An antidote to mediocrity

I have been visiting (more than) a couple of blog sites for some snooping and learning on how to get on to the ‘blogwagon’.

Some top-line learning – Firstly, everybody seems to use a chatty and informal style in their writing. Secondly, visual relief is important. And lastly, but most critically, any ‘heavy-duty’ theoretical stuff needs to be given a wide berth. Fellow blogger http://www.adliterate.com/ writes “… in a 2.0 world where you should always be in Beta test, the whole point is to share half thought through thinking”

This set me thinking – Is there space in the blogosphere for some serious discourse? Or does constant blogging for a higher search rating (read more adsense dollars) make all of us guilty of the ‘sameness’ affliction? Does one ‘have’ to follow the rules of the chatty, visual and half thought in any virtual conversation? And at the root of all, if one says yes to this blog convention, isn’t one simultaneously saying no to individuality and experimentation?

At a more fundamental level, the idea of ‘following rules’ is not new to us. We all know of a world of marketers who dare not break the so called unwritten rules or category conventions. Two examples (one ironic and the second alarming) – Example#1: One of the world’s oldest marketing challenges is to create a feminine brand that is not white or pink in colour. Example#2: the recent Peirce Brosnan ad for L’Oreal (for men) that claims that “you are worth it”. Anyone who knows the genesis of the line as a representation of feminine libertarian values wonders how the same could possible apply to men!

My proposition for the day – Rules and conventions, without the counter-balancing force of rebellion, ultimately lead to mediocrity. The friction between the establishment and the anti-establishment is the source code for any practical innovation. And this conflict is the most potent antidote to mediocrity.

The contrarian Naysayer is just as important as the ‘around-here-this-is-the-way-we-do-things’ Rulebook. For every Red Coke, we need a Blue Pepsi. For every conservative Republican, we need a liberal Democrat. For the notion of German efficiency, we need some Dutch madness. And for every chatty, visual, lowest denominator blog, we need the serious, experimentative, knowledge advancing blog too.

And yes, we have to constantly guard ourselves against the day when the anti-rule becomes the rule itself!