Make your absurd ideas believable
Any premise can feel real if you commit to it. Calvin Ross Carl explains how enough consistent rules make an absurd brand world believable, with a nod to Steve Jobs.
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl defines world building as creating enough rules that an absurd premise becomes completely believable. The more a brand follows its unique premise, the more believable its world gets. Calvin points to Steve Jobs’s reality distortion field: by consistently calling things magical, Jobs got everyone to believe he was a magician of technology. The lesson is that people forgive weirdness. They don’t forgive inconsistency.
Highlights
- World building is creating enough rules to make an absurd premise believable.
- Steve Jobs’s reality distortion field worked because he was consistent.
- People forgive weirdness, but they don’t forgive inconsistency.
Key insights
Rules make the absurd believable
A strange premise isn’t a problem. Following it faithfully, every time, is what makes an audience accept it.
Consistency is the trick
Jobs didn’t prove anything was magical. He said it so consistently that people believed it, which shows how much a steady story can carry.
Detailed analysis
This idea frees brands to go further than they think they can. The risk isn’t being too weird, it’s breaking your own rules. A brand that commits to its premise and repeats it in every word and choice earns belief that a safer, mixed message never will.
Conclusion
Go deep on the absurd, and stay consistent. Weirdness is okay. Inconsistency isn’t.
All world building is just creating enough rules that the whole premise of your absurd new world is completely believable. The more you follow that unique premise for your brand, the more believable your world becomes.
There’s always the joke about Steve Jobs’s reality distortion field when he would give presentations. His trick was just that if he spoke consistently about something being magical, we all started to believe it. He would say “magic,” “magical,” all of those words, enough that we started believing he was some magician of technology, when really he was just a very smart [bleep].
The reason you can go really deep on that absurdity is that people forgive weirdness. Weirdness is okay, but they don’t forgive inconsistency.