Product loyalty: consumers mistake familiarity with superiority

Overall, the results suggest that all the years of arguments over the relative merits of things like the Mac and Windows user interfaces were a waste of time: we're generally convinced that whatever we're familiar with is the best.

Only recently has Amelie begun to pretend. I hadn't really noticed it was missing until it appeared. But suddenly she is stirring imaginary soup in her imaginary pots,and giving me imaginary sips. As humans we love to try to figure out what makes us different-- even superior-- to other animals. May I less-than-humbly suggest pretending?

It's what lets us evolve and progress. Via pretending we can try on new roles safely, explore new directions for our lives, society, technology... I've called personas "barbies for designers", but isn't scenario planning just "let's pretend" for businessmen? And aren't those immensely useful and good games to play?

All innovation is born of "let's pretend." Without "let's pretend" there would be no start-ups, no silicon valley, perhaps no business at all. The only sad thing is some people forget it is play, and forget to have a good time doing it.