Small Data Read online

  Without Tim Lowe, the president of Lowes Foods, we ran the risk of completing a successful operation . . . except the patient died. Passionate and engaging, with a deep understanding and knowledge of retail, Tim has one of the highest energy levels I’ve seen in any client. Thank you, Tim, as always, for everything.

  There are so many other people at Lowes I want to thank that I honestly don’t know where to begin, but let me just mention a few: my favorite architect, Gary Watson, Kimberly George, Anita Joffe-Smithwick, Chris Van Parys, Michael Moore, Kelly Davis, Debbie Williams, Jason Ramsey and countless more. Thank you to everyone at Lowes, MDI and Alex Lee.

  Buzzfeed, Frank Cooper, and Tami Dalley have both been key partners in spreading the gospel about Small Data. Frank and I go back many years, to Pepsi days, and he and his team have shown a remarkable skill in spreading the word about this book. The same goes for Mike Barbeau who, along with his team, has an outstanding ability to spread positive word of mouth. Neal Schaffer belongs to a very small group who truly understands the social media space. Thanks to all of you for putting Small Data on the social media map.

  A ton of other people have either directly or indirectly influenced elements in this book, including Frank and Tiffany Foster, Georgia and Philippe Garinois-Melenikiotou, Fatme Khalife, Tracy Luckow, Philip Kotler, Tyra Banks, Paco Underhill and Nicholas (Goldfish) Simko, who spent time with me in Siberia.

  Then there are the people who inspired me over the course of this project, either by sharing thoughts with me, reading the manuscript, conducting an interesting study or simply exposing to me a perspective that made a difference. In no particular order I’d like to thank: Tony Tsieh, Jeff Weiner, Ryan Holmes, Deepak Chopra, Danny Sullivan, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vanyerchuk, Martin Shervington, Sarah Hill, Michelle Killebrew, Muhammad Yunus, David Edelman, Meg Whitman, Denis Labelle, Dr. Jane Goodall, Dharmesh Shah, Beth Comstock, Thomas Friedman, David Sable, Chris Brogan, Michael Hyatt, Jeff Bullas, Don Peppers, Charlene Li, Rand Fishkin, Pam Moore, Nicolas Bordas, Peter Shankman, Steven Pinker, Richard Florida, Mike Allton, Jay Baer, Brian Solis, Steve Rubel, Neil Patel, Mark Schaefer, Jonah Berger, Chad Dickerson, Josh Leibowitz, Erica Hill, Niall Ferguson, Lee Odden, Jonathan Becher, John Jantsch, Yifat Cohen, Robert Cialdini, Andrew Hunt, Matt Heinz, Joe Pulizzi, Joseph Stiglitz, Michael Brenner, Michael Gold, John Rampton, Shawn Collins, Chris Ducker, David Skok, John Lee Dumas, Lee Odden, Jonathan Salem Baskin, Brent Csutoras, Heidi Cohen, Bill Tancer, Anita Newton, Matthew Barby, Craig Rosenberg, Brian Massey, Jon Haidt, Tom Fishburne, Roger Dooley, Pamela Wilson.

  As you can see, even though “Martin Lindstrom” may appear on the cover of this book, it has truly been a collective effort to make these pages as inspiring and—I hope—transformative as they have become. Thanks everyone.

  Notes

  Please note that some of the links referenced in this work are no longer active.

  Introduction

  1.John Ashcroft, “The Lego Case Study,” John Ashcroft and Company, http://www.thelegocasestudy.com/uploads/1/9/9/5/19956653/lego_case_study_2014.pdf.

  2.Brian Solomon, “Everything Is Awesome: Lego Leaps Barbie for World’s Largest Toy Maker,” Forbes, September 4, 2014.

  3.Gwendolyn Seidman, Ph.D., “Do We Lie More in Texts or Face-to-Face?” Psychology Today, November 23, 2014.

  4.Internet Live Stats, http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/.

  5.Maeve Duggan, Nicole B. Ellison, Cliff Lampe, Amanda Lenhart, & Mary Madden, “Frequency of Social Media Use,” Pew Research Center, January 9, 2015, http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/frequency-of-social-media-use-2/.

  6.YouTube Statistics, https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html.

  7.“Big Data, for Better or Worse: 90% of World’s Data Generated over Last Two Years,” Science Daily, May 22, 2013, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130522085217.htm.

  8.Marc de Swaan Arons, Frank van den Driest, Keith Weed, “The Ultimate Marketing Machine,” Harvard Business Review, July-August, 2014.

  9.Nick Bilton, “When the Cyber-Bully Is You,” New York Times, April 29, 2015.

  Chapter 1

  1.“Most-Used Emoji Revealed: Americans Love Skulls, Brazilians Love Cats, the French Love Hearts,” Swiftkey.Blog, April 21, 2015, http://swiftkey.com/en/blog/americans-love-skulls-brazilians-love-cats-swiftkey-emoji-meanings-report/.

  2.SwiftKey, “SwiftKey Emoji Report,” http://www.scribd.com/doc/262594751/SwiftKey-Emoji-Report.

  3.“Global Gender Gap Index 2014,” World Economic Forum, http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2014/rankings/.

  4.SwiftKey, “SwiftKey Emoji Report,” http://www.scribd.com/doc/262594751/SwiftKey-Emoji-Report.

  5.Robert Haas, “Meditation at Lagunitas,” Praise, HarperCollins Publishers, 1979.

  Chapter 2

  1.Karl Ove Knausgaard, “My Saga, Part 2,” New York Times Magazine, March 11, 2015.

  2.“The First Lady on the First Family,” excerpt of Michelle Obama appearance on Ellen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbYEEBrjOAA.

  3.Amanda Macias, “This Chart Shows How the Rest of the World Doesn’t Even Come Close to US Military Spending,” Business Insider, April 19, 2014, http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-spending-chart-2014-4.

  4.Drew Desilver, “A Minority of Americans Own Guns, but Just How Many Is Unclear,” Pew Research Center FactTank, June 4, 2013.

  5.“What Is Cards Against Humanity,” https://cardsagainsthumanity.com.

  6.“Mobile Technology Fact Sheet,” The Pew Research Center, http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/.

  7.Daniel Wood, “US Crime Rate at Lowest Point in Decades. Why America Is Safer Now,” Christian Science Monitor, January 9, 2012.

  8.Nick Bilton, “Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent,” New York Times, September 10, 2014.

  9.Ibid.

  10.Nate Cohn, “Big Drop in Share of Americans Calling Themselves Christian,” New York Times, May 12, 2015.

  11.Ibid.

  Chapter 3

  1.Gardiner Harris, “Poor Sanitation in India May Afflict Well-Fed Children with Malnutrition,” New York Times, July 13, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/world/asia/poor-sanitation-in-india-may-afflict-well-fed-children-with-malnutrition.html#slideshow/100000002994895/100000002994992.

  2.Gardiner Harris, “Holding Your Breath in India,” New York Times, May 29, 2015.

  3.Vivekananda Nemana and Ankita Rao, “In India, Latrines Are Truly Lifesavers,” New York Times, November 13, 2014.

  4.Gardiner Harris, “Websites in India Put a Bit of Choice into Arranged Marriages,” New York Times, April 24, 2015.

  5.“Why Tensions Are Soaring in Mother (in Law) India,” http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/02/17/why_tensions_are_soaring_in_mother_inlaw_india.html.

  6.“The Curse of The Mummyji,” Economist, December 21, 2013, http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21591745-curse-mummyji.

  7.Ibid.

  8.Madison Park, “Top 20 Most Polluted Cities in the World,” CNN, May 8, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/08/world/asia/india-pollution-who/.

  9.Bruce Grierson, “What if Age Is Nothing but a Mind-Set?” New York Times, October, 22, 2014.

  10.Ibid.

  Chapter 4

  1.Gina Kolata, “Obesity Spreads to Friends, Study Concludes,” New York Times, July 25, 2007.

  2.Ibid.

  3.Cynthia L. Ogden et al., “Mean Body Weight, Height, and Body Mass Index, United States, 1960-2002,” Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 27, 2004, http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2015/06/15/cdc-average-american-woman-now-weighs-as-much-as-1960s-us-man/.

  4.Jan Hoff
man, “Parents’ Denial Fuels Childhood Obesity Epidemic,” New York Times, June 15, 2015.

  5.Sarah Boseley, “Mexico Enacts Soda Tax in Effort to Combat World’s Highest Obesity Rate,” The Guardian, January 16, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/mexico-soda-tax-sugar-obesity-health.

  6.Deborah Amos, “Saudi Girls Can Now Take Gym Class, but Not Everyone Is Happy,” http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/03/10/391878690/saudi-girls-can-now-take-pe-classes-but-not-everyones-happy.

  7.Shirley Wang, “As World’s Kids Get Fatter, Doctors Turn to the Knife,” The Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2014.

  8.Mary Kaye Schilling, “Get Busy: Pharrell’s Productivity Secrets,” Fast Company, November 18, 2013, http://www.fastcompany.com/3021377/pharrell-get-busy.

  9.Jan Brogan, “When Being Distracted Is a Good Thing,” The Boston Globe, February 27, 2012.

  10.Tom Vanderbilt, “The Crisis in American Walking,” Slate, April 10, 2012, http://www.slate.com/articles/life/walking/2012/04/why_don_t_americans_walk_more_the_crisis_of_pedestrianism_.html?wpsrc=fol_tw?wpsrc=fol_fb.

  11.Peter Cohan, “Weight Watchers Winning $61 Billion War on Fat,” Forbes, November 14, 2012.

  Chapter 5

  1.Leonard Reissman, Class in American Society (New York: The Free Press, 1965), p. 178.

  2.Simon Romero, “Rio’s Race to Future Intersects Slave Past,” the New York Times, March 8, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/world/americas/rios-race-to-future-intersects-slave-past.html.

  3.Jonathan Watts, “Why Brazil Loves Nip and Tuck as Told by the Country’s Leading Plastic Surgery ‘Maestro,’” Guardian (UK), September 24, 2014.

  4.Antonio Prata, “Brazil’s Shaken Optimism,” New York Times, June 23, 2015.

  5.Lisa Baertlein, “Los Angeles Water Sommelier Wants Bottled Water Treated Like Wine,” Reuters, March 2, 2015.

  6.Susanne Ault, “Survey: YouTube Stars More Popular Than Mainstream Celebs Among U.S. Teens,” Variety, August 5, 2014.

  7.Laura M. Holson, “The Feng Shui Kingdom,” New York Times, April 25, 2005.

  8.Dan Levin, “Adidos and Hotwind? In China, Brands Adopt Names to Project Foreign Flair,” New York Times, December 26, 2014, http:/www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/business/international/adidos-and-hotwind-in-china-brands-evoke-foreign-names-even-if-theyre-gibberish.html.

  9.Caroline Wyatt, “‘Paris Syndrome’ Strikes Japanese,” BBC News, December 20, 2006.

  10.Caroline Wyatt, “‘Paris Syndrome’ Strikes Japanese,” BBC News, December 20, 2006.

  11.Antunes Anderson, “God Has a New Home: A $300 Million Mega Temple in Sao Paulo,” Forbes, July 30, 2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2014/07/30/god-has-a-new-home-a-300-million-mega-temple-in-sao-paulo/.

  Chapter 6

  1.Bradley Blackburn, “Clothing ‘Made in America’: Should US Manufacture More Clothes?” ABC News, March 10, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Business/MadeInAmerica/made-america-clothes-clothing-made-usa/story?id=13108258.

  2.Sandra Blakeslee, “Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isn’t Just a White Coat,” New York Times, April 2, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/clothes-and-self-perception.html.

  3.Sandra Blakeslee, “Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isn’t Just a White Coat,” New York Times, April 2, 2012.

  4.Sandra Blakeslee, “Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isn’t Just a White Coat,” New York Times, April 2, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/clothes-and-self-perception.html.

  5.Ivan Oransky, “Holding Hot Coffee = Warm and Fuzzy Feelings,” Scientific American, October 23, 2008, http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post/holding-hot-coffee-warm-and-fuzzy-2008-10-22/.

  6.Alena Hall, “7 Reasons to Banish Your Phone from the Bedroom,” Huffington Post, November 3, 2014.

  Chapter 7

  1.Peter N. Stearns, “The History of Happiness,” Harvard Business Review, January–February 2012, https://hbr.org/2012/01/the-history-of-happiness.

  2.Ibid.

  3.World Happiness Report 2014, John Helliwell, Richard Leyard, Jeffrey Sachs, Editors, http://worldhappiness.report/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/04/WHR15-Apr29-update.pdf.

  4.John Clifton, “People Worldwide Are Reporting a Lot of Positive Emotions,” Gallup, http://www.gallup.com/poll/169322/people-worldwide-reporting-lot-positive-emotions.aspx.

  5.John Clifton, “Mood of the World Upbeat on International Happiness Day,” Gallup, http://www.gallup.com/poll/182009/mood-world-upbeat-international-happiness-day.aspx.

  6.Laura Sydell, “How Do Chinese Citizens Feel About Censorship?” NPR, July 12, 2008.

  7.Ibid.

  8.Carol Pinchefsky, “The Impact (Economic and Otherwise) of Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit on New Zealand,” Forbes, December 14, 2012.

  9.Brook Larmer, “How Do You Keep Your Kids Healthy in Smog-Choked China?” New York Times, April 16, 2015.

  10.Malcolm Moore, “China’s ‘Airpocalypse’ Kills 350,000 to 500,000 a Year,” Telegraph (UK), January 7, 2014.

  11.New York Times quoted in ibid.

  12.Oliver Wainwright, “Inside Beijing’s Airpocalypse—a City Made ‘Almost Uninhabitable’ by Pollution,” Guardian (UK), December 16, 2014.

  13.Ibid.

  14.Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley, “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes,” New York Times, August 26, 2007.

  15.Christina Larson, “The Cracks in China’s Shiny Buildings,” Bloomberg Business, September 27, 2012, http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2012-09-27/the-cracks-in-chinas-shiny-buildings.

  16.Jeff Chu, “Happily Ever After,” Time, March 18, 2002.

  17.Katia Moskvitch, “Why Does Food Taste Different on Planes?,” BBB.com, January 12, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150112-why-in-flight-food-tastes-weird.

  18.Ibid.

  Chapter 8

  1.Jonathan Mahler, “The White and Gold (No, Blue and Black!) Dress That Melted the Internet,” New York Times, February 27, 2015.

  2.Ibid.

  3.Pamela Engel, “Here’s the Dress from a British Retailer That Started a Debate on Social Media—It’s Clearly Blue and Black,” Business Insider, February 27, 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/the-roman-originals-black-and-blue-dress-2015-2.

  4.Elizabeth Cohen, “A Scientific Tale of Two Dresses,” CNN, March 2, 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/27/health/science-of-gold-blue-dress/.

  5.Ibid.

  6.Joe Mandese, “Extinction Event: Why There May Be Far Fewer Brands at Cannes 2025,” MediaPost Live!, June 22, 2015.

  7.A. Bonneville-Roussy, P. J. Rentfrow, M. K. Xu, J. Potter, “Music Through the Ages: Trends in Musical Engagement and Preferences from Adolescence Through Middle Adulthood,” The Journal of Personal and Social Psychology, 2013, October: 105 (4): 703-17. Doi: 10.1037/a0033770. Epub2013, July 29, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23895269.

  8.Ibid.

  9.Ibid.

  10.“What Your Favorite Sport Says About You,” British Heart Foundation, April 1, 2015, https://www.bhf.org.uk/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2015/march/what-your-favourite-sport-says-about-you.

  11.Jong-Eun Roselyn Lee, David Clark Moore, Eun-A Park, Sung Gwan Park, “Who Wants to Be ‘Friend-Rich’? Social Compensating Friending on Facebook and the Moderating Role of Public Self-Consciousness,” Computers in Human Behavior (Impact Factor: 2.69. 05/2012; 28 (3): 1036-1043. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2012.01.006, http://www.researchgate.net/publication/257252915_Who_Wants_to_be_friend-rich_Social_Compensatory_Friending_on_Facebook_and_the_Moderating_role_of_public_self-consciousness.

  12.Eftekhar Azar, Chris Fullwood, Neil Morris, “Capturing Personality from Facebook Photos and Photo-Related Activities: How Much
Exposure Do You Need?” Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 37, August 2014, pp. 162–170, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214002696.

  13.Ian Urbana, “The Secret Life of Passwords,” New York Times Magazine, November 19, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/magazine/the-secret-life-of-passwords.html.

  14.Nicole Laskowski, “Seven Big Data Failures to Watch Out For,” SearchCio, TechTarget, August 12, 2015, http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/4500251611/Seven-big-data-failures-to-watch-out-for.

  15.Matt Richtel, and Doughery, Conor, “Google’s Driverless Cars Run into Problem: Cars with Drivers,” the New York Times, September 1, 2015.

  16.Von Bettina Höchli, Karin Frick, Mirjam Hauser, “We-Dentity: Wie Das Netzwerk-Ich die Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft von Morgen Verandert,” University of Zurich, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute of Economic and Social Studies, GDI Studie #42, @copyright GDI 2015.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Adamski, Tom, 213

  Adidas, x, 2–3, 227

  adolescent girls, 148–9

  bedrooms, 151–8, 160–1

  imbalances, 154–5

  selfies, 152, 155, 159, 161, 162, 167–8

  Aeronautica Militare, 134–7, 209

  age, chronological and emotional, 114–15, 156, 190–1

  air travel

  airline food, 196–7

  airports, 5, 16, 58, 60, 162, 196

  Emirates airline, 175

  security, 196

  alcohol

  beer can/bottle displays, 139, 157–8

  and Brazil, 122, 126–7, 129, 134, 137, 140–5

  and Russia, 27–9, 31, 33, 42, 63

  and transformation/escape, 33–4, 42, 127