Google Trends: nlp, wicca, man boobs

Google trends gives us powerful tools for comparative analyses of social chatter, a very similar technique was pioneered by US intelligence agencies to detect probabilites of "exceptional events"...

Often a control is placed that helps the analyst normalize the results...

here NLP is compared with the general interest in Wicca (which might be a functional proxy for many new age beliefs), and Man Boobs.... a good indicator of the young male sector...

If NLP is normalized against Wicca, it looks like it is holding up pretty well in relation to the entire field, however against Man Boobs NLP is a steeply declining trend... which suggests that NLP may be losing impact in the early adult sector and gaining in the middle aged sector...

(however, in absolute terms, NLP has lost about 50% of its social chatter volume since 2004.... high time to refresh the message, anyone ?)

Here's a fascinating follow up, comparing search terms psychotherapy to medication....

Google Trends: psychotherapy, medication

It's no secret that the big names in NLP have long been raping the goose that once laid golden eggs...

Compare and contrast with CBT - a field that has less to offer, but offers more.

Google Trends: nlp, cbt

And my article: Can NLP learn from CBT? — Chris Morris

Wow, man boobs and goose raping! I'm glad I came to NLPConnections today!

Well there IS a roaring bull market in porn...... When in Rome, do as the Romans...

Google Trends: porn

When in Rome, do as the Romans...

I tried that excuse when I went for a long weekend in Rome when I tried to kill some Christians, it didn't go down too well.

What are the pressupositions of using google statistics?

Google's presuppositions or my presuppositions ?

My presuppositions derive from intelligence methods developed in the 1960s and massively enhanced through modern data mining and computational tools... I do a lot of work with hedge fund people, we are constantly seeking to "see through the fog" of media noise, sensationalism, and so on, and get some firm indications of what sorts of intrinsic, underlying changes (often barely noticed, and if noticed, barely comprehended) are driving the culture.

If you can extract culture relevant information, you can make useful predictions on many levels about the ways that next year will differ from this year, and in my experience, the people we would categorize as ultra-successful, the hands down winners, the people who own the casinos as opposed to the people who gamble in them, are also people who are exquisitely attuned to, and responsive to the opportunities that detecting cultural shift provides them. That, in a nutshell, IS the difference that makes the difference. That is why Richard Branson is Richard Branson, that is why Peter Theil is Peter Theil, that is why Sergei Brin is Sergei Brin....

Forget 99% of the inspirational business crap literature you see in airports, mostly that's just profitable fodder, another moneymaking business line for a publishing empire... the core competence IS accurately detecting change before anyone else can wrap their minds around what that might imply for the future. Those are the people who had the foresight to buy gold at 200/oz. USD and bail out of the real estate market in 2007 and buy stocks at the absolute bottom while they sold bonds. Because they have long understood this core competence and mastered it as much as it can be mastered. They, to put it bluntly, are not fucking around. They intend to win, they intend to capture the high ground, and they have the means, the visceral drive, and the opportunity to do it. They will consistently dictate the terms that everyone else will live by. These are the people who consider the political class to be employees. They consider the media class to be employees. They are as fluid as the the liquid crystal android from the future in Terminator 2. Arnold showed us the perfect metaphor and nobody got it. But Arnold got it. Anybody who gets to that place gets it without the slightest sentimentality.

Brin and Page have a liberationist streak. Thank them for that. They liberated a knowledge tool that had long been the private domain of the billionaire class. Brin was a product of the old Soviet Union. He gave the world a profound gift. But neither he nor anybody else is going to think for you. He's given you a tool zuhanden, as Heidegger would say.

You must pick it up, use it, master it, understand its' implications. Or not.

Thanks for that Bufo -- a really interesting take on things. I'm reminded of the visionary world-shaping tycoon Veidt in the comic Watchmen, scanning 100 or more screens to take in what the world is telling him at any given moment, and responding appropriately.

Deleted.