“If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking.”

George S. Patton, General U. S. Army

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

Mark Twain

"The ancestor of every action is thought."

Emerson

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought."

Buddha

"When you are not told what to do you begin to think what to do."

Roger Cohen, Op-Ed Columnist New York Times

"No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking."

Voltaire

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think."

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

"You and I are not what we eat; we are what we think."

Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course

"Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?"

Winnie the Pooh

"Time to think matters ─ at least if we’re interested in getting the answers right."

Stephen L. Carter

"Thinking is always out of order, interrupts all ordinary activities and is interrupted by them."

Hannah Arendt, Life of the Mind

"Too often we…enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

John F. Kennedy

"The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds."

Will Durant

"Thinking is like living and dying. Each of us must do it for himself."

Josiah Royce

"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar territory."

G. Behn

"The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking."

Albert Einstein

"Pursuing our thoughts in silent contemplation takes an investment in time that few can spare."

Stephen L. Carter

"A moment’s thinking is an hour in words."

Thomas Hood

"Sometimes I think and other times I am."

Paul, Variete: Cantiques spirituels 192

"To think is to differ."

Darrow

"To think is to live."

Cicero

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

William Jones

"What we think, we become."

Buddha

"Our job is not to make up anybody’s mind, but to open minds and to make the agony of the decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking."

Anonymous

"The person who thinks before he speaks is silent most of the time."

Anonymous

"Think ─ and you will be very lonely."

Anonymous

"Thought is action in rehearsal."

Anonymous

"We live in a world that leaves very little time to contemplate."

Anonymous

"Don’t worry too much about what people think because they seldom do."

Anonymous

"Invest a few moments in thinking. It will pay good interest."

Anonymous

"One cannot think crooked and walk straight."

Anonymous

"Think Differently + Do Things Differently = Better Results"

Anonymous

July 22, 2014

All Circuits Are Down (Thankfully)

Tags: Business, Branding, General,

While reading a review of a small, quiet new film called Ida, I stumbled across an intriguing quote from the Polish writer and director, Pawel Pawlikowski. He said, “I find myself escaping more and more in life, away from noise and fake energy and from too much information.” Too bad Pawel won’t be checking out this blog. I totally get where he’s coming from.

Noise (everywhere). Fake energy (so much to do). Too much information (where do I begin?). I don’t think a day goes by when I don’t have a conversation with someone about the frantic nature of their work or personal life, given all of the above. Small wonder so many people are looking for the escape hatch.

I’m a promoter by trade. Much as I hate to admit it, my line of business is a big part of the problem. We get paid to make a lot of noise for our clients, to talk louder than the competition (if dog whistles would do the trick, we’d use them). You have to fight noise with noise, whatever pitch necessary.

(Apparently there’s no noise ordinance on the books when it comes to marketing).

And what about “fake energy?” That one really bothers me. It sounds inefficient. Pointless. But I know I’m guilty of creating that, too. So much to do this week. Can’t say “no.” Let’s double our efforts. Send it out within the hour. Call the whole list. Take the meeting. Volunteer to serve on that committee. Join them for dinner after our plane lands. Why waste your time when I can do it so much faster?

(My grandmother always said it’s not good to be “too capable”).

And Pawel and I aren’t the only ones who are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that is waiting for us every hour of the day to be read, seen, heard, repurposed, regurgitated, and annotated.

And then there’s this:

We were born to create. To share our own voice, our opinions. So I’m writing a blog and Pawel’s writing a screenplay (and so is everyone else). We’ve all turned into “content creators.” Our livelihoods and reputations depend on it so we toil away, creating content that can be read, seen, heard, repurposed, regurgitated, and annotated.

Whatever happened to all things in moderation? Easier said, than done, right?

I remember feeling a sense of accomplishment after combing through daily newspapers, weekly news magazines, and monthly business publications. You could physically dispose of them when you were finished. It was like putting a line through a task on a TO DO list.

But today the information cycle never ends, so there’s nothing to discard. The hits just keep on coming (and coming…).

If you’ve been to a movie theatre lately, I don’t have to tell you anything about “noise.” After 20 minutes of Previews (and stealth commercials), the Planet of the Apes is looking like a distinct possibility going forward.

Mayhem seems to be the order of the day. Fake energy, the fuel that propels us (to where, I wonder?).

So thanks to Pawel for reminding us that we all need to escape to that Who-What-Where place of refuge that provides the clarity and (real) energy we need to rejoin the human (rat) race.

Anita Alvare (bio)/Alvare Associates/610-520-6140

Business, Ida, Pawel Pawlikowski, Content Marketing

Since establishing Alvaré in 1981, Anita has guided the agency through 38 years of steady growth and success. A marketing communications entrepreneur who has done it all, she remains deeply involved in strategic planning and creative direction, bringing extensive knowledge and insight to each client project.

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Comments (2)

07.23.2014
Donna Miller

As always, your blog is a welcome respite. Thought you might enjoy knowing that John Wesley, in writing down the General Rules for the new Methodist Prayer Society in 1739 included this admonition against:
“Fighting, quarreling, brawling, brother going to law with brother; returning evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using many words in buying or selling.”

I love it that marketing gets lumped with brawling.

07.23.2014
Bill Clark

Anita, your observations resonate with many of my own.

Part of the art of living life is to tune to the right frequency. There is a story that the Budda found enlightenment when he overhead a musician teach a student to tighten a string. “Too tight and it will break; too loose and it will not play.”