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This is an area for innovation. Managing change/altering beliefs are extremely difficult. To help iron deficiency in Cambodians, they were encouraged to cook w

This is an area for innovation. Managing change/altering beliefs are extremely difficult. To help iron deficiency in Cambodians, they were encouraged to cook with iron ingots. No one used them. So they shaped the ingot into a lotus flower. Dice. Cultural investigation showed that fish were symbols of luck, health, and happiness. Fish-shaped ingots worked out! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_iron_fish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_iron_fish

mmanfrin 10y ago
This is very fascinating; it's so interesting when something as simple as the shape of an iron ingot can have such huge effects.
eru 10y ago
The Wikipedia article you linked says that the lotus flower shape was rejected as well.
- jellyd0ts 10y ago
  I don't know what he meant with "Dice.", but after that he did say that it was fish-shaped ingots that worked out. Does dice tend to mean success in this scenario?
  - Larrikin 10y ago
    The phrase is "No dice"
  - arfar 10y ago
    It could be a typo. "no dice" is an idiom in English for an "unfavorable result". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/no_dice https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/no_dice
4684499 10y ago
Why don't they just use iron pans? It's more affordable and more natural, you don't have to put something in your food, and it's being heated directly at the bottom. Did they just invent this iron fish to create more jobs?
- kirrent 10y ago
  Literally in the linked Wikipedia article: "Although cast-iron cookware is known to transmit iron to food during cooking, the cost to obtain it is prohibitive for most of the individuals living in poverty in rural Cambodia, who earn less than $1 per day." In what world would a cast iron pan be cheaper than a small ingot?
  - anigbrowl 10y ago
    It seems like it would be simpler and easier to just give them skillets than faffing around with ingots. If one is worried about the perception of value or suspicion of gifts one could offer to trade them for their existing cookware.
    - trprog 10y ago
      Of course it would be simpler and easier but who is going to pay for it? Cambodia is a nation of around 15 million people and a large proportion of them are affected by iron deficiency. You are talking about trying to get skillets/ingots into the hands of hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. Even cutting the cost of each item by $1 reduces the overall cost to either the organization(s) running the program or the poor people of Cambodia by hundreds of thousands of dollars. The organizations running this program and the poor of Cambodia aren't sitting on an infinite pot of money.
      - anigbrowl 10y ago
        The economic upsides from improved public health outcomes make it seem like a textbook case for foreign aid - it's easy enough to quantify the cost of the iron deficiency. Admittedly I'm thinking in autocratic terms rather than about the need for buy-in and all the other factors.
        metellus 10y ago
        Sure, but the iron fish option is cheaper and just as effective. With the money they're saving but using ingots instead of whole skillets, they can solve other problems too.
jdietrich 10y ago
Rory Sutherland often makes the point that advertising agencies are uniquely equipped to solve many complex social problems. They are, by some considerable margin, the best in the world at persuasion and behavioural change. The minds that persuaded a billion people to smoke cigarettes are well equipped to persuade people to dig proper latrines and wash their hands. The medical and logistical response to the recent ebola outbreak was astonishingly swift and efficient, but there were clearly major deficiencies in public communication. Perhaps there's an unrecognised need for "Advertisers Without Borders"?
- stuaxo 10y ago
  Making advertising agencies useful for something ? This would be great.
- Kalium 10y ago
  It's possible that the need is less unrecognized and more actively resisted. Donors who want to address disease in some tropical locale may not want to see their donations directed into ad campaigns instead of tangibles. I think it has to be pitched as "outreach".

mmanfrin 10y ago

This is very fascinating; it's so interesting when something as simple as the shape of an iron ingot can have such huge effects.

eru 10y ago

The Wikipedia article you linked says that the lotus flower shape was rejected as well.

jellyd0ts 10y ago
I don't know what he meant with "Dice.", but after that he did say that it was fish-shaped ingots that worked out. Does dice tend to mean success in this scenario?
- Larrikin 10y ago
  The phrase is "No dice"
- arfar 10y ago
  It could be a typo. "no dice" is an idiom in English for an "unfavorable result". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/no_dice https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/no_dice

4684499 10y ago

Why don't they just use iron pans? It's more affordable and more natural, you don't have to put something in your food, and it's being heated directly at the bottom. Did they just invent this iron fish to create more jobs?

kirrent 10y ago
Literally in the linked Wikipedia article: "Although cast-iron cookware is known to transmit iron to food during cooking, the cost to obtain it is prohibitive for most of the individuals living in poverty in rural Cambodia, who earn less than $1 per day." In what world would a cast iron pan be cheaper than a small ingot?
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  It seems like it would be simpler and easier to just give them skillets than faffing around with ingots. If one is worried about the perception of value or suspicion of gifts one could offer to trade them for their existing cookware.
  - trprog 10y ago
    Of course it would be simpler and easier but who is going to pay for it? Cambodia is a nation of around 15 million people and a large proportion of them are affected by iron deficiency. You are talking about trying to get skillets/ingots into the hands of hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. Even cutting the cost of each item by $1 reduces the overall cost to either the organization(s) running the program or the poor people of Cambodia by hundreds of thousands of dollars. The organizations running this program and the poor of Cambodia aren't sitting on an infinite pot of money.
    - anigbrowl 10y ago
      The economic upsides from improved public health outcomes make it seem like a textbook case for foreign aid - it's easy enough to quantify the cost of the iron deficiency. Admittedly I'm thinking in autocratic terms rather than about the need for buy-in and all the other factors.
      - metellus 10y ago
        Sure, but the iron fish option is cheaper and just as effective. With the money they're saving but using ingots instead of whole skillets, they can solve other problems too.

jdietrich 10y ago

Rory Sutherland often makes the point that advertising agencies are uniquely equipped to solve many complex social problems. They are, by some considerable margin, the best in the world at persuasion and behavioural change. The minds that persuaded a billion people to smoke cigarettes are well equipped to persuade people to dig proper latrines and wash their hands. The medical and logistical response to the recent ebola outbreak was astonishingly swift and efficient, but there were clearly major deficiencies in public communication. Perhaps there's an unrecognised need for "Advertisers Without Borders"?

stuaxo 10y ago
Making advertising agencies useful for something ? This would be great.
Kalium 10y ago
It's possible that the need is less unrecognized and more actively resisted. Donors who want to address disease in some tropical locale may not want to see their donations directed into ad campaigns instead of tangibles. I think it has to be pitched as "outreach".