Last weekend, I listened to a highly interesting episode of the Chase Jarvis Live Show, a podcast featuring interviews with creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs. The episode’s guest was Seth Godin and as you might expect, he dropped a lot of knowledge and good advice. And while there was a whole lot more to take away from the interview, I especially liked what Seth said about content creation, using the analogy of bowling:
One of the drivers of bowling is you gotta pay by the game. So if I only got three games, I gotta be careful with my rolls.
What would happen if you had unlimited bowling? If you had unlimited bowling, you could practice different shots, you could practice different approaches, don’t worry about it! […]
That’s where we live now: Unlimited bowling.
So we gotta decide: Are we just constantly trying to get it just right down the center – which is boring and isn’t gonna get us anywhere. Or do we have the guts to say: You know, this might not work. But I’m gonna persistently and consistently and generously bring it forward. […]
If you’re asking for a guarantee, you’re in the wrong line.
This advice is gold if you are writing a blog, for example. What you write is totally up to you. And because you have unlimited shots on the Web, you can try out different formats, different styles, different topics. Regardless of what other people might think and although it might not work.
But this advice is also gold when you are prototyping user interfaces. Because prototypes are so inexpensive compared to high-fidelity solutions, you can easily try out different approaches to solving your problem, although it might not work.
That’s where we live now: Unlimited prototyping.
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