ConstructZero.ORG and ConstructZero.COM need a home.

(reference: Construct Zero)

Up to this point we've been running the organizations almost entirely virtually. We have staff all over the world. That works suprisingly wonderfully, but it has its disadvantages - and we can't very well conduct scientific research on the scale we're planning via the Internet.

Moving forward, we need to select a location for the corpororate HQ that will be very close to the research center.

Criteria:

- large (50 to 100 acres), developable, flat land plots easily attainable within 20 miles of the city, preferably connected by a direct highway

- a truly metropolitan city with a rich culture of arts and entertainment

- at least two universities

- a major air hub (so people don't have to take connecting flights)

- temperate climate (we'll accept a bit of heat - we won't accept freezing cold)

- responsible citizenry and government (we don't want to live in a city where people don't care enough to keep it clean and beautiful)

- in the USA (we're more likely to get the diversity of talents we need here)

- favorable tax regime

- housing and land must be relatively inexpensive

- a government that is pro-business and unlikely to hinder our activities with undue scrutiny or regulation

Yes, yes, some will say I'm looking for a Utopia that won't be found this side of Galt's Gulch, but why not ask for everything you want?

Now, here's what's really surprising ...

We loaded all of these criteria into a matrix and you know what we found?

Houston.

Houston?

Well, it surprisingly seems to fit these criteria. Who would have guessed? It's the 4th largest city in the USA and seems to be what we're looking for.

The problem is, I've never been there.

So, I'm putting the question to you.

Can you suggest another city?

Or, if you've been to Houston, what do you think?

(Other cities we've considered of particular interest: San Diego - ruled out because of the tax system in California and the cost of land, Las Vegas - lowered in consideration because of freezing winters, Austin - ruled out because it's not an airline hub.)

Can Twitter be used to trigger spontaneous social change?

That's what I'm trying to find out. Here is a new experiment I just conducted and my "observations from the front" thus far.

(This is a follow up to my earlier experiment outlined in Twitter: the Psychotherapeutic Tool.)

First, a little background ...

It's relatively easy to increase the C-Rate of an information-virus with any of the following methods:

• spreading bad news or sniping at people
• creating false epidemics or catastrophe
• causing undue worry or fear

But is this a good idea? Well, if your only measure of a "good idea" is "does it work" then you bet. If, however, you want to take a bit of responsibility for the impact your words have on people, then maybe not ...

Side note: many marketers not only deliberately weave those elements into their marketing to increase its effectiveness, but advise others to do so as well. How about we stop that?

It's not hard to understand why negativity tends to have a higher C-Rate (rate of viral transmission) than positivity: if something threatens you, it's of more immediate importance than something that "could be useful."

Which story are you going to read first?

• Tornado warning.
• How to make your kids smarter.

And which one are you more likely to pass on to your friends? Of course the tornado warning because you want your friends to be safe.

"So, all you have to do is give your message the importance of a tornado warning and you're golden!"

OK, but is this the world we want to live in? Where everyone is running around in a constant state of stress and fear?

It would seem that we're all participating in the fear fest. Marketers, politicians, and reporters create false fear to hypnotize us into a receptive and docile state. The recipients of these messages accept them without filter and willingly pass them on.

What if we stopped participating in that process?

What if instead we decided to stop spreading messages that ...

• tear people down
• rant
• complain
• hate
• gossip
• spread rumors

.... and instead spread messages that focused on the things we want?

Why not, instead of complaining about the people who are behaving in a way we don't like, notice and praise the people we admire?

Now, I'm not saying "ignore evil and it will go away." Sometimes that works, but not always. There is a time and place for shining a light on darkness as well. But instead of freaking out and dwelling on it, let's simply present the facts and move on. Then begin giving our attention and support to people who are actively engaged in making the world better.

So, this brings us to my latest experiment ...

Can we trigger this positive temperament in the minds of others?

The "I love you" experiment was great, but this time I wanted to go a little further. Instead of just triggering a sense of euphoria and happiness (which is useful in its own right) I wanted to get people consciously thinking about peace.

It started out with a rather overt attempt that was re-Tweeted 20 times:

Let's see how many people on twitter we can get 2 think about peace at the same time. Go! pls RT (pass it on)

Since I'm using ping.fm to simultaneously broadcast my tweets to my Facebook account, I got a bit of feedback about it on my fan site.

Thom Quinn an entrepreneur who just read The Irresistible Offer handed some of my own advice back to me ...

Try again on Monday, not Follow Friday. I'd re-craft the 140 characters as well to make it an irresistible offer to promote peace on twitter. Perhaps we should start "Twitter Peace Day" and try to generate support so a million people talk about peace on a single day.

I then tried this approach which was re-Tweeted around 30 times ...

Today is tweeting for peace day. Pass it on.

And then this approach which as of today has spread in various forms 200+ times and is still going ...

@reply this to 3 people - it's tweet for peace day - I love you - pass it on #tweet4peaceday

Why was the last approach 10 times more successful? Several things, but here are a few to notice ...

First, asking people to send it as an "@ reply" made it more likely to catch people's attention. The chances of a single tweet being seen at all are quite low. This is especially true for those who are following many people. If you send your tweet as an "@ reply" it will almost certainly be seen by them as they check their replies. (Of course we're more interested in a reply directed to us than in a random tweet in the tweet-stream.)

Next, the #tweet4peaceday hash tag gave it an air of officiality. Is there a "tweet for peace day?" There wasn't before Thom and I made it up. (Heavy truth to ponder: everything "official" and important was once "made up" by someone like you.)

Finally, the trend was championed by two avid Tweeters: Realestatetips8 and Iconic88. (Nice work, guys.)

How far will this one go? No one can know ... What kind of impact will it have? Equally impossible to predict.

While the future of this experiment is uncertain, I like the idea of enrolling people in the task of actively altering people's consciousness for the better. Maybe someone reading this blog will spread the campaign further. Maybe they'll start thinking about the impact of their words on others - on Twitter and in person.

Maybe that someone is you.

Related links:

Twitter as a Marketing Tool

The Rise of the Author

Follow Me on Twitter

Follow Me on Facebook

As the Construct Zero organization grows, more opportunities for more people are arising.

Presently we have the opportunity for two immediate positions:

Director of Marketing
You'll oversee the entire marketing program for all of our different companies. The scope of this role would increase dramatically over time.

Product Launch Coordinator
You'll coordinate all of our product launches. Over time you'd be in charge of multiple product launches across many vertical markets.

Location: anywhere.

Your compensation: during your first month or two you will only be compensated by the training and experience you'd earn. I ask $5,000 an hour for consultations - you'd be working closely with me every day for the first two months. After that a generous compensation package (to include profit sharing) would be negotiated.

You'll be reporting directly to our CEO and COO, but would be trained personally by me during the first two months.

If you're serious about working with a company that is changing the world, have the skills we need, and are committed to a long term contract, please contact Teresa immediately at: teresa AT markjoyner DOT name.

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After several years of planning and preparation, Construct Zero is now fully under way:

http://www.ConstructZero.ORG

"Mark Joyner, Inc." is no more and has been replaced by Construct Zero (of which I am remaining on as Chairman and CEO).

If you are a fan of the original Construct Zero document that started it all, you'll see immediately how this will begin to actualize the ideas presented there.

This is a new type of organization.

It is a philanthropic research center (www.ConstructZero.ORG), the funds for which will be provided by a sister commercial technology incubator (www.ConstructZero.COM), supported by a global social network (www.ConstructZero.NET).

We are now hiring in the following areas:

Executives
Managers
Marketing an Advertising Professionals (All Disciplines)
Scientists (All Disciplines)
Engineers (All Types)
Inventors

The people in our organization are upbeat, and energetic professionals. If that's you, send your resume and video cover letter to anne@markjoyner.name

Even if you don't work at our research center or technology incubator directly you can still get involved by joining our social network and sharing ideas.

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On the 4th 10th of February I'll be launching a new company: Codename: "GG."

In the process, I'd like to make you famous.

Do you think you're an Internet wiz?

Well bucko, let's put you to the test and find out ...

Step 1: Shoot a 2 to 3 Minute Video

Answer this question in the video:

"If you could give people one piece of advice to boost sales on their website, what would it be?"

Keep the location of the video secret.

Step 2: DM or @Reply Me the Link to Your Video Via Twitter

I'm on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/markjoyner

Step 3: Get Famous - Maybe

The best answers will be getting some serious exposure as we build up to this historic launch.

A service like this does not yet exist - and it will have huge ripple effects throughout the Internet. It's a game changer.

ADDENDUM: To watch the launch of this new company unfold please visit: http://www.codenameGG.com

If you followed the launch of my newest (and perhaps thus far most exciting) company, Neurogizers, you'll know I'm keenly interested in methods of improving the human mind.

But there are more ways to improve the human mind than by upgrading its raw processing power.

Not to discount the importance of doing so. The Neurogizers do that (in some crazy effective ways), and there are hidden benefits to using them regularly (improved mood, increased self-esteem, increased creativity, improved focus, and so on ...), but this is not the "be all end all" of the human mind.

No matter how much you improve the processing power of your "human computer" there is still the matter of the "data set" with which it views the world.

Put another way, the data on your "human hard drive" determines to a large extent how you interpret "new data."

Or simpler still: depending on your experience of life up to this point, how you react to new experiences can differ radically.

For example, a man having been rejected by a woman may perceive that moment as humorous or devastating.

A woman may perceive the apparent sexual advances of a man as threatening or flattering.

A speaker may perceive laughter as his audience laughing with him - or at him.

Why?

A Tweet from Scott Reinhart in a conversation with Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian summed it up elegantly:

"Correct. Same stimuli + different perceptual instruments + unique neural map = different data"

By "neural map" Scott is referring to our best understanding of neuroscience to date: neural networking.

The human mind can be viewed as a complex network of data and connections between those data. (Warning: colossal understatement follows.) In relation to your well-being, the data matters and the connections matter.

So, what does this have to do with Twitter?

As we're plugged in to the Twit-stream of data not only are we reacting to it differently based on our past experience - it is also shaping our future experience as well. (To what degree? I'll let the discussion ensue. Meanwhile ...)

Because of this, I tend to un-follow people who are constantly complaining, attacking other people, or giving me input that is otherwise unsupportive of a healthy neural map.

What is a "healthy neural map?"

Again - another matter for intense discussion, but I think most might agree with the following.

"Healthy Neural Map" = one that makes me experience the greatest possible joy while simultaneously protecting my survival and the survival of others.

Yes, that's perhaps a hammer where a laser is required, but for our purposes it works just fine.

So, what if there were a way to influence the Twit-stream in such a way that it supports a healthy neural map?

Thinking along those lines I tried an experiment yesterday that had some pretty amazing results.

It may seem absurd to you at first, but hear me out. It's worth it.

It started with the following tweet:

"If everyone Twittered "I love you" to everyone else would we bring about world peace. OK, everyone start with me :p"

Immediately I started to get a whole stream of "I love you!"s flying back at me in my "@replies."

So what?

Well, the effect it had on my state of mind was profound. It felt amazing.

But then it got even more interesting ...

I morphed the experiment a bit and started asking people to pass on the "I love you"s to 5 people.

What ensued was 45 minutes of pure hilarity and joy. As I replied back to people with "I love you too!" and encouraged them to keep it going, I started to feel a bit, well, drunk.

I finally had to stop as it was time to take my team out for our annual Christmas dinner.

I ended it with this tweet:

Takin' staff to dinner. I am entrusting the I Love You RT Train to you. Sacred trust. Keep it going!

If you search through yesterday's tweets you can see that this started an impressive chain reaction.

Last I checked there is still fighting today in Gaza, Sri Lanka, and Iraq so it didn't quite cause world peace, but interesting nonetheless, no?

The last thing I noticed was perhaps the most interesting.

As I tweet'd back and forth with "I love you" and "I love you too" (in all it's comic absurdity) I noticed that the tweets I saw coming across the twit-stream seemed to have a radically changed character.

Gone were the gripes and grievances we often see fly across our screens on Twitter.

What was happening?

Was my Reticular Activation System simply tuning them out?

Or, maybe, just maybe ... all the "I love you"s flying around my neck of the Twitterverse made people more conscious of what they were Tweeting.

Who knows.

What I do know is that my personal experience of it, and I hope the experience of those who participated, was largely positive. It gave me a great experience - dare I say even a cheap "high."

And having extra "I love you"s floating around in your neural-map can't hurt your self-image. (Indeed, our belief that we are loved may be one of the essential foundations of mental health.)

Will it cause world-peace? Well, who knows the far-reaching implications of our actions?

it certainly couldn't hurt it if enough of us do it.

Why not see what happens?

How to Reproduce the Twitter "I Love You" Experiment.

1. If you're not already on Twitter, sign up (it takes just a few seconds).

2. "Tweet" this to 5 people:

I love you! Pass it on to 5 people. If you get an "I love you" write back "I love you, too!"

Make sure you send it directly and individually to 5 people. You do that by starting out your Tweet with an @ sign followed by the username of the person. For example:

@markjoyner I love you! Pass it on to 5 people. If you get an "I love you" write back "I love you, too!"

3. See what happens.

Have fun with it. Some people will Tweet back silly stuff. Just go with it. If the reply you get is ambiguous, choose to interpret it positively.

4. Report back your experience in the "comments" section below.