Tuning Fork

Ruin is the thing that we fear most. Being able to confront waves of anxiety is important. When you make a decision, you know there are a variety of possible outcomes. What is hard to identify is the risk of ruin. That means that there is not going to be a next day. Sometimes that risk is hidden. Lying in the invisible tail of alternative possibilities that have never happened. Unlikely events with significant impacts. The building pressure of bad choices with delayed consequences. We cannot live in paralysed fear, because of these unknowns. We can build buffers to survive the unknown. Reflect. Unpack. Interrogate.

For most of our decisions, we are not unique snowflakes. Other people have made similar choices in resonating forks scattered liberally around the world. You can do the due diligence. You can research how other people have handled reflections of your situation. Their perspective will not be identical, but there can be similar flavour. The same ingredients in infinite combinations. You can put in the work to make better decisions. Reflect, decide, and put into practice.

Listen

The Long Tail

Chris Anderson, the curator of the TED conferences, wrote a book called 'The Long Tail' a few years back. I haven't read it yet, but wanted to see if he writes a blog... and he does. It is called 'The Long Tail'.

He writes a post celebrating the fact that the book, like Malcolm Gladwell's 'The Tipping Point', has become something that doesn't even need to be cited anymore as it has become part of common language.

Interesting clip...

What I enjoyed the most is the idea that people who work from home can really make a living out of things they love. The 'curry sisters' for example made me smile.

At what point does it cease to be advertising anyway? The old idea of advertising was that you bought space to interupt people. Split up their TV show, make them wait for the movie in the cinema, shout at them while they are driving their car. Online targeted advertising where advertisers only pay for converted sales is more like a very efficient referral system. The customer IS paying through the price of the final purchase they made, but they don't mind because in exchange they get to choose the content of the providers and get directed to the stuff they want.

Sounds like a win win to me.