We live in a World of experience inflation.
Everything and everyone is trying to make things bigger.
Better.
Louder.
Scarier.
More exciting.
Thrilling.
Dangerous.
Extreme.
Of course there are 2 main reasons for this.
1. New quickly becomes the new normal, so to keep business going, you have to keep evolving.
2. In such a demanding and stimulating society, people need greater extremes to make an impression on their feelings and emotions.
3. Companies can charge more money for what they’re doing.
Which is why, when I was in the UK recently, I was charmed by this:
Funny thing is, it was simply a guinea pig enclosure.
About 4 or 5 guinea pigs running [well, running in the guinea pig definition of the word] around.
And you know what? I loved it.
OK, I didn’t spend long there and yes, it was inside a garden centre rather than a theme park [and I’m still trying to get over the fact I went to a garden centre] but there was something magical about its simplicity.
We all rush along at 100mph looking for things to grab our attention but often it’s either right in front of our eyes or located in places we have pre-determined we wouldn’t want to visit.
Sure, I’m not going to go back anytime soon, but I can honestly say it made more of an impression on me than most theme parks.
Talking of theme parks.
I was once told this story by ‘virtual reality guru’ Jaron Lanier, that he had been hired by a rollercoaster owner to create the ultimate ride.
Months passed until he finally was satisfied and showed the owner what he had done.
The owner looked on before asking, “How many times will people throw up on one of these rides?”
Jaron responded by saying, “We’re working on ensuring that doesn’t happen”.
To which the looked on and said,
“Son, you may know a lot about technology but you know nothing about the entertainment business. Vomit sells seats. Make it worse, not better”
And right there, you see why rollercoasters will always have more visitors than the Guinea Pig World in Nottingham.