Stickiness and Such

It is very funny that Dr. Lay chose this text to respond to because it is one that I actually own and have read. The book is a pretty brilliant explanation of the power of ideas through the use of anecdotes (very similar to a Malcolm Gladwell text) and I think that it succeeds in defining the areas that make ideas successful. I agree with the Heath's view on what stickiness is: Stickiness is the measure of how effective an idea is at being remembered and accepted. Whenever I think about stickiness I think about rumors. We've all been through high school so I know that each of us has heard our fair share of rumors, so it comes as no surprise that some rumors are definitely 'stickier' than others. The rumors that are most successful at being spread are the ones that follow the Heath's rules for SUCCESs.
Anything that gets around needs to be Simple. If a rumor is too complex it will either be forgotten or passed on in a simpler form anyway. It needs to be smaller and easier so that it can be Understood. It is optimal if the person who is passing this to you is directly related to the rumor (a Credible source). It needs to be Concrete in exactly what happened, not ambiguous. It needs to play on the receiver's Emotions (usually surprise) and quite obviously it is generally a Story.
For any idea to be successful it must have these characteristics. Quite simply this is just a formula for the way good ideas should be anyway. We use this model every day in what we say, most of the time it isn't realized.

http://home.comcast.net/~finestkiss3/chansons/Girls-LustForLife.mp3