But the funny thing is, even though it was C-grade dreck with no redeeming qualities, pure grist for the mill, once I *recognized* it was dreck and could laugh at in 2009 after reverting to the original tagline, it turned into a goldmine of raw material to fuel much better stuff.
Conversation
In a way posts that put me on the map starting in 2009, like the Gervais Principle, came out of being able to reprocess the dreck of 2008 with fresh eyes. In a way I had to play “Business Guy” for a year to be able to subvert it. So 2008 was a “factoring” year.
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The lesson is that names and taglines matter for writing. They are not mere branding and marketing decisions. They’ll drive how you write. It’s clothing.
Causation isn’t clear. Did the cringe tagline drive the bad writing or the other way around? Probably a chicken-egg thing.
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But sometimes being kinda lost and doing a misguided thing for a year is exactly the right thing to do with the logic of hindsight. You gotta trust that all is for the best in the long run. Leibnizian optimism. Without the cringe year you don’t get the good year later either.
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But the great irony is the “business of innovation” misadventure *actually* set me up later to really bank serious cred on the topic in later years when I wasn’t even trying and was simply trying to satirize the business world as one of my threads.
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I did better in the “business of innovation” niche through the act of abandoning it making fun of it than I did taking it seriously. And much better than I ever hoped to while earnestly trying to make it work.
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The niche didn’t properly take off till a few years later. Now business/innovation blogging/newslettering is really high quality. I couldn’t compete if I entered it now. Fortunately I got in early and cheaply and launched a whole consulting career off the early days of the niche.
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Moral of the story, in the long run, shitposting instincts eat earnestposting instincts for lunch.
But be kind to your memories of being earnest/cringe because those phases in the cycle have a role to play too. Not quite an equal one. It isn’t yin/yang level balance.
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Reason this is on my mind is that I’m feeling the same kind of awkward pivot energy on ribbonfarm in 2021 that I felt in 2008. Very likely I won’t do any memorable writing there this year. And likely a bunch of cringe stuff. But I kinda trust it will lead to Good Things later.
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Don’t know what to call these phases... ugly duckling phases perhaps?
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I should note, the tag line I’ve had for the last few years, “constructions in magical thinking” (refactored perceptions was retired after a decade of service) feels very comfy though I’ve yet to grow into it and earn it properly.
