Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The Fourth Mode of Communicating

I once heard that when you meet someone from up north (in America) they will typically ask "what do you do?" while people in the south ask "where are you from?". This was presented as an illustration of the different cultures--north vs. south. Today, I got to play with Tom Brown's stuffmap. I was surprised to find that my desire for things seemed to change based on where they were. For instance, Tom's friend who has his Office DVD is close to my home. It suddenly became rather desireable. Yes, I'm from the south. Some of us may be motivated by things that seem unreachable, such as your Art of the Start book in Seattle. As a communicator, I am aware of the standard modes of learning: visual, aural and kinetic/tactile. Is there another mode of learning based on WHERE something is? Is there a positional mode of learning? If in fact there is a geographic mode of communication, what organ would it be associated with? The visual mode has the eyes. The aural mode has the ears. The Kinectic has the limbs and digits. Would the positional organ be the feet? Fintstone technology aside, that's how we changed our geographical position for millennia. How about the inner ear which tells us how we're situated in relationship to the earth? Give Tom's stuffmap a try and notice your behavior. Did you check out stuff close to your home town first? Did you find things close to be more interesting? What yaks did you shave in the process?

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