the goal is resonance, not scale
building and monetizing soulful businesses + brands where the goal is resonance, not scale
by sari and · updated 2mo ago
the goal is resonance, not scale
alex added 2mo ago
- We need a new definition of scale that is not about the production volumes of a material but the proliferation and exchange of knowledge. From scaling up to scaling out – or perhaps from scaling up to skilling up.
aron added 3mo ago
We need a new definition of scale that is not about the production volumes of a material but the proliferation and exchange of knowledge. From scaling up to scaling out – or perhaps from scaling up to skilling up.
On Nonscalability: The Living World Is Not Amenable to Precision-Nested Scales
The document explores how scalability, the ability to expand without changing the framework, has shaped modern projects, economies, and knowledge, leading to a loss of transformative diversity.
sari added 3mo ago
“The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."
-Brian Eno.
sari added 3mo ago
Optimize for legacy, not empire. Empires die because they’re alone, legacies live because they involve others.
-OH, on building teams and brand communities
sari added 4mo ago
When two people work on a shared project – a joke, a product, an essay, a story – and are able to understand and build on each other, that’s the peak of the human condition.
from The Goal is Resonance | Shreyas Hariharan by Shreyas Hariharan
sari added 5mo ago
Ad legend Bill Bernbach letter on creativity, written in 1947:
Dear ________:
Our agency is getting big. That’s something to be happy about. But it’s something to worry about, too, and I don’t mind telling you I’m damned worried. I’m worried that we’re going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we’re going to worship techniques instead of substance
... See moresari added 5mo ago
- Anti-network effects sometimes incorporate network effects of their own, but are generally more deliberate, intelligent, and actively governed. They are designed with scarcity in mind and are not so easy to starve out. They have long horizons and think many steps ahead in time, and can be spatially intelligent across entire topologies.
27/ They need... See morefrom Anti-Network Effects
sari added 5mo ago
- Scale is quite valuable, but the costs are usually hidden. Consolidation leads to monoculture, it reduces the stock of unique ferments. Culture, taste, and invention are often bottom-up phenomena. They require the opposite of scale. They require distance, and working alone.
sari added 5mo ago
- By contrast, consumer software tools that enhance human agency, that serve us when we are most creative and intentional, are often built by hobbyists and used by a handful of nerds. If such a tool ever gets too successful one of the Marl-serving companies, flush with cash from advertising or growth-hungry venture capital, will acquire it and kill i... See more
from The Tyranny of the Marginal User by Ivan Vendrov
sari added 6mo ago