notes and views on crm, social media, and the human side of information technology

Game on

Joel Spolsky delivered a rather painful blow to Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Friedman and other pushers of wishful thinking. He says:

[W]hat’ts been driving me crazy over the last year… an unbelievable proliferation of anecdotes disguised as science, self-professed experts writing about things they actually know nothing about, and amusing stories disguised as metaphors for how the world works. Whether it’s Thomas Friedman, who, it seems, cannot go a whole week without inventing a new fruit-based metaphor explaining everything about the entire modern world, all based on some random gibberish he misunderstood from a taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur, or Malcolm Gladwell with his weak theories on tipping points, crazy incorrect theories on first impressions, or utterly lunatic theories on experts, it all becomes insanely popular simply because the stories are fun and interesting and everybody wants to hear a good story.

Ouch.

Add to that the recent backlash against the Long Tail, and we’ve finally got a discussion going. And that’s great.

The last couple of years have been incredibly productive in terms of new thinking, experimenting with approaches to business problems, etc. - but we’ve perhaps got too carried away. As it happens when one is in a middle of a “creative rush”, the critical mind gets to stand by and wait for its moment.

I am as guilty as the next guy of milking analogies and anecdotes to examine trends and arrive at conclusions that were at the time of writing speculative at best. It’s the nature of punditry. Whether or not there’s an agenda involved is besides the point: pushing the envelope always includes holding your breath and hoping your assumptions work.

I believe in the need of advancing unproven ideas, and I don’t mind stretching it way too far; it just makes for a great topic for discussion. You’ll never get far enough if you just crunch numbers. Numbers are boring - by themselves.

But - but but but - at some point the discussion must get real. Call it reality check, it needs to happen. Not too soon and not a minute later.

There is not a better testing ground for ideas than the marketplace. The Long Tail is an idea that is going to be either proven or refuted in the marketplace. So is the “flat Earth”. So is “CRM 2.0″.

What the critics of the above-mentioned ideas are saying is that the marketplace has rejected them, or not proved them enough anyway. Good stories aside, these ideas either have enough merit to survive (and adapt, morph, etc.) or they will die a natural death. Hopefully not without a good fight.

Bring it.

November 20, 2008 | Filed Under Enterpreneurship, Links and Quotes 

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