One of the beautiful things about the internet is that everybody has a voice, and one of
the terrible things about the internet is that everybody has a voice and a lot of people
don’t have anything worth listening to that they say.
And so sifting through that and finding a way to determine the signal out of all that
noise is one of the challenges of our time.
It’s part of the hallmark of shifting from an economy and an ecology of scarcity
to one of abundance.
When you have—you know look at a grocery
store in the US.
That is a fantastical concept to someone from 50 years ago and prior in human existence.
It’s still a fantastical concept to people from developing nations.
You go to a Star Market or a Walgreens or a Giant Foods or a Whole Foods or what have
you.
How many choices of cereal do we need?
We’ve got like 80 choices of cereal, diet cereal, Chocó Cocoa Crispy, nutty cereal,
cereal with oxytocins in them, cereal with herbs and whatnot, weed-infused cereal, probably
vodka-infused and bacon-infused, Coca Pebbles, like, it’s getting a bit nuts.
And so what that industry has done is kind of thrown a lot of money at marketing and
pay for positioning in the store and trying to convince you that, like, this cereal is
worth more than that cereal.
And that is a part of the solution, but the
real thing is to A, don’t feel as a reader, as a digester, as a downloader of this vast
world of abundance, you don’t have to feel obligated to read it all, to view it all.
You don’t have to try to know everything or watch everything.
There are way too many things, just like there is too many cereal choices in the grocery
store, there is too many videos on YouTube to watch them all.
And if you’re someone who is pushing stuff out there, you don’t have to read all the
comments either.
In fact, I advise you heavily not to read all the comments.
Brand is important.
Community is important.
In a sea of dramatic change where up is down and this is the situation today and that’s
the situation tomorrow, people cling to beliefs.
They cling to community.
They cling to names and brands and places that they trust, and trust is important in
this world.
And so, if you’re in the business of producing content andinformation and trying to grab
people’s attention, the mere act of producing it is not special.
Oh great, you’re a photographer.
You take pictures.
So do I.
So does everybody with a camera phone.
That’s no longer special.
Building community around that is a little more special.
Building a special sensibility and brand and sort of signature and hallmark is special.
So you look at, I don’t know, McSweeney’s,
as a literary brand that has live events and a highly tactile experience with some of their
printed products and a design aesthetic that signals to a community: this is what we are;
we’re more than just words on a page or on a screen; we are an intentional community;
we are a perspective on the world.
And the more you send out more than raw data
and information but actual intention and sensibility and perspective, the more people will self-identify
and find that, especially if you give them chances to also feel like they’re a part
of that as well.
Because you’re not special just because you can make things.
I think it’s very important for people to realize that.
Everybody can make things.
So what else can you build beyond the raw thing, beyond the bits that you publish?