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Philosophy

Pizza or Buffet

April 8, 2007

Posted by leah.jones

"There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't."

Sorry, I couldn't help it. I was about to say there are two types of people when that joke popped into my head. I love it for the niche the joke serves and I love that on first glance it doesn't limit the world to two types of people.

Alas, for this post I am going to limit the world to two types of people. The first are the people who view the world as a pizza and the second are the people who view the world as an all-you-care-to-eat buffet.

The world-as-pizza people, whome I'll call WAPPs, view the world as a place with limits. A limited number of slices that we are all fighting over. A limited number of pages in a newspaper or magazine, minutes in a TV show, or a limited budget that all people must fight over. Viewing the world as a pizza is sometimes referred to as scarcity thinking. "There is simply not enough to go around."

The world-as-all-you-care-to-eat-buffet people, whom I'll clumsily call WAAYCTEBP, view the world as limitless. No matter what you want or need, it is there and if it runs out, more will be provided. They are not fighting over the last slice of pizza or last column inch of the paper, because they are certain that there is more where that came from. In some circles this is referred to as prosperity thinking.

I am a WAAYCTEBP who occasionally slips into Pizza Mode. Sometimes I look at what I need to do on behalf of clients and think, "There is no way, the space is limited." If I can change my view, ever so slightly, I can see that there are at least other pizzas.

The internet has certainly helped shift my thinking. Granted, I wasn't in PR before the internet or blogging, but it shows that our job is to help connect brands to individuals. It is not a crowd that matters, but the individuals who make up the crowd.

When you are working on behalf of your client are you a Pizza Person or a Buffet Person? Do you see the crowds or the individuals in the crowd? Are you building numbers or relationships? Monologues or conversations?

Looks like I'm all questions today and I'm ready for your responses.

posted by leah.jones

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