Bring me stuff that's dead, please
RSS is dead. Blogs are dead. The web is dead.
Good.
Dead means that they are no longer interesting to the drive-by technorati. Dead means that the curiosity factor has been satisfied, that people have gotten the joke. These people rarely do anything of much value, though. Great music wasn't created by the first people to grab an electric guitar or a synthesizer. Great snowboarding moves didn't come from the guy who invented the snowboard... No one thinks Gutenberg was a great author, and some of the best books will be written long after books are truly dead.
Only when an innovation is dead can the real work begin. That's when people who are seeking leverage get to work, when we can focus on what we're saying, not how (or where) we're saying it.
The drive-by technorati are well-informed, curious and always probing. They're also hiding... hiding from the real work of creating work that matters, connections with impact and art that lasts. I love to hear about the next big thing, but I'm far more interested in what you're doing with the old big thing.
While Godin is talking about business and marketing, what I find interesting is the parallels to other parts of life, especially church life. So much of the Christian life is not about the latest and greatest, the newest or the best, but instead about the daily commitment and the hard work of being passionate and committed. Peter Rollins (see earlier post) has written about how we have to let go of God in order to hold onto God. Meaning (crudely summarized) that we have to kill our idea of God in order to accept a bigger, more glorious, yet more mysterious God. And this is a continual life-long process because God is always bigger and more mysterious and more glorious. To restate Godin, one could say,
"It is only when an God is dead can the real work begin. That's when people who are seeking God get to work, when we can focus on what we're saying, not how (or where) we're saying it."
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