Book 298 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: The Long Tail of Values!

Book – The Long Tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more by Chris Anderson (Part 1 of 2)

Book Description:

Our world is being transformed by the Internet and the near limitless choice that it provides to consumers; tomorrow's markets belong to those who can take advantage of this. The Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance, an entirely new model for business that is just starting to show its power as unlimited selection reveals new truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it. The record business has been transformed by iTunes and Rhapsody; a similar transformation is coming to just about every industry imaginable.

Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, first explored "The Long Tail" in an article that has become one of the most influential business essays of our time. Using the worlds of movies, books, and music, he showed how the Internet has made possible a new world in which the combined value of modest sellers and quirky titles equals the sales of the top hits. He coined the term "The Long Tail" to describe this phenomenon, a phrase that's since appeared in boardrooms and media around the world.

Reflection:

You know, I have heard the phrase “The Long Tail” used in conversations many of times in the past and I had no idea what they meant…until now.

The Compound Effect strikes again!

Recently I decided to add in a monthly professional challenge, along with my normal monthly personal challenge, as I actually like my job these days, I want to get better and push past The Dip, and because the work is meaningful to me again. This month’s challenge for myself was small and simple. I set a goal to listen to the podcast that the CEO of the company I work for created to talk about Digital Transformation for at least 15 minutes a day. There are only like 9 episodes which is perfect to complete over the course of a month. I figured I’d learn a lot about him, his life, the business, and get more connected to the mission. It seemed like a win-win.

On one of the podcast episodes, one of his guests said, “You know…it’s the long tail”, when making a particular point about the success of a project they did for a customer. I thought to myself, I need to learn once and for all what this freaking phrase means. So I googled it, and it turns out there is a book written by the guy who coined the phrase named Chris Anderson. That is how I found this book, and boy am I glad I did because I learned A TON!

Before going any further, I need to try and explain to you all what “The Long Tail” even means, if you don’t already now.

In my words, the Long Tail is a statistical distribution curve that visually demonstrates 80% of consumption is concentrated in 20% of the items. From there, the curve drops off substantially as it approaches zero, but it never hits zero. To paint the picture for you, think hits and niches. For an example, Atomic Habits sold 5 million copies last year. My book, I Can’t Imagine, was purchased a couple of hundred times. Atomic Habits would be at the head of this statistical curve and I Can’t Imagine would be at the long tail. The long tail in business theory brought forth by the author is essentially that the Long Tail is itself an untapped market where demand is endless as long as you are able to cost effectively match the supply with the niche demand. Basically, niches are a market to themselves and that market is almost never ending.

Man, was this guy spot on. This dude is like a modern-day Nostradamus or something. Seemingly everything he predicted in this book, written back in 2005, seemed like it either came true or is coming true right before our eyes. It was remarkable to hear him talk about products like Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Salesforce, etc back in 2005 and see where they are today. The long tail didn’t stop there, seemingly every industry is moving down the tail at a rapid pace bringing you exactly what you want. If you like something particular, I guarantee you there is a platform out there ready to serve you up the exact content, community, and culture you desire. The long tail is thriving, and it is only getting longer and more hyper personalized as time goes on.

All this really got me thinking about the values, and the long tail of how values are distributed in our society today!

Value systems of cultures seem to be highly concentrated at the head of the curve in our modern-day world. The big businesses, education institutions, religions, and nation-states still dominate the masses and drive the values that we all should adhere to as a society. Think nation-states like the USA, companies like Facebook, and religions like the Catholic Church which all have massive impacts on what we do, how we act, and how we live each day.

To be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these cultures and values systems, but if I learned anything from this book it is that humans are addicted to choice, and values are no different.

I’m sick and tired of being told what values I should care about from the companies I work for, to the countries that I reside in, or the places I choose to worship God at. I just don’t care! What I do care about is finding other people that care about the same things I care about and spending time with them…Period!

It is about damn time that someone bring us all a platform where we can create our own value driven cultures that we choose and not the other way around.

Don’t worry, we are hard at work trying to figure this one out to help you all out! Stay tuned.

Question: Do you have a place to call home that matches your unique value system?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The Long Tail by Chris Anderson