It's easy to say that, "the industry is to blame," or "the industry doesn't understand this."
But because no one is charge, because there's no coherent enforcement method, this is merely a shorthand. There is no industry, no economy, no market. Only people.
And people, people can take action if they care.
One clue that someone doesn't understand a problem is that they need a large number of variables and factors to explain it.
On the other hand, turning a complex situation into something overly simple is an even more common way of demonstrating ignorance of how the system works.
What we're looking for isn't the number of countable variables. It's the clarity of thought. The coherence of the explanation. The ability to have that explanation hold water even if small inputs change. The explanation might be long, but it makes sense.
Too often, the overly simplistic explanation is just a form of hand waving. We beg the question because we mention the simple explanation plus the miracle. It's the miracle, the homunculus, the little man in the machine, that actually holds the answer, and punting on explaining it is lazy. We use magic to kick the explanation down the road, making it not simple, but obtuse.
[Examples: Magical faeries. Conspiracy theories. Science denialism. Simplistic views of marketing or culture…]
A useful description is one that can be tested, expanded and makes accurate predictions. A lazy one just makes us feel better until we actually have to engage with the system in a useful way.
It's entirely possible that you're trying to work with a complicated system, one that can't be boiled down to a simple catch phrase. That's okay. Clarity is still possible.
If you've committed to only working in systems that are simple enough to be explained in sixty seconds on cable news, you've opted out of making the impact you're capable of.
You can be good at Twitter in about five minutes a day. Spending ten minutes doesn't make you twice as good… in fact, there's probably little measurable improvement. To be great at Twitter might take five hours of daily effort.
All the time in between five minutes and five hours is wasted. You're in a chasm with no measurable benefits.
We see the same thing happen with your Yellow Pages ads or your customer service. Showing up takes some effort and it often pays off. Showing up a bunch more is often worthless. If you want to truly be great, you're going to have to do things most people couldn't imagine. That's what makes it great, after all. The scarcity of it.
This is the underpinning of the Dip. Don't get caught doing more than you need to but less than you want to.
A quick look at Yelp reviews will show you that NY restaurants are not quite as good as those in some suburbs.
This, of course, makes no sense. New York is insanely competitive, with a ton of turnover and a very demanding audience. A fast casual restaurant in Shaker Heights can coast for a long time, because… it's better than the alternatives.
Thanks to marketing, the media and our culture, we spend a lot of our time comparing before we decide whether or not we're happy.
Turn back the clock just 60 years. If you lived in 1957, how would your life compare to the one you live right now? Well, you have access to lifesaving medicines, often in pill form. You can choose from an infinite amount of entertainment, you can connect with humans all over the Earth, for free, at the click of a button. You have access to the sum total of human knowledge. You have control over your reproductive cycle. You can eat sushi (you've even heard of sushi). You can express yourself in a thousand ways that were forbidden then…
That's in one lifetime.
But we don't compare our lives to this imaginary juxtaposition. Instead, we hear two things from the media we choose to engage with: Other people have it better, way better. And, it's going to get worse. Add to that the idea that marketers want us to believe that what we have now isn't that good, but if we merely choose to go into a bit of debt, we can buy our way to a better outcome…
Comparison leads to frustration which sometimes leads to innovation.
More often than not, though, frustration doesn't make us happy. It only makes us frustrated.
If a comparison isn't helping you get to where you're going, it's okay to ignore it.
You might need help to turn an idea into a project.
Most of the time, though, project developers walk up to those that might help and say, “I have a glimmer of an idea, will you help me?”
The challenge: It’s too challenging. Open-ended. To offer to help means to take on too much. And of course people are hesitant to sign on for an unlimited obligation to help with something that’s important to you, not to them.
Consider the bingo method instead.
Build a 5 x 5 grid. 25 squares. Twenty-five elements that have to be present for your project to have a chance. If it’s a fundraising concert, one of the grids might be, “find a theater that will host us for less than $1,000.”
Here’s the key: Fill in most of the grids before you ask someone for generous help. When nine or twelve of the squares are marked, “done,” and when another six are marked, “in process,” then the ask is a lot smaller.
A glimpse at your bingo card indicates that you understand the problem, that you’ve highlighted the difficult parts and that you’ve found the resources and the knowledge necessary to complete most of it.
You’ve just asked a much easier question.
Are there any other options for people who seek to innovate?
Sort by price is the dominant way that shopping online now happens. The cheapest airline ticket or widget or freelancer comes up first, and most people click.
It’s a great shortcut for a programmer, of course, because the price is a number, and it’s easy to sort.
Alphabetical could work even more easily, but it seems less relevant (especially if you’re a fan of Zappos or Zima).
The problem: Just because it’s easy, it doesn’t mean it’s as useful as it appears.
It’s lazy for the consumer. If you can’t take the time to learn about your options, about quality, about side effects, then it seems like buying the cheapest is the way to go–they’re all the same anyway, we think.
And it’s easy for the producer. Nothing is easier to improve than price. It takes no nuance, no long-term thinking, no concern about externalities. Just become more brutal with your suppliers and customers, and cut every corner you can. And then blame the system.
The merchandisers and buyers at Wal-Mart were lazy. They didn’t have to spend much time figuring out if something was better, they were merely focused on price, regardless of what it cost their community in the long run.
We’re part of that system, and if we’re not happy with the way we’re treated, we ought to think about the system we’ve permitted to drive those changes.
What would happen if we insisted on ‘sort by delight’ instead?
What if the airline search engines returned results sorted by a (certainly difficult) score that combined travel time, aircraft quality, reliability, customer service, price and a few other factors? How would that change the experience of flying?
This extends far beyond air travel. We understand that it makes no sense to hire someone merely because they charge the cheapest wage. That we shouldn’t pick a book or a movie or a restaurant simply because it costs the least.
There are differences, and sometimes, those differences are worth what they cost.
‘Worth it’ is a fine goal.
What if, before we rushed to sort at all, we decided what was worth sorting for?
Low price is the last refuge of the marketer who doesn’t care enough to build something worth paying for.
In your experience, how often is the cheapest choice the best choice?
[PS new dates now posted for the altMBA. ]
When something goes wrong, how do you respond?
When you own assets, when your position feels secure, when you're playing the long game, a bump in the road is just that. "Well, that was interesting." You can learn from it, and the professional realizes that freaking out pays little benefit.
On the other hand, the middleman, the person who realizes just how easily he can be replaced, the person who can't stop playing the short game… well, he realizes that it's all sort of a house of cards, and often indulges in the urge to freak out, disgorging panic and fear and even hatred on the person that's easy to blame.
The thing is, thin ice doesn't give you a lot of leverage, and thin ice can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The first step for the agent, the middle manager, the hanger-on is to invest in the long term, to find an arc that actually builds an asset that lasts.
And the second is to act 'as if'. All that panic doesn't pay off. It merely makes it more likely that the people you need to earn trust with will do precisely the opposite.
You can disdain gravity all you want, call out its unfairness, seek to have it banned.
But that's not going to help you build an airplane.
If you watch a well-directed film with the sound turned off, you'll get a lot out of it. On the other hand, it takes practice to read a screenplay and truly understand it.
It's worth remembering that we lived in tribes for millennia, long before we learned how to speak. Emotional connection is our default. We only added words and symbolic logic much later.
There are a few places where all that matters is the words. Where the force of logic is sufficient to change the moment.
The rest of the time, which is almost all the time, the real issues are trust, status, culture, pheromones, peer pressure, urgency and the energy in the room.
It probably pays to know which kind of discussion you're having.
