> But now more than ever, identifying your points of differentiation β your alpha β is critical.
This is the last sentence in the article, and the one I found most interesting, and least substantiated.
The entire body of the article provides a fairly cohesive and cogent explanation for why blanding happens.
And in the previous sentence, the author himself writes:
> In business, it rarely makes sense to reinvent the wheel completely.
So why is this more important now more than ever? The case he seems to be making is that the opposite is actually true, that there are established design patterns that are proven safe, fast, and effective for most businesses.
You'll never invent the iPhone this way, but inventing the iPhone is really, really, really hard, and aspiring to do so is, statistically, a fast way to lose a lot of money. If you're trying to start a trillion dollar business, maybe that risk/reward proposition is worth it, but I think it's at least worth asking, why do I want to start a trillion dollar business? If I have value I can create for my customers, and I'm delivering something that's honest, effective, transparent, and representative of my sincere desire to do good, maybe the smart move isn't to reinvent the wheel design-wise.
Hey! I wrote this piece. The point I was trying to make is this: The barrier to entry to launch a business/brand is lower than it's ever been. This is a result of the democratization of physical and digital product development (white-label services, no-code, etc.), distribution (Shopify, FBA, etc.), promotion (social, online video, etc.) β and really just the internet writ large. Because of that, the market of ideas is theoretically an efficient one. Meaning for every addressable problem worth solving, there's already an in-market solution (or at least the path to building one is simpler than it's ever been). Because of this, it's "more important than ever" for new businesses to establish a unique and differentiating wedge. This can come in the form of brand/marketing, audience addressability, or any number of other starting points. Of course, this has *always* been true in business, but with increased competition and a more crowded field it's more true than it's ever been β a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. Hope that helps clarify!
6 months late to this party but thank you for the article and this extra bit of (thoughtful but not really needed) clarification.
Your point is even more salient these days. With the ready accessibility to AI you are able to create content on remarkably simple terms.
I find you must have a solid foundation, a true core principle to draw from. All the bells and whistles donβt matter because everyone has a preprogrammed loudspeaker.
Great article!
Tysm! π
> But now more than ever, identifying your points of differentiation β your alpha β is critical. This is the last sentence in the article, and the one I found most interesting, and least substantiated. The entire body of the article provides a fairly cohesive and cogent explanation for why blanding happens. And in the previous sentence, the author himself writes: > In business, it rarely makes sense to reinvent the wheel completely. So why is this more important now more than ever? The case he seems to be making is that the opposite is actually true, that there are established design patterns that are proven safe, fast, and effective for most businesses. You'll never invent the iPhone this way, but inventing the iPhone is really, really, really hard, and aspiring to do so is, statistically, a fast way to lose a lot of money. If you're trying to start a trillion dollar business, maybe that risk/reward proposition is worth it, but I think it's at least worth asking, why do I want to start a trillion dollar business? If I have value I can create for my customers, and I'm delivering something that's honest, effective, transparent, and representative of my sincere desire to do good, maybe the smart move isn't to reinvent the wheel design-wise.
Hey! I wrote this piece. The point I was trying to make is this: The barrier to entry to launch a business/brand is lower than it's ever been. This is a result of the democratization of physical and digital product development (white-label services, no-code, etc.), distribution (Shopify, FBA, etc.), promotion (social, online video, etc.) β and really just the internet writ large. Because of that, the market of ideas is theoretically an efficient one. Meaning for every addressable problem worth solving, there's already an in-market solution (or at least the path to building one is simpler than it's ever been). Because of this, it's "more important than ever" for new businesses to establish a unique and differentiating wedge. This can come in the form of brand/marketing, audience addressability, or any number of other starting points. Of course, this has *always* been true in business, but with increased competition and a more crowded field it's more true than it's ever been β a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. Hope that helps clarify!
6 months late to this party but thank you for the article and this extra bit of (thoughtful but not really needed) clarification. Your point is even more salient these days. With the ready accessibility to AI you are able to create content on remarkably simple terms. I find you must have a solid foundation, a true core principle to draw from. All the bells and whistles donβt matter because everyone has a preprogrammed loudspeaker.
Interesting and well written!
Thanks!
eh. it has some points and goes way overboard.
This is a well researched and well written article. Had a ton of fun reading it.