The Road Less Traveled

Seth Godin recently wrote about variance versus deviance, and the mental choice we make to distinguish the two in any given instance.  It's a perspective you choose to take to define what's expected or normal.  Are songs that don't hit the top twenty deviants or rather simply not a reflection of the masses' taste in music?  Is Henry Ford's quip that you can have a car any color you want as long as it's black still the norm or has customization proven variation offers opportunity?

The long-tail exists outside of products, too, and you can choose to embrace variation or suffer frustration as entropy unfolds in the actions of employees (or bosses), colleagues, and customers.  What's more, as Seth Godin puts it, "when you expect (or demand) that people don't deviate, you're robbing them of their dignity and setting yourself up to be disappointed."  It turns out that there are indeed more roads less travelled and each can lead to success.

Seth Godin's Blogs

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/02/variance-or-deviance.html

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