¿La "economía compartida" sólo es "fachada"?

 Harvard Business Review publica The Sharing Economy Isn’t About Sharing at All - HBR

Y me alegra que lo publique HBR porque parece que refuerza la terrible sensación de que el marketing (en la peor de sus acepciones: la "propagandística") está intentando vendernos algo de otra manera. Si ésta es la economía de lo accesible y el "low cost" ya existía… ¿ésto es un low-cost con clase? Tenemos la mala costumbre de re-etiquetarlo todo, cada vez más rápido.

No es que me parezca mal este tipo de negocios, ojo, lo que me parece… cuestionable, es su confusa aproximación al mercado. El buen rollo no se vende.

En realidad la capacidad de descubrir esas necesidades de los usuarios y encontrar el modelo de negocio para cubrirlas, me parece el no va más y eso sí que lo admiro. Es cuando se comunica lo que no es cuando me mareo…

Sharing is a form of social exchange that takes place among people known to each other, without any profit. Sharing is an established practice, and dominates particular aspects of our life, such as within the family. By sharing and collectively consuming the household space of the home, family members establish a communal identity. 

When “sharing” is market-mediated — when a company is an intermediary between consumers who don’t know each other — it is no longer sharing at all. 

It is important to highlight the benefits that access provides in contrast to the disadvantages of ownership and sharing. These consist of convenient and cost-effective access to valued resources, flexibility, and freedom from the financial, social, and emotional obligations embedded in ownership and sharing.

Currículo "transversal"

 @sintetia publica de @arey una interesante entrada: 15 materias que no vas a ver (todavía) en la formación empresarial

Con joyas como esta:

no se resuelve dando una asignatura llamada “Ética”, sino integrando esos conceptos en todas las disciplinas, de forma transversal, siendo el Marketing una de las más necesitadas porque según mi experiencia, va sobrado de cinismo.

Muy interesante no sólo para las escuelas de negocios, por eso el título de la entrada (muy a la moda, por cierto).

1.- Filosofía (de la acción directiva): 

2.- Historia crítica del Management: 

3.- Antropología (de la innovación): 

4.- Literatura y Poesía aplicada: 

5.- Etnografía digital:

6.- Integrative Thinking:

7.- Marketing de conversaciones:

8.- Visualización de datos: 

9.- Cultura de prototipado: 

10.- Contexto cultural de los negocios: 

11.- La artesanía como modelo alternativo: 

12.- Negocios en red y Empresa Abierta: 

13.- Marketing ético: 

14.- Cultura estadística: 

15.- Co-Skills e Inteligencia Colectiva:

Soy todas mis relaciones

 vía @vorpalina ¡vaya si he disfrutado! con la guía lakota de inteligencia relacional | iniciativa vorpalina

"Ciertas cosas pueden capturar tu mirada, pero sigue solo a las que puedan capturar tu corazón."
~proverbio sioux

MITAKUYE OYAS´IN (Soy todas mis relaciones)
según su ley lakota de la generosidad, la energía que una persona invierte en comunicarse con otra le será devuelta multiplicado por cuatro. Esta parece ser la base de la oración lakota “El honor de uno es el honor de todos; el dolor de uno es el dolor de todos”,

UNSIMALA (Tengo una necesidad y necesito tu ayuda)
Cuando alguien dice “unsimala” está dando parte de su energía a otra persona y no significa que esto le haga más débil sino que al expresar su necesidad, ofrece parte de su fortaleza (honor y dignidad) a otra persona para que ésta la tome multiplicada por cuatro si honestamente se ofrece a atenderla.

LOS 7 PUNTOS CARDINALES  (Puedo explorar el norte, el sur, el oeste, el este, la tierra, el cielo o a mí mismo)
uno -para evitar perderse- no solo ha de ser consciente de que puede ir a la derecha, izquierda, delante o atrás sino que además debe ser consciente y honrar la tierra que pisa y el cielo que le cubre
…
Cuando una persona pierde su séptima dirección, se desconecta de la máxima Mitayuke Oyas´in y comienza a ver todo de forma binaria (bueno/malo) estableciendo una delgada línea entre ambas. … Esto le genera tensión o estrés y dedica gran parte de su vida a intentar demostrar que el otro está equivocado.
…
Cuando una persona encuentra su séptima dirección y se reconcilia con el cielo y con la tierra, los lakotas dicen que esta persona “camina en la belleza”.


LAS 4 FLECHAS (Soy mi mente, mi cuerpo, mi espíritu y mis emociones)
la humanidad auténtica surgiría cuando las cuatro familias volvieran a unirse en un mismo punto. Del mismo modo, la humanidad auténtica en cada persona surge cuando estas cuatro flechas se unen.

LAS VIRTUDES LAKOTA

De acuerdo a diferentes versiones …:

• PERSISTE, RESPETA, AMA, SACRIFÍCATE, SE VALIENTE, SE ÚTIL ( “Se útil sin necesidad de ser necesitado”) …

WOWAOUNIHAN (el código ético del respeto)

• DEMOCRACIA, MERITOCRACIA, COMPRENSIÓN, PROPIEDAD, PRIVACIDAD, CORTESÍA, HUMILDAD, INTELIGENCIA SOCIAL, NATURALEZA, TOLERANCIA.

Si uno ya estuviera preparado mentalmente a la idea de estar mojado,

se estaría a fin de cuentas muy poco contrariado con la llegada de la lluvia.

Comando Dharma: la actitud durante la tormenta

Desigualdad en el reparto de la riqueza en USA (gráfico animado, 2102)

 Aunque ya tenga algo de tiempo, no deja de ser muy interesante…

▶ Wealth Inequality in America - YouTube

Espacios de diálogo

 vía @vorpalina Cómo construir espacios de diálogo en tu empresa | iniciativa vorpalina

Es ahora cuando renace la gran innovación occidental de la academia (con más de 3000 años de antigüedad).…Desconfiad de todos aquellos que tengan claro hacia donde se dirigen, confiad en aquellos que sepan cómo dirigirse. …Nadie puede formar completamente a nadie en inteligencia emocional ni en visual thinking, por ejemplo. Porque son habilidades transversales y se practican. Con el diálogo ocurre algo parecido.

Emotion, Logic and Reason (from Cogito Ergo blog)

 Logic is good to a point, incorporate emotion in time, and there is reason.
Emotion, Logic and Reason | Cogito Ergo

Perhaps the bacteria and virus are biological primal forms that have no emotion or logic. They are pure programming (with some logic) and serve one function.  Through random mutation they survive to live another day. What, then, is in between these primitive forms and animal life (humans included)? I am not sure, but emotions evolved in the higher species for a particular purpose maybe – that being the ability to adapt to an environment without waiting for a mutation, but to do it freelance style, so to speak. How would this be accomplished? The answer must be by incorporating emotion!

The Elevator Speech Guide

…to Pitch Any Idea Instantly–Senator Club

#1 Study Your Audience

#2 Ask Clarifying Questions

#3 Explain the Problem

#4 Make an Association

#5 Share Your Uniqueness

#6 Illustrate the Results

#7 Ask for What You Want

Do you have to love what you do?

 @jasonfried sparks discussion, like he did years ago with learning from failure is overrated

In part I think he nails it with this new anti-inspirational ;-) post:
Do you have to love what you do? by Jason Fried of Basecamp

…the comments put a lot of additional common-sensse to his idea.

Yes, love is a complex word, let alone a feeling!

To think about…

11 Hacks That Will Help You Focus – Infographic (entrepreneur)

Classical music and pets are helpful, a cluttered desk and an uncomfortable chair are not.

Distracted? 11 Hacks That Will Help You Focus. (Infographic)

Lo que debes hacer para lograr ventas fáciles y rápidas

 vía @JALacoste Efectivamente, está todo… y nada es fácil ni rápido por cierto.
La última es una gran clave para ser capaz de aplicar las demás.

Lo que debes hacer para lograr ventas fáciles y rápidas

1. Atraer compradores bien dispuestos

2. Pensar en positivo

3. Creer antes de tener éxito

4. Tener buen humor

5. Construir nuestra propia marca

6. Una buena reputación

 7. Ser asertivo y persistente

8. Demostrar nuestra excelencia

9. Ofrecer valor ante nada

10. Copiar la manera de hablar de los demás

11. Preguntar antes de decir

12. Servir memorablemente

13. Intercambiar lealtad

14. Ganar confianza

15. Usar la voz del cliente

16. Descubrir el por qué

17. Intenciones

18. Procurar que nos consideren diferentes

19. Desempeño dinámico

20. Conectarnos socialmente

21. Obtener sin pedir

21.5 Ámelo o déjelo

10 great NYC museums you didn't know were free

No es que vaya mucho a Nueva York, pero creo que será buena idea prepararse "just in case"

10 great NYC museums you didn't know were free - Freelancers Union

A veces un puro es solamente un puro. (S. Freud)

 @vorpalina "casi siempre las cosas son tal y como son y que lo único que las hace parecer diferentes es nuestro complicado y complicador cerebro."

En la medida en que intento comprender las creencias de los otros, puedo escapar de las mías y alcanzar un aprendizaje más significativo sobre la realidad que compartimos. En la medida en que solo intento defender las mías propias, tan solo alcanzaré un aprendizaje más liviano y cada vez más alejado de la realidad de todos.

el club de los sencillos | iniciativa vorpalina

LO OBVIO CASI SIEMPRE FUNCIONA

“El análisis de lo obvio requiere una mente extraordinaria“

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) 

El asa de un cubo es sencilla. Y funciona. La sencillez es magia pero con el paso de los años, perdemos la fascinación inicial que nos provoca. Y hablando en plata, eso es una gran putada. Porque algo que no es novedoso, puede ser siempre altamente innovador y/o efectivo. La vida es lo obvio… Las personas que están en contacto continuo con lo obvio (la vida) son auténticos regalos para cualquier equipo. Suelen ser creativas, abiertas, enérgicas y conscientes. Manejan un saludable escepticismo humilde hacia “todas esas cosas que pensamos las personas”. … Simplemente dejamos de ser simios en la medida en que paso a paso dejábamos de andar siempre por las ramas para empezar a conocer y comprender la tierra.

LA VIDA SIEMPRE TIENE MÁS RAZÓN

“La muerte es la forma más efectiva de reducir gastos“

Boris Grushenko (Allen, 1975)

Pauta número 1: La vida ya existe. Pauta número 2: La vida funciona.

Si lo que quieres es ser efectivo y eficiente, imita siempre a la vida. El mejor modelo de gestión que existe sigue y seguirá siendo insuperable. Estas son algunas grandes lecciones de la vida:

Ningún sistema vivo es completamente autónomo

La eficiencia de la vida está basada en la continua adaptabilidad de sus especies

La vida por sí sola tiene ritmo y entidad (…nadie salvo nosotros ha necesitado nunca decir algo acerca de la vida. Todas las especies salvo la nuestra lo único que han necesitado siempre fue vivirla.)

Solo eres un ser vivo porque mueres

PRIMERO VIVE, LUEGO HABLA

“Mi reputación aumenta con cada fracaso“

G.B. Shaw (1856-1950)

Esta máxima de la cultura latina: primum vivere, deinde philosophari, puede mejorar tu vida sustancialmente. Si eres capaz de ser coherente y recto en su diario cumplimiento, te aportará credibilidad y autoridad, hará de todo eso que haces algo respetable.

…la única conexión efectiva entre lo que eres y lo que puedes ser es lo que haces. …

Una persona saludable suele pensar mucho y a menudo. Una persona poco saludable suele pensar siempre demasiado. El matiz es clave: Existe una adicción real a los propios pensamientos, nuestras creencias.

Y existe una costumbre admirable en nuestra especie llamada razonamiento lógico, nuestros aprendizajes.

El zen no intenta confundir la espiritualidad con pensar sobre Dios…

… mientras se pelan las patatas. La espiritualidad zen es sólo pelar las patatas.
:-))

100 años de Alan Watts: la lucidez del pop zen – Pijamasurf:

“La mayor parte de la actividad humana está diseñada para hacer permanente aquellas experiencias y alegrías que sólo son deseables porque son cambiantes.”  

“Si te das cuenta que el “Yo”, en el sentido de la persona, el frente, el ego, realmente no existe. Entonces… no se te subirá a la cabeza demasiado cuando te despiertes y descubras que eres Dios.”

“Una persona que piensa todo el tiempo no tiene otra cosa en qué pensar más que pensamientos. Por eso pierde la noción de la realidad, vive en un mundo ilusorio.” 

“Eres una función de lo que el universo está haciendo.” 

“Tratar de definirte  a ti mismo, es como tratar de morder tus propios dientes.” 

“Para descubrir a Dios es necesario dejar de pensar completamente,” 

“Dios también gusta de jugar a las escondidillas, pero como no hay nada fuera de Dios, no tiene nadie con quien jugar más que él mismo. Pero supera esta dificultad fingiendo que no es él mismo. Esta es una forma de esconderse de sí mismo. Finge que es tú y yo y todas las personas del mundo, todos los animales, todas las plantas, todas las piedras y todas las estrellas. De esta forma vive extrañas y maravillosas aventuras, algunas de las cuales son terribles y atemorizantes. Pero estas son sólo como pesadillas, porque cuando se despierta desaparecen.”

Alan Watts

Este es el deseo del amado por los dioses: "que todas las comunidades sean muy instruidas y tolerantes"

Un día difícil para publicar esto…
Comando Dharma: ecumenismo y no violencia (Ashoka el emperador Budista)

…una base común para las religiones debería ser el apartarse de la glorificación de la tradición propìa y de la crítica de la de los demás, porque las disputas religiosas resultan contraproducentes tanto para la religión propia como para las de los demás, mientras que el respeto mútuo refuerza a ambas

…

que en todas partes estén establecidas todas las religiones.
Todas en verdad desean el autodominio y la pureza"…

…

Ashoka creia que todos los grupos religiosos predicaban lo mismo: el orden moral y universal o Dharma; ese patrón común, que podia ser asumido por cualquier grupo religioso.
Las discusiones y reyertas se debian a estrechos dogmatismos y al exagerado aprecio de tradiciones y ceremonias propias. …

…

…los seres vivientes deben ser respetados.
… el crecimiento del Dharma ha crecido más con el respeto a los seres y la prohibición de matar a los vivientes.... 

Resiliencia inteligente

It’s Not Them. It’s You. – The Sales Blog

Achieving the outcome you need by persisting is a critical attribute for people who succeed. But doing so without changing your approach isn’t.
You provide a stimulus. You receive a response. That response is feedback. When what you are doing fails, try again. But also try something different.
…
You produce the results you want when you recognize that the only thing you have any power to change is you. Change your beliefs. Change your actions. Change your results.

The Psychology of Colour

en The School of Life

Yellow: hope

Orange: vitality

Light red: adventure

Dark red: power

Dark green: realism

Light brown: mellowness

Dark brown: dignity

Black: authority

Violet: ambiguity

Light blue: clarity

Dark blue: discipline

Light green: sanity

An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

:-o "Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black."
An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth → Manifesto ProjectManifesto Project

Allow events to change you.

Forget about good.

Process is more important than outcome.

Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).

Go deep.

Capture accidents.

Study.

Drift.

Begin anywhere.

Everyone is a leader.

Harvest ideas. Edit applications.

Keep moving.

Slow down.

Don’t be cool.

Ask stupid questions.

Collaborate.

____________________. Intentionally left blank.

Stay up late.

Work the metaphor.

Be careful to take risks.

Repeat yourself.

Make your own tools.

Stand on someone’s shoulders.

Avoid software.

Don’t clean your desk.

Don’t enter awards competitions.

Read only left–hand pages.

Make new words. Expand the lexicon.

Think with your mind. Forget technology.

Organization = Liberty.

Don’t borrow money.

Listen carefully.

Take field trips.

Make mistakes faster.

Imitate. Don’t be shy about it.

Scat.

Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

Explore the other edge.

Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.

Avoid fields. Jump fences

Laugh.

Remember.

Power to the people.

Signs That You Lack Emotional Intelligence

• You think being liked at work is overrated. Harvard Business Review – Signs That You Lack Emotional Intelligence

Here are some of the telltale signs that you need to work on your emotional intelligence:

• You often feel like others don’t get the point and it makes you impatient and frustrated.
• You’re surprised when others are sensitive to your comments or jokes and you think they’re overreacting.
• You think being liked at work is overrated.
• You weigh in early with your assertions and defend them with rigor.
• You hold others to the same high expectations you hold for yourself.
• You find others are to blame for most of the issues on your team.
• You find it annoying when others expect you to know how they feel.

Nuevo arte, nuevos artistas, nuevo renacimiento & freelancers

Mi media naranja está en una etapa compleja… licenciada en Bellas Artes el pasado junio (2014), se abre  una etapa de definir qué quiere hacer; con increíbles capacidades para la venta (a lo que se ha dedicado profesionalmente muchos años), el arte, el dibujo, la pintura, la escultura, la venta, el 3D, la animación, la edición de vídeo, la escritura… su problema (¿nuestro?) es que no sabe "como vender" esas bondades. Por supuesto mi apoyo y consejo no le es de utilidad ¿cuándo ha funcionado entre parejas la "consultoría"?

A mi me ha dado por decirle que explote sus habilidades artísticas, sin duda ayuda que ella manifieste que disfruta mucho cuando pinta, pero en serio que aunque sea un mundo complejo (el de la comercialización del arte) me parece que es algo que todavía no se puede digitalizar. Un lienzo siempre será un lienzo. Una escultura siempre es una escultura. Es el último "Bastión" de la autenticidad.


How to be good at everything: tips from renaissance freelancers - Freelancers Union

…freelancing is on the rise. Nearly 1 in 3 workers, to be … nearly ever field and every profession is going rogue. But with this new workforce comes an entirely new phenomenon: the renaissance freelancer.

…but there’s also a creative flow surrounding the renaissance freelancer. Are they born that way? Or is it just another case of “necessity is the mother of invention”? Turns out, it’s a little bit of both. 

…“I’ve kind of made all my ‘not work things’ into businesses now,”… 

…Cole’s personal blog allows her to combine all passions at once, so you can see her not only looking fabulous in the vintage clothes from her shop, but also hear her music, get recipes for her vegan delicacies and see her photography skills… 

Fueled by creativity and rarely afraid to try new things, the renaissance freelancer does seem to have just a little more of an energy about them than most people. And, not surprisingly, each of the freelancers interviewed seemed to have one more thing in common: a deep-rooted love of their downtime. One can only assume because they have so very little of it.

The death of the artist – and the birth of the creative entrepreneur - Quartz

Pronounce the word artist, to conjure up the image of a solitary genius. A sacred aura still attaches to the word, a sense of one in contact with the numinous. “He’s an artist,” we’ll say in tones of reverence about an actor or musician or director. “A true artist,” we’ll solemnly proclaim our favorite singer or photographer, meaning someone who appears to dwell upon a higher plane. … 

Before we thought of artists as geniuses, we thought of them as artisans. The words, by no coincidence, are virtually the same. Art itself derives from a root that means to “join” or “fit together”—that is, to make or craft… 

Creativity was prized, but credibility and value derived, above all, from tradition. In a world still governed by a fairly rigid social structure, artists were grouped with the other artisans, somewhere in the middle or lower middle, below the merchants… 

…The age of revolution, it was also the age of secularization. As traditional belief became discredited, at least among the educated class, the arts emerged as the basis of a new creed, the place where people turned to put themselves in touch with higher truths.
Art rose to its zenith of spiritual prestige, and the artist rose along with it. The artisan became the genius: solitary, like a holy man; inspired, like a prophet; in touch with the unseen, his consciousness bulging into the future. 

…By the modernist moment … the artist stood at the pinnacle of status, too, a cultural aristocrat with whom the old aristocrats—or at any rate the most advanced among them—wanted nothing more than to associate. 

…After World War II in particular, and in America especially, art, like all religions as they age, became institutionalized. We were the new superpower; we wanted to be a cultural superpower as well. We founded museums, opera houses, ballet companies, all in unprecedented numbers: the so-called culture boom. Arts councils, funding bodies, educational programs, residencies, magazines, awards—an entire bureaucratic apparatus.
As art was institutionalized, so, inevitably, was the artist. The genius became the professional. Now you didn’t go off to Paris and hole up in a garret to produce your masterpiece, your Les Demoiselles d’Avignon or Ulysses, and wait for the world to catch up with you. Like a doctor or lawyer, you went to graduate school—MFA programs were also proliferating—and then tried to find a position. … 

Expertise—or, in the mantra of the graduate programs, “technique”—not inspiration or tradition, became the currency of aesthetic authority. The artist-as-genius could sometimes pretend that his work was tossed off in a sacred frenzy, but no self-respecting artist-as-professional could afford to do likewise. They had to be seen to be working, and working hard … 

The artist’s progress, in the postwar model, was also professional. You didn’t burst from obscurity to celebrity with a single astonishing work. You slowly climbed the ranks. You accumulated credentials. You amassed a résumé. … It was safer than the solitary-genius thing, but it was also a lot less exciting, and it is no surprise that artists were much less apt to be regarded now as sages or priests, much more likely to be seen as just another set of knowledge workers. … 

Artisan, genius, professional: underlying all these models is the market. In blunter terms, they’re all about the way that you get paid. If the artisanal paradigm predates the emergence of modern capitalism—the age of the artisan was the age of the patron, with the artist as, essentially, a sort of feudal dependent—the paradigms of genius and professional were stages in the effort to adjust to it. 

…Against the values of the market, the artist, like other professionals, maintained a countervailing set of standards and ideals—beauty, rigor, truth—inherited from the previous paradigm. Institutions served to mediate the difference, to cushion artists, ideologically, economically, and psychologically, from the full force of the marketplace. 

…we have entered, unmistakably, a new transition, and it is marked by the final triumph of the market and its values, the removal of the last vestiges of protection and mediation. In the arts, as throughout the middle class, the professional is giving way to the entrepreneur, or, more precisely, the “entrepreneur”: the “self-employed” (that sneaky oxymoron), the entrepreneurial self. 

…Now we’re all supposed to be our own boss, our own business: our own agent; our own label; our own marketing, production, and accounting departments. Entrepreneurialism is being sold to us as an opportunity. It is, by and large, a necessity. Everybody understands by now that nobody can count on a job. 

Still, it also is an opportunity. The push of institutional disintegration has coincided with the pull of new technology. The emerging culture of creative entrepreneurship predates the web—its roots go back to the 1960s—but the web has brought it an unprecedented salience. The Internet enables you to promote, sell, and deliver directly to the user, and to do so in ways that allow you to compete with corporations and institutions, which previously had a virtual monopoly on marketing and distribution. You can reach potential customers at a speed and on a scale that would have been unthinkable when pretty much the only means were word of mouth, the alternative press, and stapling handbills to telephone poles. 

…Creative entrepreneurship is spawning its own institutional structure—online marketplaces, self-publishing platforms, nonprofit incubators, collaborative spaces—but the fundamental relationship remains creator-to-customer, with creators handling or superintending every aspect of the transaction. 

So what will all this mean for artists and for art? For training, for practice, for the shape of the artistic career, for the nature of the artistic community, for the way that artists see themselves and are seen by the public, for the standards by which art is judged and the terms by which it is defined? These are new questions, open questions, questions no one is equipped as yet to answer. But it’s not too early to offer a few preliminary observations… 

…The truth is that the geniuses weren’t really quite as solitary as advertised. They also often came together—think of the Bloomsbury Group—in situations of intense, sustained creative ferment. With the coterie or circle as a social form, from its conversations and incitements, came the movement as an intellectual product: impressionism, imagism, futurism. 

But the network is a far more diffuse phenomenon, and the connections that it typically entails are far less robust. A few days here, a project there, a correspondence over e‑mail. A contact is not a collaborator.

… You were a writer, or a painter, or a choreographer. It is hard to think of very many figures who achieved distinction in more than one genre—fiction and poetry, say—let alone in more than one art. … 

But one of the most conspicuous things about today’s young creators is their tendency to construct a multiplicity of artistic identities. You’re a musician and a photographer and a poet; a storyteller and a dancer and a designer—a multiplatform artist, in the term one sometimes sees. … 

What we see in the new paradigm—in both the artist’s external relationships and her internal creative capacity—is what we see throughout the culture: the displacement of depth by breadth. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? No doubt some of both, in a ratio that’s yet to be revealed. What seems more clear is that the new paradigm is going to reshape the way that artists are trained. One recently established MFA program in Portland, Oregon, is conducted under the rubric of “applied craft and design.” Students, drawn from a range of disciplines, study entrepreneurship as well as creative practice. … 

The new paradigm is also likely to alter the shape of the ensuing career. Just as everyone, we’re told, will have five or six jobs, in five or six fields, during the course of their working life, so will the career of the multiplatform, entrepreneurial artist be more vagrant and less cumulative than under the previous models. No climactic masterwork of deep maturity, no King Lear or Faust, but rather many shifting interests and directions as the winds of market forces blow you here or there. 

…
It’s hard to believe that the new arrangement will not favor work that’s safer: more familiar, formulaic, user-friendly, eager to please—more like entertainment, less like art. Artists will inevitably spend a lot more time looking over their shoulder, trying to figure out what the customer wants rather than what they themselves are seeking to say. The nature of aesthetic judgment will itself be reconfigured. … 

Judgment rested with the patron, in the age of the artisan. In the age of the professional, it rested with the critic, a professionalized aesthete or intellectual. In the age of the genius, which was also the age of avant-gardes, of tremendous experimental energy across the arts, it largely rested with artists themselves. … 

…
“Producerism,” we can call this, by analogy with consumerism. What we’re now persuaded to consume, most conspicuously, are the means to create. And the democratization of taste ensures that no one has the right (or inclination) to tell us when our work is bad. A universal grade inflation now obtains: we’re all swapping A-minuses all the time, or, in the language of Facebook, “likes.” 

…we might also say that under producerism, in the age of creative entrepreneurship, producing becomes an experience, even the experience. It becomes a lifestyle, something that is packaged as an experience—and an experience, what’s more, after the contemporary fashion: networked, curated, publicized, fetishized, tweeted, catered, and anything but solitary, anything but private. 

…
Creator: I’m not sure that artist even makes sense as a term anymore, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it giving way before the former, with its more generic meaning and its connection to that contemporary holy word, creative. … 

When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans… So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. …

It was the changed Steve that made Apple great…

not that guy ("bad boy Steve").



A candid conversation with Pixar's philosopher-king, Ed Catmull

The thing that the general public has missed is that there is a perception of “bad boy Steve” when he was younger and that that behavior led to this giant success at Apple. But while Pixar was going through its rocky beginnings, the reality is that Steve was learning and changing dramatically. About 15 years ago he figured out things and we saw the change in the person. He became very empathetic and changed the way he worked with people. And after that point everybody that was with Steve stayed with him for the rest of his life. It was the changed Steve that made Apple great, not that guy. It’s like the classic hero’s journey, except people didn’t know that.