Ben Betts is…

I’ve just come back from holiday and whilst away I’ve developed a few thoughts that I thought I would share. Consider yourselves positively blessed. It’s a bit of a stream of consciousness, so forgive me, but I think it works better just getting this stuff down on the page!

Thought 1: The Hierarchy of Acceptability

Hierarchy of Acceptability

I’m sure someone will have documented this phenomenon before, but why is it that, socially speaking, we find some activities more acceptable than others? Who came up with the notion of “fresh air”? Is the air in my living room less ‘fresh’ than that in my front garden, next to the road? How is reading a book a more socially acceptable past-time than interacting with my friends online? Is it really as simple as a lack of understanding, or is it something deeper?

For many people, the notion that kicking a ball around is somehow ‘better’ than playing a computer game is common sense. I can’t see the sense in it at all.

Thought 2: The Underpants Gnomes and Cumulative Advantage

Underpants Gnomes

If you haven’t seen the Underpants Gnomes episode of South Park, shame on you. It’s a nice little skit taking on the business models of web 2.0 enterprises. The fundamental premise is this; Gnomes are stealing underpants as a part of their business strategy to get rich quick. Their plan comes in 3 stages. First steal the pants. In stage 2 something will happen (not sure what yet, doesn’t matter) and stage 3 is all profit. Sound familiar yet?

However, whilst I was away I read a bit on cumulative advantage, which suddenly legitimised the business model of every world dominating web 2.0 website. In the olden days it used to be that Cumulative Advantage was all about the rich getting richer. Money was the commodity and if you had a lot of it, you could pretty much rule the world. Of course the same holds true today. But what web 2.0 companies like Facebook, Twitter et al are doing is the same thing. They are just replacing the commodity – exchanging lots of money for lots of users, lots of tweets, lots of anything.

The principle is, if you can reach a critical mass in something which eventually proves to have value, you are laughing. Knowing what exactly people will choose to place value in is an entirely different story. But pants aren’t a bad start.

Thought 3: Why am I so bothered that I can’t come up with a 3rd point?

Nearly all of my postings come with a number of points. They are always odd numbers, 3 or 5 normally. Not being able to come up with a coherent third point for this post has really bothered me. If anyone knows anything academically about the rule of 3, I’d love to hear from you!