Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
So last week I detailed my experiences with a sort-of Home Theater PC (HTPC), namely a laptop where I got experimental. I noted that I would discuss their place in the economy and the career implications. This of course, is that column because hey, I promised.
And here’s the answer: Not yet because there are way, way too many possible use cases and no real settled technologies, and what comes eventually will be gradual.
Well I’m feeling flush with excitement. First I got it kinda right on 3D printing, and now there’s another case where you’ll need to check my ego: Wal-Mart seems to be obviously moving forward with e-Commerce. Awhile ago I suspected Wal-Mart could indeed “go geeky”, so I’ll consider this a partial victory.
In short, Wal-Mart clearly has to move with the times to have a presence in e-Commerce, and is clearly doing it. I’d add that when you throw on it’s mobile investments, Silicon Valley skunkworks, and Vudu, it can play pretty big.
But since I first speculated on what Wal-Mart can do, I think their reputation has gotten worse. I’m no fan of Wal-Mart at all, so consider my bias pre-announced, but I think that people think even less of them than they did a few years ago.
So here’s where I see a potential issue: Wal-Mart’s reputation can affect their ability to move forward. I present this, of course, for analysis.
First, there’s a recruiting issue. I know plenty of people who won’t even go into a Wal-Mart, so how many are going to want to work for them? Not sure how a big of a dent this’ll put into potential talent, but I’m sure the dent is there.
Also keep this in mind – working at Wal-Mart puts that on people’s resumes. How many people who would work for Wal-Mart would not do so due to what others may think.
Secondly, there’s the competitor issue. Yes, Wal-Mart has a huge “install base,” but it also has penny of people gunning for it directly (Target, Amazon) as well as indirectly (virtually everyone else). All it takes is an alliance between several ornery competitors to give Wal-Mart some pain.
Third, I think Wal-Mart may be at a demographic disadvantage. I’m not sure how well their current demographic is going to adapt to a more high-tech Wal-Mart, and what kind of heavy e-commerce base they can count on. I’m not sure, frankly.
Fourth, back to reputation. Wal-Mart has a repetitional weakness that competitors, issue #2, could probably use against them. If you think others won’t get nasty, think again – especially considering Wal-Mart could be a serious threat to them.
So quick summary of this:
Could be a very interesting time in the Geekonomy.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.
Nearly two years ago I noted that every other book cover I saw looked like Twilight and wondered about an originality/unoriginality arms race.
Reporting from the front lines in pop culture, I’d like to report that now a lot of book covers look like “50 Shades of Gray,” so I think unoriginality is winning.
When you think about it, there is doubtlessly a lot of 50-Shades derived books out there. 50 Shades is hot and hip right now, so there’s going to be attempts to jump into the market. Sure all the covers look alike, but some of this is probably selling anyway. Even though I am thrilled to see fanfic become fic , the story itself disturbs me.
Kind of makes me wonder how many stories wouldn’t be noticed, got made just for this, or were revived to take advantage of the new 50 Shades related craze.
So this got me thinking for all my writing and media friends.
We know that there’s plenty of problems with media originality. It gets talked about a lot here at Fan To Pro. Well, ranted about, as we do since many of us are authors.
We know that media goes in cycles, ones that are often big, obvious, and kind of blatant. Twilight created one, 50 Shades another, but we know this goes back to the days of Star Wars and all it’s obvious ripoffs.
So instead of giving up on your great idea, or avoiding trends, why not embrace it and see what works you have work with current trends?
Any good author or artist has all sorts of ideas, potential projects, half-finished works, and more. You could try and time their release or development of one of your works to jump on the existing trends.
Yes, there’s the danger of looking derivative, or unoriginal, or getting ignored. But if you’re going to go with some of the big publishers, you’re facing enough challenges as it is. Being seen as unoriginal by some, getting a smaller part of a larger market share, etc. aren’t the worst risks you can face.
So, if we’re gonna be in this cycle of unoriginality for awhile, maybe we media procures can take advantage of it.
Worse things could happen. If nothing else maybe the book covers will all look the same differently . . .
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.