Gladwell, David, Goliath, Etc.
The new Gladwell article, “How David Beats Goliath”, in the New Yorker is making its way through the Internet and through our culture. Backlash has started. Some people object to the full-court press analogy. Others seem to be taking the wrong messages from it. Great back and forth between Bill Simmons and Gladwell on ESPN. Panos linked to it and Bob did as well.
My take: The point isn’t that working hard is better. The point is that thinking different and challenging conventions is required to improve the likelihood of success. So, the corollary in indie music. Challenge the convention. Don’t just do what people tell you to do. Think of new ways to do it.
My example. I’ve long had a gripe against people that say you need to hop in a van and tour as a way of generating exposure. It’s frequently unprofitable and it feels like a waste of time compared to distribution channels focused on technology. So use the Internet as your touring mechanism and only use touring when it’s profitable to do so. That’s not that radical an idea but it was a few years ago.
The bottom line is that if you’re playing by their rules, you better have the resources. Otherwise you’re going to need to find new rules.
The point isn’t that the full-court press represented ‘harder work’, although it did, it’s that it represented different, smarter work that emphasized the talents of the team and improved, not guaranteed, their chances.
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Panos
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theflyingchange
