Conventional thinking in regards to Charlie Darwin’s theory of evolution is that biological change is the cumulative result of slow, continual and incremental processes. Think of changes happening in several, barely-perceivable units.

Another change model, punctuated equilibrium, states that species exhibit little change for long periods of time (stasis) interrupted by sudden and radical clusters or bursts of change.

Punctuated equilibrium has been applied to explain how change occurs in economics, organizational behavior and politics. And while an esoteric thought, it certainly seems applicable to the advertising business right now. Technological advances are revolutionizing the way people consume information, and those tasked with creating content for consumption are having to figure out how to adapt. Profoundly and at lightning speed.

Just a thought.

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Does one have to be a lunatic madman to be an entrepreneur? Are all visionaries nutjobs? Highly debatable. However I recently happened upon two pretty compelling pieces of evidence that point firmly to “yes.”

The documentary film We Live in Public chronicles the rise and fall of Josh Harris, the most famous (and incredibly eccentric) Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of; in 1992, he predicted much of what the web has become:

The Internet is like this new human experience. At first, everybody’s gonna like it, but there will be a fundamental change in the human condition.

The film highlights Harris’ social experiments and how they ultimately predicted the exhibitionism that marks social media today. We do live in public. Harris called that shot years before YouTube, Twitter or Facebook.

And in Sunday’s New York Times, there was a feature on Seth Priebatsch and his start-up company Scvngr (pronounced “Scavenger”). The story focuses on the 21-year-old wunderkind who wants to “build the game layer on top of the world.” Huh, right? That sounds crazy, but so did the premise for all of the other sites that millions and millions of people use every day.

Recently I read a quote on the stages of a visionary, world-changing idea: silly, controversial, progressive, then obvious. When you think of it that way, crazy starts to make a lot of sense.

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The kids at the Square have been nose-to-the-grindstone this past month, and our blog has suffered because of it. Sorry about that. But we promise to share all kinds of stuff quite soon. You’ll see. You’ll see we haven’t been slackin. Nuh uh. No sir.

Campaigns will be launched, news will be released and minds will be blown. Consider August an incubation period.

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In the June 5th Wall Street Journal, a question is posed:

Does the Internet make you smarter or dumber?

The argument for the former is here, and the argument for the latter is here. Each article makes sense and contains some valid points. What do you think?

The simple answer to the WSJ’s question is: yes.

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I don’t have an iPad yet. Reason one: Apple develops product in market. So an improved iPad will be out in a few months and will cost less. Reason two: I can’t figure out where it fits into my digital life. I have a MacBook. I have an iPhone. Why do I need an iPad?

That being said, Apple sold about 700,000 units yesterday when the device made its debut. So a few people, who presumably have laptops and smartphones, felt the device serves some purpose.

From the half dozen reviews I’ve read, iPad isn’t any good at making stuff. But it could change the way we consume stuff: books, magazines, newspapers, music, TV, movies, photos, the web and email.

There’s something innately attractive about the tactile nature of the iPhone and now the iPad. That, along with incredible industrial design and user interface. WSJ technology guru, Walt Mossberg, points out:

It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.

No question, media consumption will continue to evolve. And people who make media content, including advertisers, had better pay attention.

Just a heads up.

UPDATE Monday 4/5: Adweek ponders the iPad this morning. As does AdAge. Both good reads.

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