I'll say it now and I'll say it again – the world is very very complex. There are more than five answers to every question. In the business of the web there are a handful of constant arguments. I'll list off the ones that come to mind:
Open verses closed systems
Paywall verses free
Newspapers verses blogs.
Apple verses Google
Google verses Facebook
Design verses metrics
Curation verses crowdsource
Algorithm verses social
Aggregation verses editorial
Journalists verses amateurs
… and on and on.
The problem is that these questions are not binary. Some of these items appear together and in combination to create businesses. None of these are mutually exclusive. As thought leaders we have to resist the urge to be binary, we have to resist the urge to be partisan to our beliefs. We have to fight against our brains natural desire for simple answers. Our minds want simple explanations for everything in the world. It simply is not that easy. We have to be of several minds to make decisions about what we do next. We have to have empathy for those standing on the other sides of our arguments. Why do companies have closed platforms, why do they resist innovation, why are they afraid of an open-ended ad campaign? Getting into the minds of others or at the very minimum understanding where they come from will help you and your work be better.
What am I doing to combat this?
Well, I read as much as I can. I read design blogs and I read analytics blogs. I read business reviews and I read consumer and workers rights blogs. I try as often as I can to read both sides of every story. It is difficult and I can sometimes even confuse myself. What I find is that when you read and research as many sides as you can, you start to see the common ground that both sides stand on. The commonality is that we want to find the best solution. We want to help the most people and we want the world to see our point of view.
How many minds are you working on?
Originally appeared http://laurent-courtines.com/im-of-seven-minds from http://laurent-courtines.com
