Difference Between an Expert and a Novice

In honor of Mock Turtle Soup's 10th season celebration happening this weekend, it's worth taking another look at being into comedy for the laughs. Here's an abstract from the Journal of Consumer Research that applies:

A large proportion of marketing communication concerns feedback to consumers.This article explores what feedback people seek and respond to. We predict and find a shift from positive to negative feedback as people gain expertise. We document this shift in a variety of domains, including feedback on language acquisition,pursuit of environmental causes, and use of consumer products. Across these domains, novices sought and responded to positive feedback, and experts soughtand responded to negative feedback. We examine a motivational account for the shift in feedback: positive feedback increased novices’ commitment, and negative feedback increased experts’ sense that they were making insufficient progress.

Both are important on the route to perfection, but for now which is it, improvement or applause?

Suggestions.

It's been awhile since the idea of using a suggestion bothered me. But coaching an inaugural college team has reminded me that there's a lot of little tips that you need to hear when you learn improv for the first time.

One of which is to not take the suggestion literally.

If someone suggests banana, please do not eat a banana. If someone suggestions bathroom, do not take a mimed dump onstage. I'd forgotten the impulses to jump from one word immediately to the first thing I think of: that's what the audience does. When they say cake, they think in their heads "Oh my gosh, I love cake. I wish I was eating cake." But they don't really want to see a scene with a character who has a train of thought like that. You've gotta be one step ahead of your audience.