Trying to figure out why things work. Mixed results.
Dan Bond writes about the decisions, systems, and incentives that shape why things succeed or fail. Marketing, behavioural psychology, architecture, housing policy, and whatever else is interesting.
-
CATEGORY: Where ideas come fromEfficiency can kill magic (or why trains are so plastic)
In 1938, stepping aboard the Flying Scotsman felt like entering a gentleman’s club that travelled at 100mph. Mahogany panelling gleamed under brass fittings. White-jacketed stewards…
READ TIME:
4–7 minutes -
CATEGORY: Why people chooseThe beignet principle
The hurricane of 1812 had other plans for The Butcher’s Hall. What had stood as the French Market’s main building since 1771—a Spanish-built structure where…
READ TIME:
6–9 minutes -
CATEGORY: What design teachesGas tubes to good vibes
Georges Claude was trying to solve a lighting problem in 1910, not invent the aesthetic foundation of every trendy 21st century coffee shop. But there…
READ TIME:
4–6 minutes -
CATEGORY: How marketing worksThe surrendering of the four Ps
There’s something deeply unsettling about realising you’ve spent fifteen years in marketing without REALLY doing marketing. Not properly, anyway. Not the full-spectrum, four-pillars-of-the-discipline kind that…
READ TIME:
6–9 minutes -
CATEGORY: ConversationsBrowse Basket Buy with The Word Man – Dave Harland
There’s a special kind of frustration reserved for people who have to read product descriptions for a living. You know the ones: “Our innovative solution…
READ TIME:
5–7 minutes -
CATEGORY: How marketing worksThe marketing principles that matter (according to me)
Here’s the thing about marketing principles: everyone’s got them, some are borrowed from someone else’s LinkedIn post, and approximately 73.2% of them sound profound and…
READ TIME:
5–8 minutes -
CATEGORY: How marketing worksAttribution is making up stories (and that’s actually fine)
There I was, sitting in another meeting about email marketing ROI, watching an earnest analyst explain why our campaigns were responsible for 23.7% of conversions.…
READ TIME:
5–8 minutes -
CATEGORY: What design teachesBrutalism: Love and hate
The Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth stood like a concrete manifesto in the heart of the shopping district—bold, uncompromising, and utterly divisive. This brutalist landmark dominated…
READ TIME:
4–7 minutes -
CATEGORY: How marketing worksHow I use AI
Creative partner? Content machine? The cursor blinked at me mockingly. I’d been staring at a blank document for twenty minutes, trying to articulate… Something. The…
READ TIME:
4–7 minutes -
CATEGORY: ConversationsBrowse Basket Buy launch episode with Richard Shotton
The microphone was live, Richard Shotton was ready on Vimeo, and I was settling into what would become the first proper Browse Basket Buy recording.…
READ TIME:
3–5 minutes -
CATEGORY: ConversationsBrowse Basket Buy and trying to ask the right questions
The most useful conversations rarely happen where you expect them to. Last month, someone mentioned they’d increased their conversion rate by 23% through what sounded…
READ TIME:
3–5 minutes -
CATEGORY: How marketing worksThe concentric circles of being interesting
In 1889, Buffalo Bill Cody pitched his Wild West show outside the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The official exhibition charged admission. Cody’s show was free.…
READ TIME:
5–8 minutes
