Breaking the Surface

College transfers are a huge problem. They extend the average time it takes to get a degree by 8 months. They are costly. And they are mostly done because students didn't get what they thought they would be when going to college. Most transfer students anticipate something completely different from their original college and leave when they find out it's not what they wanted.


So how can colleges convey precisely what their school is about BEFORE students get to college? At MIT they pay students to blog about their experiences. That's all well and good for MIT, but what about a lesser-known school, like Clark for example. What could Clark do to let prospective students see everything it has to offer?


One idea would be to have students film a day out of there life (like Shay Carl on YouTube) and upload the edited footage to video sharing sites. This way, most students will get a real snapshot of Clark. Or, we can extend the current stay-over program, letting prospective students stay the night.


No matter what we do here at Clark, it'll be an improvement. Any way we can capture what we do, is another way for prospectives to get a Clark sense, and that's the goal.

Dale Carnegie vs. Steve Jobs

Dale Carnegie and Steve Jobs were two of the best public speakers of the 20th century. Both had unique styles that allowed them to convey information in entertaining and powerful ways. While I would say one is better than the other, they both are extremely different from one another.

For example, Dale Carnegie was all about "winning friends and influencing people." He really tried to build a bond with his audience. He spoke in a manner that was very anecdotal, like you were a dinner guest at his house. He was very humble, which in turn make the audience relax and more susceptible to his ideas. It didn't feel like Dale Carnegie was speaking to a group, it felt like he was speaking to individuals who just happened to be sitting next to each other.

Steve Jobs, on the other hand, was completely different. He treated the masses like one person, singling no one out. He spoke with polish and precision. He kept his personal stories to a minimum, only using them when essential. Jobs was the ultimate smooth talker, and he'd probably been a great used car salesman if he tried.

So there you have it, two of the best head to head. Sure, you can't have a clear winner, but that's because even though their styles were different they were both equally effective in achieving what they set out to, and that's all you can ask for.

Innovation in Design

Sometimes, as a company, it's hard to stay relevant. Sure, you may have designed an extremely functional product, but if it looks like a PalmPilot cira 1997, you're going to have a hard time making sales. So if you want to be successful, you not only have to make useful products, but beautiful ones too. And that's where places like Continuum come in.

Continuum worked on many great products over the years. They worked on the Reebok Pump in 1988. They worked on the P&G Swiffer in 1998. They also designed the One Laptop Per Child in 2006. And the Gatorade Tetrapak in 2012. As you can see, they've been beautifying products like shoes, the mop, laptops, and Gatorade for decades.

So what else does Continuum do besides making things pretty? They work on solving problems. They help make products sustainable. They help cut costs through effective design. And they make people want the products that they design. Just a few hundred years after Eli Whitney's innovation of interchangeable parts, we're designing for a whole new set of criteria, and Continuum is leading the way.