I bought the book last week. I’ve been looking at it each day, but haven’t cracked it open yet.
I’m reading three others at this time (1, 2, & 3), and I’m in various stages of completion on each. When a new text hits the shelves, i’m drawn to it.. Especially when the topic is so near and dear to my heart. I have it, but now its hard to know whether its time to break my promise to those authors and start with this one, or to keep the course.
I’m a maven.
I’m a visionary or inventor rational
I’m a conductor, naturally and adapted.
I’m a cross-pollinator & collaborator who is working to be the storyteller.
For the last year, I’ve been working on a project with my team that is a tail enabling technology. What I haven’t been able to do is get the story down. I appreciate great storytellers. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy Guy’s work. He tells a mean story.
What I think is interesting is the way that Guy assumes folks will forget the important elements of implementing a long-tail play. I think our society and our infrastructure often prevents us from implementing solutions that fit this category.
Have you ever tried to give an elevator pitch for a new type of solution? Imagine that you were doing so for a new long-tale technology? Rob Adams keeps telling me that it sounds too good. “Cures cancer, tastes great, costs a buck” is the line I’ve heard him say most often. I know most VCs are equally cynical.
The irony… if you build your solution with the philosophy that the customer is the platform, you don’t need to be that cynical. But if you’re going to require me to keep me to 30 seconds, it will sound too good. Give me 30 minutes, and I’ll start to make you a fan.
Let’s be clear here. The Long Tail is merely the application of the efficient markets theory. I give Chris major props for coining the phrase, giving it context, and creating the framework for all the stories. But, at the end of the day, this is Business 101 stuff. Perhaps it does sound too good to be true. Perhaps economists have been deluding themselves for years. I don’t happen think so.
And, to Guy’s point, I don’t happen think that the folks who matter will forget.
I think that the real problem is that very few producers of Long Tail technologies will survive long enough to realize their dream because “the system” beats it out of us.
