ButtUgly: Main_blogentry_280105

The Long Tail

I had the privilege to listen to Chris Anderson's (Editor of Wired and the author of The Long Tail) talk earlier this week, and took two things with me, neither directly related to the Long Tail (which is a highly interesting read in case you have not yet seen it. It describes the tail economy of the few as opposed to the hit economy of the masses.)

On the scarcity of attention: "Everyone's got a blog. I try to reach a different audience with my blog than as the editor of Wired: If I can reach the 20 people in the world who are interested in the same things as me, it's more valuable to me than having millions of readers."

and

On the tyranny of the hits: "TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." (David Foster Wallace)