WHO'S LOOKING?

April 1st, 2020

This Episode is dedicated to Jack Butcher.  He is the mind behind Visualize Value.  You can connect with him on Twitter with the handle @jackbutcher or better yet, checkout Visualize Value with the handle @visualizevalue.

Today’s post is a little late, and it’s fortuitous, because today was a genuine surprise.  Today Tinkered Thinking played a little prank on social media.  It is April Fool’s day, after all.

This morning, Tinkered Thinking posted to Twitter that it was abandoning social media and anyone who wanted to stay in touch should subscribe on the website.  The turnout, as it happens has been a genuine surprise.  The mailing list increased by a full 50%, which is incredible.

For those who fell for the trick, including friends, family, loved ones, and panicked fans who hurriedly sent in DM’s:  genuine apologies to stress you out, but even in such trying and stressful times, a good joke, a good prank, an excuse to laugh, simply cannot be passed up. 

The more serious things are, the more necessary it is to indulge in a good joke.  Laughter and humor does not insult the tragic, because the tragic is almost always an insult to living, and genuine, heartfelt laughter is a celebration of life.

It must be admitted that the idea arose during an exhausted morning stupor and was casually executed.

The inspiration came from something Jack Butcher did recently on Twitter.  He created what might be called a “scarcity campaign” where he offered a product for a limited time at a certain low price and then ratcheted the price up at designated time intervals.  He did this with a good deal of genuine transparency to show the effect.  The same concept worked for Tinkered Thinking today as fans who saw the April Fool’s post rushed to subscribe.

Granted Tinkered Thinking was far less methodical, and certainly didn’t anticipate the fact that so many would fail to suspect that it was an April Fool’s joke.

Nonetheless, the support, interest and genuine concern is humbling, appreciated, and most important: very motivating.

Tinkered Thinking seeks to treat your attention as an incredible gift and an amazing resource.  And in honor of that, a lot of things are in the pipeline just for subscribers, so if you weren’t on Twitter today, make sure to subscribe now.