Laslo's Curve (or Lazlo's Curve?)

[The Egg Man]

Someone mentioned this to me this afternoon in the context of her 'being at the wrong bit of Laslo's Curve' to proceed with something she'd considered buying.

Does anyone have Janet and John explanation of what she might be on about?

Ta.

[jodieohdoh]

Nope, but I've seen that name spelt Laszlo if that helps.

[Josef]

The closest thing I can see that looks like it might be remotely applicable to the context here, is a book by Albert-László Barabási, reviewed here.

The review is a mixture of semi-permeable technical stuff and clear English. Quite entertaining, really. It's not often you get the Mafia quoted in a tech book review.

P.S. - It might be worth a quick scan through it to pick out bits relevant to the context first, rather than reading the whole thing from the start.

[ibtg]

Could be Dr. Ervin Laszlo, he has written a book about applying Chaos Theory to planning.........

[BrigitDoon]

I can't find anything by any Laszlo that fits the bill, but I expect it will be a probability curve that relates the likelihood of an individual making a purchase to the number of retail outlets that they have visited. In other words, she needs to visit a few more shops before making a decision.

[duck]

Could it be Maslow and his hierarchy of needs theory????

[Dexter St. Clair]

Could it be Maslow and his hierarchy of needs theory????

I think you might have something. An quasi intellectual malapropism.

[Monument]

Maslow's hierarchy is not a curve.

[Boxer6]

Maslow's hierarchy is not a curve.

It was taught to me (and the rest of my class, I hasten to ad!) as a (2-d) pyramid. That was 24 years ago, so I doubt it still is.

[The Egg Man]

Thanks all. I'm working my way through the suggestions.

[Josef]

Maslow's hierarchy is not a curve.

It was taught to me (and the rest of my class, I hasten to ad!) as a (2-d) pyramid. That was 24 years ago, so I doubt it still is.

It is.

I quite like ibtg's suggestion and my own, although not because I suggested it, merely the relevance to the purchasing context.

I'd rule out Maslow's hierarchy. The decision as to not purchase something according to how high up the pyramid it was would be a moral consumerist one, so it's unlikely that anyone would be placed in the position of having to think about the purchase in the manner implied.

Any idea what the object was, Egg? Might clarify matters....

[The Egg Man]

The person I spoke to sells stationery (yep, pens, pencils and loose leaf folders) to BIG public sector customers, so I don't imagine it's a product related matter.

It's possible she made it up to soften the blow of a rejection of his proposal.

[Josef]

Sorrry, Egg, but I can make sense of that only if your friend was trying to sell some product or other to someone who refused on the grounds of 'being at the wrong bit of Laslo's Curve'?

[Dave]

Probably more of a marketing rip on the Laszlo Theorum which allows things to be 'glued'. Essentially if you follow the theorem through you can 'glue' yourself to the other party, if not you are left in limbo. Laszlo Theorum and this marketing terminology are not linked in any other way other than someone used it to sound intelligent in a meeting. You may disregard it as poppycock and ask the person to speak in proper English.