How I learned I was a maven.

The realization hit me while listening to an audio book very recently: Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point.



Gladwell describes mavens as individuals who are obsessively watching the market and market forces in an effort to help other people be better consumers or make better decisions. Not only do they know information about a subject/product but they care enough to share the information with people to improve their decision making ability. They're passionate about what they do which is, fundamentally, to inform others.



The market is used in my interpretation as to mean the market for any product: ideas, consumable products, processes etc. all have markets. They all have trends, with products rising and falling at any given point.

To listen to oneself being described in an audio book without any notice beforehand is an inspirational experience. It let me understand my actions in the day to day world.

The following example is an exerpt of my daily life:



Once a week my wife and I go grocery shopping. Driving down our local main street, there are atleast three different grocery stores.....all of which are located within 2 blocks of another.


What makes us pull into our choice grocer?



In our case, we have a discount grocer and two more expensive grocers. The discount grocer, relatively speaking, is a bit of a dive. The vegetables aren't as fresh, the selection is poor but things are cheaper. They provide a bad shopping experience but lure us with cheaper prices.



About 50% of the time we land up at this grocer. It is not because of the cheaper prices though- it was because I am typically driving (therefore I am the ultimate decision maker for this micro-problem facing us as we drive down the street) and I secretly want one of these pre-made yogurt/fresh fruit/granola parfaits they sell there. I can sneak one into the cart and I save it for my glorious breakfast the next day. Why do I know this is the sole reason?


I know this is the reason because last night we went to this grocer and I instantly bee-lined towards the parfaits. To my astonishment, the store had raised the price $0.50. This was my breaking point- I felt betrayed by my grocer. I refused to purchase the parfait at that price and now I'm thinking of avoiding the grocer all together.

I know the price points of all three grocers and I know what other services they offer. I have nearly perfect information in making my grocery shopping decision. As a result, I trusted this grocer about 50% of the time. I trusted them because the information I had on them suggested it was my ideal shopping destination. They breached the trust by secretly raising the price of my favorite product. They didn't advertise the increase in price like they do their sale items. They simply tried to sneak it under my nose.

Now, I am not interested in going to that grocer anymore. The only reason for this is that my 'tipping point' (the parfait) is no longer a viable item for me to purchase. I feel the price is unreasonable and above market levels. As a result, I'll move on to the new 'best grocer' on the street.

This is a very simple example of what this maven's every day life is like. I consume information in a passionate way. I live for sharing the information with others to ensure that others make the best market actions they can. Its only fair that everyone has as much information as possible.

The intention of my blog is to provide myself with another tool to share what information you need to make better market actions yourself....thus avoiding conventional consumption.