Noticed these two posts dealing with issues I've written about recently.
First, Jeff Jarvis picks up on Seth's, "small is the new big," idea (briefly noted by me, here) in a wonderful post that puts the key issues (supply, labor, demand) in clear perspective:
On the supply side, the point of critical mass has imploded. It used to be, you couldn't make money writing unless you got paid by a big publisher; now you can begin to make enough money blogging. It used to be, you couldn't make money running a store unless you had location and marketing and capital and employees and enough revenue to support all that; now you can make enough money on eBay. It used to be, to get a job you had to be willing to dress up and commute; now you can work at home online. The cost of running business has declined; the revenue you need to be successful thus declines.
But there's the critical calculation: The price of independence declines. In a world where most people are sick of their jobs -- be honest now -- this is big. There is no loyalty from employer to employee and given the chance to earn FU money, there will be no loyalty from employee to employer. We'll see more and more people trying to make it on their own and now more and more can.
On the demand side, I do believe that the market will embrace alternatives to the one-size-fits-all malling of the world. Before the Berlin Wall fell, I was amazed to find a Benetton in East Berlin. Now you can find the same stores from the same malls everywhere -- all over Berlin and even filling once-hip Soho in New York. Everything's the same, nothing's unique, and that takes the fun out of shopping. So given a chance to buy something special, wouldn't you? You'll find it on eBay or even an Amazon zShop or on one of the craftsman's group sites online and you won't need to buy much to make that seller successful.
Very true. I noted this feeling even while shopping in Paris (gasp!) last November. And I particularly resonate with Jarvis' belief that even greater numbers of disaffected creative people will try to make it on their own.
The opportunites opened up by this new "downsizing revolution" will undoubtedly transform the newly flattened economic landscape.
Then I found this post by Madeleine McGrath on Tom Peters blog. In it, McGrath writes lovingly about her new Radley handbag. She then asks:
What is it that you really love about the products that you can't live without? Is it the little things that matter to you?
In late April, I asked a similar question:
I'm doing some research and would like some help from friends of The TrueTalk Blog.
I'm interested in knowing what objects people care about.
I know it's a strange question, but I'll explain. Some things, some objects that we encounter in our everyday lives, don't mean diddly. They're just there. But other things really come to mean something to us. Like, iPods, for example. Some people really, really care about their iPods.
Some really care about a particular kind of notebook, or pen.
What about you? What objects do you care about? A great pair of shoes? A sweater? Your car?And, can you figure out why?
I received some terrific comments on that post, and I'm still compiling them into a set of ideas about our attachments to objects. If you haven't read those comments yet, I recommend you do so.
Memey conversations like these are the lifeblood of the blogosphere.
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