About

What is Dandelion Fluff?

Basically, everything that strikes my (Dani, a.k.a. OhDaniB, a.k.a. Dandelion) fancy. I’m someone who gets very (possibly overly?) excited about stuff I think is cool, and have a compulsion to share it with everyone I know. Turns out I’m not alone in this. Reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, I discovered the term “Market Maven”, and its accompanying description and definition:

The word Maven comes from the Yiddish, and it means one who accumulates knowledge. In recent years, economists have spent a great deal of time studying Mavens, for the obvious reason that if marketplaces depend on information, the people with the most information must be the most important….

The critical thing about Mavens, though, is that they aren’t passive collectors of information. It isn’t just that they are obsessed with how to get the best deal on a can of coffee. What sets them apart is that once they figure out how to get that deal, they want to tell you about it, too. “A Maven is a person who has information on a lot of different products or prices or places. This person likes to initiate discussions with consumers and respond to requests… They like to be helpers int he marketplace. They distribute coupons. They take you shopping. They go shopping for you…. They distribute about four times as many coupons as other people. This is the person who connects people to the marketplace and has the inside scoop on the marketplace. They know where the bathroom is in retail stores. That’s the kind of knowledge they have.” They are more than experts. An expert… will “talk about, say, cars because they love cars. But they don’t talk about cars because they love you, and want to help you with your decision. The Market Maven will. They are more socially motivated.”

So there you have it. When I read the passage above I flashed back to the previous week. In that week, I had visited an IKEA store with some friends. I had only been there once or twice before, myself. Yet when my friends J.C. and J.D. asked me where the bathroom was, I didn’t have to think twice. A few days later I went shopping with some girlfriends. Sure enough, within a few minutes of walking into Sephora they were all coming to me for advice on various cosmetics: “I’ve been looking for a mascara. Can you recommend something?” “I’ve been looking for a new brush. Do you have any ideas?” And the thing is, I DID.

When my dear friend A.S. introduced me to Design*Sponge - and consequently the world of blogging - I knew I found my outlet. I mean, yeah, my friends appreciated my input. But there were times (more often than I’d like to admit, I think) when friends didn’t necessarily want my research when they said: “I’ve been thinking of getting a …”.

So I present Dandelion Fluff. Stuff I think is cool, and stuff I think is worth sharing. Just so you know what to expect, here’s a bit more about me. I am a:

Design Geek
Food Geek
Techno-Geek (my friends have decreed I shall be known as “Tech Slut”, but I prefer the former)
Science Geek
Sci-Fi Geek
Lit-Geek
British Comedy Geek
.
.
.
But I’m creative, so that’s quite cool.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope my blog leaves you with a new little spark in your imagination.