Contributing your own thing
Last night I saw a very enjoyable documentary, "We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Following the rise of the punk band up to the early death of guitarist D. Boon, it was at once a great appreciation of the group and its music, and a fascinating, hilarious look at what has happened to many of the people who made music in LA's punk scene in the 1980s. Fortunately, the filmmakers avoided the clichéd voiceover-intro or title-card-lower-third, giving us the career update on so-and-so from SST or such-and-such from the Dead Kennedys. Instead, they just shot people in their homes, apparently wearing whatever clothes they happened to have on, twenty years later. Some old punkers still had funny hair and garish clothes, doing their own thing; others looked like record label executives, maybe holding onto their greying soul patch for the few hairs of street cred it might yet provide; and still others looked for all the world like investment bankers. One guy was interviewed in standard-issue Banana Republic and his cat sitting in his lap.
Mike Watt, the Minutemen's bassist, looked older but maybe otherwise unchanged since his bandmate and childhood friend's death twenty years ago. The filmmakers did away with the idea of a smoothly-edited interview (throughout the film), and tried to jump-cut together Mike's sentence fragments into coherent thoughts and stories. Some of the results were amazing. I particularly liked one riff on how important it was for bands to find their own music, and not just copy other people. "You had to do your own thing, find what you could bring to the scene," he said. Just copying others wasn't enough. What was clear from all the interviews was how much the exchange and the competition between musicians meant to the creativity that came out of the movement.
I thought about Mike's words again this morning, looking at another new Web company whose design feels way too familiar. Imitation is flattery and all art is theft, sure, but go find your own voice, too. Come up with something wholly new and interesting. Web apps aren't punk bands and aren't artwork, either, but there's a lot of creativity around web development right now. Go find some of your own, and add it into the mix.
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I think in ways it's much easier for an individual or a small group of people to make something original "happen" in the music world than is possible in the software world. Sure, there is Linus Torvalds, and yes, Steve Jobs. One can certainly think of examples of enormous success by individuals in computers and software.
But, in music you can get a $100 guitar and start working. Then you can go to your local clubs. Then it can build.
With software, I think it's very difficult for an individual who has a good idea to go anywhere with the idea, because money is required -- lots more money than a typical person has.
In the arts, there are MacArthur awards, which provide perhaps $60000 annually for 5 years to help an artist work on whatever the artist chooses to work on. There is no similar "micro-investing" available for a would-be software "artist" who has what could be a great idea, but has bills to pay. Instead, the investment money goes in much bigger chunks to people who know how to market a start-up company...
So, the poor innovative geek watches as a few years later some start-up comes out with a highly-publicized product that essentially IS the idea he/she had several years earlier. And sees them rake in the cash...
It has never been cheaper or easier to start a web-based service, so if that's still the space we're talking about, I think there is no reason to bemoan the lack of funds. Use it to your advantage and crystalize your idea until its simple enough to be done within the constraints you face. Then let consumers be your micro-investors and ride it from there.
I agree that, with Google Ads, it becomes possible for a single person to develop an idea and put it onto the web, do a little person-to-person "marketing" (for example, posting on forums where you have a built a good reputation within the community), and see a growing flow income. This is indeed happening with the Money.MathematicalAnalysis.com portion of my site.
So, Google is helping to fill the micro-investor void when it comes to products that can be delivered as web pages. This is encouraging enough to keep me working hard on enhancing the site. Just as that first gig that pays $50 is enough to keep that committed punk band working toward greater things.
As for "bigger" ideas that one person can effectively develop but which are not deliverable as web pages -- I still think there is a funding void.
Great article, Marc. Now I have yet another documentary to watch. Is it me, or are there a lot more interesting documentaries now than ever before?
I agree with Kevin's comment about how much easier it is for an individual to be creative. Here in Silicon Valley it's a lot more difficult to be truly creative than most people realize. Over the past several years I've done web development work for a wide variety of clients, but most have been SV startups. They all follow a well-established pattern that every experienced entrepreneur in the Valley knows, so they all tend to feel the same when you walk in the door. They want their websites to do the same things, and present essentially the same image: "We're reliable, so use blue!" "Round the corners, but not too much." "We want visual interest with some human basis, so use stock photos of businessmen with briefcases and businesswomen in long skirts."
A punk rock band is an artistic endeavor first, and a business venture second, so they have a built in creativity advantage. Most web apps are designed to be useful and familiar, rather than artistic for the sake of art. I think Google has done a very good job of recognizing that familiarity is good, while also integrating their own minimalist artistic flair. Perhaps part of the reason they've been successful in this is that they realize that design is not something that must be "bolted on" to a web app. They realize that it is integral to the whole.
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