Sunday, April 29, 2007
Light Bulb Metaphor Still OK
by
Roger von Oech at Creative Think has announced the death of the light bulb metaphor for ideas. Citing why he wanted to ditch the light bulb symbol, Roger said, “First, it’s a very, very, very old metaphor for a new idea. And second, the environmentalists are going to vilify the incandescent light bulb in coming years.”
Not so fast Roger.
Yes it is an old idea, but I think incandescent bulbs still have an advantage over the recently hyped compact fluorescent bulbs (CFB)s. First, most CFBs have an obnoxious color cast to them — not very inviting in the home. And secondly, most CFBs cannot be used with dimmers. We use a dimmer with almost all bulbs in our home. To me, dimmers allow you to fine tune the lighting for every task and mood. You can get dimmable CFBs, but the price tag is so high (around $20/bulb) it negates the savings you gain with the CFB’s lower energy draw. Besides, by using a dimmer, the incandescent light consumes less energy bringing it more into line with CFBs.
For the reasons above, I think the incandescent bulb remains an ideal metaphor for a good idea.
