Roger von Oech reminded me yesterday of a funny mistake I used to make. He wrote about how he misunderstood the meaning of the metaphor "the lowest common denominator" and then asked us which metaphors we got wrong.
Well, until I studied ancient Greek in college, I thought that giving someone "kudos" meant rewarding them with a Kudos candy bar! So I was always disappointed that I never actually saw candy change hands, despite all the promises...
...Until I learned in college that "kudos" is actually the Greek word for "honor" and "fame"! Whoops!
In honor of my big oops, I've decided that I'm going to start a new tradition on this blog...
Every month, I will reward one of my commentators with Kudos!
Not only will I give them fame on the blog, I will actually mail them a real Kudos bar - in whatever flavor they pick.
The Obligatory Rules:
- Each comment starting now until August 31st is an entry for Kudos.
- You can comment on older posts if available.
- Comments have to be real to count. So no "nice post" lazy-type comments.
- You can tie in your own website if it's relevant, but no spam.
- You must have a real email address to win.
- Blatant flattery is nice, but won't get you extra points.
- If you're not in the US, we might have to get creative, but we'll figure something out.
- Really, really good comments will get two entries!
So, if you want to get recognized on this blog while still getting the kind of Kudos you can actually eat, start commenting!
Kudos 2u (which is an anagram of the verb "2 sudoku")
Posted by: Roger von Oech | August 05, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Katie, the minute I started reading your post I burst out laughing. In my college fraternity, "kudos" was one of our favorite and most overused expressions. Kudos for this, kudos for that ... there was no escape. After college, I swore off the expression for life! Ironically, I didn't know there was a Kudos Bar ... maybe I blocked it out. Your contest idea is certainly one of the most inventive and fun I've come across, so ... kudos!
Posted by: Brad Shorr | August 05, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Thinking of comments to add to a blog can be a creativity challenge in itself! Why not structure the comments in some way? Maybe the comments area of the blog could function as a kind of forum in itself that aims to encourage brainstorming. For example, on discussions about ideas you could apply six thinking hats, or ask for further ideas and ask for bizarre ideas (to act as provocations) or ideas based on random words you give.
You could devise a new model for blog commenting and offer this model to others so they can use it on their own blogs. I've been thinking that commenting on blogs could be improved for some time.
It would be interesting to redefine how comments are made though. I'd love to figure out ways to engage my readers more.
~ Katie
Posted by: John | August 07, 2008 at 06:43 AM
Hi Katie, I'm honestly not commenting for kudos, but this post seemed like a good place to put a random comment.
I first saw your blog when I was clicking on age of conversation 2 authors and was intrigued by your background and your work. I'd been reading a bit of de Bono and the concept of a whole degree in creativity was new to me, for example. But I got distracted and didn't hit the RSS button and lost you!
This time I saw Liz Strauss added you as a connection on LinkedIn and I'm reviewing your page and realizing - this looks familiar! I'm delighted to see you posting frequently and need to go back and read some more stuff. You've got an appealing writing style and I like how you design your posts with the bolding.
I'm getting that feed and hope to be adding to the conversation in the future.
Posted by: Beth Robinson | August 07, 2008 at 07:27 AM