Echoes of “the smallest viable audience.”
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Notes
Four kinds of “good”:
- “This is what I saw in my head” = good to me. Great for the hobbyist doing the thing only for himself. Essential but insufficient for the “working professional” who wants to change culture.
- “This is accepted and admired by the specific circle of people” = good for the tribe. This is enough: producing for people who matter to us without “feeding the beast of ‘more.'” “Almost all truly great work lives in this sort of good.”
- “I got paid well for this” = good if your goal is money. Risks worrying about becoming a “hack.” The work may not be what you set out to do, but the world measures value in money, so being paid well may be proof that you’ve achieved that value.
- “This is really popular; it’s a hit” = good for the masses. Chasing the feeling of creating a hit distracts from the process. Low likelihood of success (many entries, few winners). Focuses on outcomes, rather than practice.
The second is the target: most of the time you won’t go viral, but it’s worth producing work you’re proud of.
Thoughts
I think the central question for me is which of the first two “goods” I’m interested in.
I started reading The Practice with the vague, unexamined idea that whatever creative work I’d want to ship would be mostly what Seth is describing as a hobby—though part of the hobby would be publication (in the case of stories) or distribution and promotion (in the case of music), so it’s not strictly the first good.
But I certainly hadn’t been thinking about trying to be a “working professional,” in Seth’s sense.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m not sure if this book was meant to be a chapter-a-day meditation. And I look at the percentage completed on my Kindle (37%) and think that I’m taking too long. But I am pretty sure I would not be considering ways that I might make a difference in the world or culture if I had rushed through—especially since I would have been rushing to get to the “good stuff.”
This series is meant to capture my thoughts as I work through Seth Godin’s The Practice. It’s a book with over 200 (very short) chapters, which I hope to work through and, I further hope, to implement over time.
If you’re interested in more of Godin’s ideas, or my thoughts about them, you can check out this collection of posts. Note that if you’re more interested in the former, you should probably get Godin’s book and read it yourself; my notes will be both incomplete and idiosyncratic, and my thoughts will relate to my own experience.
But if my thoughts resonate with you, or if you think I’m just silly, I welcome your comments.