Picky Parents and Picky Kids
What do bookstores, high-achieving adults, and picky eaters have in common? More than you might think. Each of this week’s stories challenges a long-held assumption—about how we shop, how we succeed, and even how we eat. From the resurgence of in-person experiences to the hidden value of exploration over early specialization, to the unintended consequences of modern convenience, a common thread emerges: when we rethink what we’ve come to accept as “normal,” new opportunities for innovation appear.
The Comeback of Bookstores
Books and bookstores weren’t supposed to be here anymore. A number of years ago we were told the rise of e-books and digital marketplaces were going to make dinosaurs of them. Barnes & Noble has had other ideas. They are currently riding a resurgence with new store openings cropping up across the country. What is driving their success? First, they put a seasoned bookstore starting and running CEO in charge with James Daunt. Next, they gave store design and inventory selection control to local stores, allowing for customization and, crucially, context, to shape the customer’s experience. When, “Distinctions between chain and local have been superseded by the split between online and in-person shopping,” the in-person experience needs to double-down on what it can uniquely do and that’s just want Barnes & Noble is offering in this new iteration.
Rethinking Early Excellence
Let’s chat about another counter-intuitive reality, according to recent studies, “In every field, elite youth performers and elite adults were almost entirely separate groups. Around 90% of superstar adults had not been superstars as children, while only 10% of top-level kids had gone on to become exceptional adults.” This cuts against the trend of expecting kids to specialize and hyper-perform early on to guarantee success later in life. What’s going on? Part of the puzzle is that pre-mature specialization itself is antithetical to true excellence, “adult superstars also had a reliably different approach to their fields from that of the child prodigies, in that they seemed to maintain interests besides the one in which they eventually became elite. The best sportsmen and women tended to have played several sports at a relatively high level (and even had formal coaching) for much longer than their lesser-performing confrères... But when they did specialize, their progress was much quicker—they had better “training efficiency”, in the sports-science lingo.” It turns out that the process of learning lots of things makes you a better learner and ultimately a better performer at what you eventually decide to do. Sounds strangely like a liberal arts education…
The Curious Case of Picky Eaters
Switching gears from parents who are being highly selective for their kids, let’s talk about some highly selective kids. When it comes to food, why are kids so picky? You may be surprised to find out that this is a fairly recent phenomenon, “In the 1860s, a doctor wrote that children generally ate ‘anything and everything.’” Basically, it wasn’t really until the 1940’s and 1950’s that kids could be picky. They were often doing arduous chores that made them really hungry for mealtime and there was no such thing as kid’s food. Now, kids are frequently offered snacks that are meant to keep them eating. The saga is a classic case of how solutions to one problem (less child labor, more education, increased nutritional sources) lead to new problems (dinner time nuclear tantrums).
Photo Credits: Avenue East Cobb, Parenting First Cry, University of Michigan Medicine