Dirkmonster

"Counting the only present day thine"

I came across a beautifully written 17th century book of spiritual wisdom tonight called: Practice of Piety: Directing a Christian How to Walk, that He May Please God.

Turns out the Puritans had the "One day at a time" concept nailed 400 years ago:

Cast over, therefore, once every day, the number of thy days, by subtracting, those that are past (as being vanished like yesternight’s dream), contracting them that are to come (since the one half must be slept out, the rest made uncomfortable by the troubles of the world, thy own sickness, and the death of friends), counting the only present day thine; which spend, as if thou wert to spend no more.

Fascinating how some characteristics of a human's spiritual life endure and resonate. 

Tribes: Free download of Seth Godin's new book

One giant of the social marketing space, Steve Rubel, tipped me off to a free audio download of another giant, Seth Godin.

Here's the teaser:

According to Godin, Tribes are groups of people aligned around an idea, connected to a leader and to each other. Tribes make our world work, and always have. The new opportunity is that it's easier than ever to find, organize, and lead a tribe. The Web has enabled an explosion of all kinds of tribes - and created shortage of people to lead them. This is the growth industry of our time.

Joel, can I borrow a CD to burn this on?

The Long Tail Backlash

Chris Anderson writes a book called The Long Tail which becomes super popular through social networks and Amazon.com  He launches a blog too at thelongtail.com

The Wall Street Journal writes a piece today that basically says The Long Tail sucks:

It would be wonderful if the world as Mr. Anderson describes it were true: one where "healthy niche products" and even "outright misses" collectively could stand their ground with the culture's increasingly soulless "hits."

But while every singer-songwriter dreams from his bedroom of making a living off iTunes, few actually do, mostly because so many others have the very same idea. And to the extent that Apple is making money off iTunes, thanks go to Nelly Furtado and other hitmakers. Indeed, you can make the case that the Internet is amplifying the role of hits, even in relation to misses, not diminishing them.

Anderson responds on his blog:

But Lee Gomes has tried mightily to find flaws with the Long Tail theory and deserves a response of some sort. I have no doubt that there are many parts of my analysis and data that could be improved. Unfortunately, Gomes, in his haste to find them, stumbles over statistics and more, and in the end simply makes a muddle of what might have been an interesting debate over the magnitude of the Long Tail effect.

Dozens leave comments responding to Anderson's response in response to the WSJ article.

An A-List bloggers jump in:
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/07/26/listening-to-satellite-radio/

And so a conversation will ensue about the book and about the Wall Street Journal. Will the writer ( Lee Gomes) for the Journal participate in this conversation or is he arrogant enough to think that his opinion need not be defended? We shall see.  Meanwhile, there is a vigorous discussion going on.

Me? I'm listening to the audiobook version of The Long Tail and find it fascinating. Haven't gotten through it yet to draw any of my own conclusions but so far, I don't see how anyone can defend the notion that the Internet hasn't exploded niche markets (the tail) such that, collectively, it rivals popular hits (the head).  Can anyone say that the trend is toward less variety in the marketplace?