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Culturematic: How Reality TV, John Cheever, a Pie Lab, Julia Child, Fantasy Football . . . Will Help You Create and Execute Breakthrough Ideas
Welcome to How Reality TV, John Cheever, a Pie Lab, Julia Child, Fantasy Football, Burning Man, the Ford Fiesta Movement, Rube Goldberg, NFL Films, Wordle, Two and a Half Men, a 10,000-Year Symphony, and ROFLCom Memes Will Help You Create and Execute Breakthrough Ideas
A Culturematic is a little machine for making culture. It’s an ingenuity engine.
Once wound up and released, the Culturematic acts as a probe into the often-alien world of contemporary culture, to test the atmosphere, to see what life it can sustain, to see who responds and how. Culturematics start small but can scale up ferociously, bootstrapping themselves as they go.
Because they are so inexpensive, we can afford to fire off a multitude of Culturematics simultaneously. This is evolutionary strategy, iterative innovation, and rapid prototyping all at once. Culturematics are fast, cheap, and out of control. Perhaps as important, they fail early and often. They are the perfect antidote to a world where we cannot guess what’s coming next.
In Culturematic , anthropologist Grant McCracken describes these little machines and helps the reader master them. Examples are drawn from NFL Films, Twitter, the Apple Genius Bar, Starbucks, Ford, SNL Digital Shorts, Restoration Hardware, UNICEF, J. Crew, Pie Lab, USA Network, and the GEICO gecko.
For the traditional producers of culture—the creators of movies, design, advertising, publishing, magazines, newspapers, and corporate R&D—this book will inspire new innovation and creativity.
For the emerging producers of culture—the digital players—this book will serve as a practical handbook. Culturematic : our app for creating the world anew.
A Culturematic is a little machine for making culture. It’s an ingenuity engine.
Once wound up and released, the Culturematic acts as a probe into the often-alien world of contemporary culture, to test the atmosphere, to see what life it can sustain, to see who responds and how. Culturematics start small but can scale up ferociously, bootstrapping themselves as they go.
Because they are so inexpensive, we can afford to fire off a multitude of Culturematics simultaneously. This is evolutionary strategy, iterative innovation, and rapid prototyping all at once. Culturematics are fast, cheap, and out of control. Perhaps as important, they fail early and often. They are the perfect antidote to a world where we cannot guess what’s coming next.
In Culturematic , anthropologist Grant McCracken describes these little machines and helps the reader master them. Examples are drawn from NFL Films, Twitter, the Apple Genius Bar, Starbucks, Ford, SNL Digital Shorts, Restoration Hardware, UNICEF, J. Crew, Pie Lab, USA Network, and the GEICO gecko.
For the traditional producers of culture—the creators of movies, design, advertising, publishing, magazines, newspapers, and corporate R&D—this book will inspire new innovation and creativity.
For the emerging producers of culture—the digital players—this book will serve as a practical handbook. Culturematic : our app for creating the world anew.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2012
15 people are currently reading
436 people want to read
About the author
Grant McCracken
19 books49 followersI'm an anthropologist, born in Canada, now living in, and studying, the US. I divide my life into two halves. One is the writing half. The other is for clients: Netflix, the Ford Foundation, the White House, among others. My new book, out in late December from Simon and Schuster is called The New Honor Code.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 6, 2012
Grant is a great chronicler of social science trends and the forces that shape our culture consciousness. He deserves to be better known. I personally I have read all his books and consider his thinking to be a huge influence on my own writing and thinking. Culturematic deserves to be read.
February 2, 2015
I'm a huge fan of popular culture and I'm always hungry for texts that shed light on it. McCracken's Culturematic fed that hunger--it's about good ideas and how these good ideas are executed, and paints a picture of Western culture. It's a must-read for those in the marketing and entertainment industry, as most of the examples are from said industries. But it shouldn't be limited to them, as it provides a handful pieces of advice for creating breakthrough ideas, which should happen in every field. It teaches the reader through examples and the takeaway from those examples.
A few favorites of mine are included in the book as excellent examples of "Culturematics", like Saturday Night Live's Digital Shorts and Dan Harmon's Channel 101. It's pretty interesting to know the story behind these things. There's so many insights in the book that can inspire anyone; for one, the book quotes Canva evangelist Guy Kawasaki, who says that "the nobodies are the new somebodies." (p. 203)
Despite these, though, McCracken tends to be repetitive, to sound so excited all the time. While this is intended to drive a point, it gets tiring. There's just so many things that describe a Culturematic that it's hard to pin down what it really is. Moreover, it gets so concentrated on Western Culturematics; it would've been interesting to see some Culturematics, say, from Asia, to be featured in the book. The premise is interesting, nonetheless.
A few favorites of mine are included in the book as excellent examples of "Culturematics", like Saturday Night Live's Digital Shorts and Dan Harmon's Channel 101. It's pretty interesting to know the story behind these things. There's so many insights in the book that can inspire anyone; for one, the book quotes Canva evangelist Guy Kawasaki, who says that "the nobodies are the new somebodies." (p. 203)
Despite these, though, McCracken tends to be repetitive, to sound so excited all the time. While this is intended to drive a point, it gets tiring. There's just so many things that describe a Culturematic that it's hard to pin down what it really is. Moreover, it gets so concentrated on Western Culturematics; it would've been interesting to see some Culturematics, say, from Asia, to be featured in the book. The premise is interesting, nonetheless.
May 2, 2012
A handbook for DIY cultural innovation that will appeal to artists, designers, and creative people of all kinds. Reading Grant's work always gives me a greater appreciation and understanding of American culture, as well inspiring me to contribute to the conversation.
December 30, 2013
Inspired my own "experiment" and am glad I did it so a win all around.
August 30, 2012
This is a great book to listen to in the car. My head was spinning with ideas during the entirety. A culturematic, from how i understand it, is the idea that we can create culture and new ideas with existing sets of data and preconceptions and setting on a course, big or small, to throw a kink or new layer into them and thereby create a new experiences. You don't know what's going to happen and a lot of experiments fail, but ever so often an idea catches on creates a new sensation, i.e. reality tv, fantasy football, continuing tv stories online after they air. He also touches on how this method will affect corporate culture or is already affecting it.
May 16, 2013
A must read for business people who want to spark innovation in their companies. Have you wondered why something as awful as the "Jersey Shore" became so popular? What was behind Starbuck's success with becoming our "third place?" It is all about "culturematics," a way to try out new ideas, and the innovations that tap into the unexpected can be the ones that take hold. It even has a section on culturematics in libraries. It is not an easy read, one that you have to read slowly and swish it around in your mind like fine wine. A must read for creative people.
July 22, 2013
Full of good ideas and good ideas about creating good ideas. McCracken writes well about how to monitor the zeitgeist and build culture by working with your audience, rather than barking orders at them.
I have to nitpick one thing, because it's been driving me crazy. The author seems to believe that the Microsoft "I'm a PC" ads predate the ones Apple did with John Hodgman and Justin Long. Not only did this campaign come after Apple's (2008 v. 2006), but it would probably suit his argument better if he wrote about he MS campaign as a response to the Apple one. Details, people.
I have to nitpick one thing, because it's been driving me crazy. The author seems to believe that the Microsoft "I'm a PC" ads predate the ones Apple did with John Hodgman and Justin Long. Not only did this campaign come after Apple's (2008 v. 2006), but it would probably suit his argument better if he wrote about he MS campaign as a response to the Apple one. Details, people.
September 26, 2012
http://www.avclub.com/articles/grant-...
Attempting a chummy, conversational style, McCracken often achieves a level of spoon-feeding condescension that would get him fired from an editorial post at Highlights For Children.
Funny line from the review linked above.
I am judging this book by it's cover (the title) and look forward to reading it.
* my review: it was jumbled but interesting. *
Attempting a chummy, conversational style, McCracken often achieves a level of spoon-feeding condescension that would get him fired from an editorial post at Highlights For Children.
Funny line from the review linked above.
I am judging this book by it's cover (the title) and look forward to reading it.
* my review: it was jumbled but interesting. *
June 15, 2013
pro: occasional good thought-starters on culture, especially in regard to 'finding the white space.' good to see some innovative examples of what corporations are doing to be part of culture.
con: sometimes-annoying author with laughable taste. (he likes chuck lorre.) also, the dude has some ideas about what is going on in culture, or how culture "catches on," but vagueries abound. this book is pretty repetitive and kind of trite.
con: sometimes-annoying author with laughable taste. (he likes chuck lorre.) also, the dude has some ideas about what is going on in culture, or how culture "catches on," but vagueries abound. this book is pretty repetitive and kind of trite.
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May 21, 2014Grant McCracken, AM’76, PhD’81
Author
From our pages (Dialogo, Spring–Summer/14):
"Trend spotter: Canadian anthropologist Grant McCracken, AM’76, PhD’81, has built an unconventional career as an observer of American culture."
http://mag.uchicago.edu/law-policy-so...
Author
From our pages (Dialogo, Spring–Summer/14):
"Trend spotter: Canadian anthropologist Grant McCracken, AM’76, PhD’81, has built an unconventional career as an observer of American culture."
http://mag.uchicago.edu/law-policy-so...
May 12, 2018
It is an amazing book, who's only upside is that it needs to be updated. It is one of those books that gives you an option to do something with the knowledge you acquire while listening to the TV, music, and any other media. TV will never be an idle time after you read this book.
February 14, 2025
This is an interesting take on creativity and culture. The author looks at ideas that started very small but grew to make a large impact, and he gives readers the tools to recognize ideas that may be on the upswing and also how to create other ideas. Reminded me of A Whack On the Side of the Head and Thinkertoys . . . a little less nuts and bolts than those books and more example driven. Worth reading if you are in the creative business or want to be. Recommended.
July 27, 2017
This book tries to define innovation in a slightly different way, but it is not coherent and the book is not well organized.
March 18, 2019
The book is a little dated.
March 5, 2013
The overall idea of the book is fantastic, as are the endless examples provided of what makes a Culturematic. The explanations and illustrations were quite repetitive though, and I feel a more thorough editing process could have made this book about 2/3 the size with no harm done to the final product. This is also the kind of topic I'd watch a TED talk (or a series of them) on.
The Culturematics pulled from many industries and several different points in recent history do serve to illustrate how innovation comes from ingenuity when all the pieces are allowed to fall into place with the right kind of thinking.
A good read for anyone whose stock and trade is ideas.
The Culturematics pulled from many industries and several different points in recent history do serve to illustrate how innovation comes from ingenuity when all the pieces are allowed to fall into place with the right kind of thinking.
A good read for anyone whose stock and trade is ideas.
May 8, 2016
McCracken's "Culturematic" is a little machine for making culture, designed to test the world, discover meaning, and unleash value.
As a whole I found the book unfocused, and I would have enjoyed a more controlled exploration of this idea.
Instead, I found it meandered through examples, various guidelines, and related topics.
Certainly, some of the examples, quotes, and references were interesting, and there are nuggets in here that I see myself thinking about and using in my own life for years to come.
As a whole I found the book unfocused, and I would have enjoyed a more controlled exploration of this idea.
Instead, I found it meandered through examples, various guidelines, and related topics.
Certainly, some of the examples, quotes, and references were interesting, and there are nuggets in here that I see myself thinking about and using in my own life for years to come.
June 2, 2012
Interesting premise, and I enjoy thinking about the anthropology of pop culture, but this book could have used better editing. It's very repetitive, sometimes repeating almost the exact same sentence within one paragraph. John Cheever's name appears prominently in the subtitle, yet he is mentioned nowhere in the book. The poor editing gives the book an unfocused and slightly desperate feeling, like the author thinks if he just babbles and repeats himself enough, we will buy into his theories.
July 11, 2014
The ideas that McCracken shines a spotlight upon are certainly interesting ones. In the end, as the author seems to even acknowledge, the proposal that ideas can be categorized into a distinct class of "culturematic" ideas wears thin. The qualifications for what makes them a certain kind of special are just too disparate and squirrely to pin down. However it's a nice collection of ideas with enough grandstanding by McCracken to incite a bout of out-of-the-box thinking in any reader.
April 28, 2014
a very good account of how behavioural change can be engineered deliberately in a very interesting and unexpected manner to create new and lasting experiences in our business and cultural landscape.....
December 11, 2012
It had great examples but a scattered message. Mr. (Dr.) McCracken presents a lot of examples but no unifying theme or even further questions.
July 19, 2012
First chapter was great, but then got bogged down by trying to justify and define who/what Culturematics are.
December 25, 2015
I'm not sure how the book could live up to the title and description, which I loved. It's a nice book but fell short of its promise despite a few nuggets of interest.
October 22, 2012
Ok read. Repetitive after the chapter 5. Leaves you craving a bit. However, the first few chapters are a great read.
January 31, 2013
please see my review at theagencyreview.wordpress.com/culture...
January 7, 2013
It's not the craft of writing that makes this compelling, but the philosophy behind the words. Create something and see what happens... the results may surprise you.
September 26, 2013
Great book - thought I wish that there was a two or three syllable word, easier to pronounce ..........
Lots of insight into how culture is made - great business book to add to your reading list
Lots of insight into how culture is made - great business book to add to your reading list
December 20, 2013
I like the idea of a culturematic, but the definition seems so ambiguous.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews