The effects of being remarkable in Academia

The thing that’s gonna decide what gets talked about, what gets done, what gets built, is: is it remarkable ? And remarkable is a very cool word, because we think it just means neat. But it also means: worth making a remark about. And that is the essence of where idea diffusion is going.

(From Seth Godin’s TED video, more quotes here.)

As the number of available choices, in every area of our life, explodes, the necessity to be remarkable is one of the most significant macro principle shaping today’s world. In practical terms:

We’re now in the fashion business. No matter what we do for a living, we’re in the fashion business.

You have to be remarkable only to be heard. The rest is up to you, but if you aren’t heard, you won’t go anywhere. This principle is now valid almost everywhere, but Academia seems to be a place where it isn’t, based on my discussions with academics, PhD students and co. In the academic world, being remarkable is seen as being too pushy and disruptive, and can negatively impact your career.

Fear no more, this is now changing too. Just take a look at this video from Dan Ariely:

Or better, look at this one (30 secs, worth it, really funny).

Dan Ariely’s career isn’t exactly abysmal…

This principle is also true when you’re trying to recruit subjects for lab experiments. I helped a bit my significant other to come up with the best way to achieve a good recruiting campaign. First, be remarkable in the content: instead of only offering a show-up fee, lower it a bit and with the money offer a remarkable prize (in our case iPod Touch or skydive jump) to be awarded among the first 200 participants. Second, communicate it to be remarkable. So instead of the usual emails, here’s the video we did (french only, click-through to Vimeo for HD):

The results ? More than enough subjects. Being remarkable in Academia is actually the same as in every other domain: it’s quite easy (video is done with just Keynote) and it pays off big gains.

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