping us an email to: [email protected]

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So much we didn't know about the wonderful world of plants.

In this compilation, double-header episode discussing some of Jono's sketches that cover fascinating elements of botany, we are joined by 2-time gold medal winner at the world famous Chelsea Flower Show, author of 6 best-selling books, and ambassador for Kew Gardens; celebrated botanist, James Wong.

Rather than edit out a tonne of insightful, educational discussion points from James, we decided to publish this episode in two parts. This is Part 2.

The sketches we discussed are:

• Heat Islands
• The Browse Line
• The Hungry Gap
• Phoenix Trees
• Nurse Logs
• How to make your own Fresh Air

This last sketch was based on a TED talk by Kamal Meattle - and it's an interesting listen to hear how James dissects the theory behind it.

It was also a delight to discover that all 4 of us attended the University of Bath at the same time.

Please consider giving us a review or subscribing to our podcast on your podcast player. It really helps.

Please also consider putting in a pre-order for Jono's Sketchplanations book: Big Ideas, Little Pictures. Out very soon now.

Have a story or a thought about botany and your experiences with plants?

Ping us an email to: [email protected]

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So much we didn't know about the wonderful world of plants.

In this compilation, double-header episode discussing some of Jono's sketches that cover fascinating elements of botany, we are joined by 2-time gold medal winner at the world famous Chelsea Flower Show, author of 6 best-selling books, and ambassador for Kew Gardens; celebrated botanist, James Wong.

Rather than edit out a tonne of insightful, educational discussion points from James, we decided to publish this episode in two parts. This is Part 1.

The sketches we discussed are:

• Heat Islands
• The Browse Line
• The Hungry Gap
• Phoenix Trees
• Nurse Logs
• How to make your own Fresh Air

This last sketch was based on a TED talk by Kamal Meattle - and it's an interesting listen to hear how James dissects the theory behind it.

It was also a delight to discover that all 4 of us attended the University of Bath at the same time.

Please consider giving us a review or subscribing to our podcast on your podcast player. It really helps.

Please also consider putting in a pre-order for Jono's Sketchplanations book: Big Ideas, Little Pictures. Out very soon now.

Have a story or a thought about botany and your experiences with plants?

Ping us an email to: [email protected]

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The three of us are tired of being misunderstood when we've used the words "biweekly", "bimonthly" and "biannually".

It's just no fun.

And so we're starting the campaign to ditch biweekly and use fortnightly instead. See sketch here.

Try it out. You won't regret it.

Our discussion turns to the general ambiguity of language and how in many senses it's quite a good thing.

It allows for creative writing, comedy and ease of communication.

Lots of bits to link to this week from this week's episode - enjoy:

• Ian Hollingshead book - Imagine my surprise...
• William Empson's book - The 7 types of Ambiguity
• TED talk by Lera Boroditsky & here's her Instagram account too.
• Sketch on the Oxford comma
• Sketch on Context is King
• Sketch on Capitonyms
• Sketch on homonyms, homographs, homophones, heteronyms

Please consider giving us a review or subscribing to our podcast on your podcast player. It really helps.

Please also consider putting in a pre-order for Jono's Sketchplanations book: Big Ideas, Little Pictures. Out very soon now.

We'd love to hear your stories of any confusion with the words biweekly, bimonthly or biannually.

Ping us an email to: [email protected]

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you work with data and statistics?

Actually, it doesn't matter if you do or not, you're bound to have come across averages of some kind at some point.

And, as we discuss in this episode, the average can often hide key information about a data set.

We'd love to know your thoughts or experiences with Sneaky Averages.

email us: [email protected]

There's an old story about the statistician who drowned after seeing that the average depth was 3ft. Averages, or in this case the mean, necessarily hide some data, but very often they also hide what's really going on.

As Jono's psychology professor at UC Berkeley, Sheldon Zedeck, taught him; spend time with your data.

You can find the headline sketch here.

Other sketches referenced in this episode include:

• SwimRun
• Wealth inequality in the US
• The BS Asymmetry Principle

Additionally, we mention the very entertaining website spurious correlations - where you'll find a whole load of amusing graphs.

We mentioned Edward Tufty's work: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

There's the ever-fascinating musings of Tim Harford in his podcast (More or Less) and his book (The Undercover Economist)

And there's our mate Jez Clements who holds the Guiness World marathon record for the fastest male dressed as a 3D TV Character.

Finally, I'm not the only one who struggles saying the word "statistics" repeatedly!!

Find many more sketches at Sketchplanations.com

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It can be uncomfortable to express opinions different from those of a group. Perhaps you remember that feeling when a teacher asked a question in class and if everyone raised their hand to one answer it wasn't always easy to be the only hand up for a different one.

That's Groupthink!

Do you remember the story of 12 Angry Men? How it took the resilience of one jury member to arrive at a correct verdict of not guilty.

That's Groupthink.

Thankfully, Jono suggests various ways to help avoid falling into the Groupthink mentality. See the sketch online for more details.

The sketchplanation itself is set in a professional environment - where I'm sure many people have experienced it.

Let us know.

email [email protected]

Other sketches referenced include:

• Bandwagon Effect
• Bystander Effect
• Firehouse Effect
• Abilene Paradox

We also reference the concept of psychological safety - a very apt phrase in this context coined by American author and Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, Amy Edmondson

All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.