Let’s get real here.

Growth isn’t always good. Publicity doesn’t always make things better. Exposure won’t ensure quality.

That is why stories like this are disappointing.

I get that the mainstream media needs a figurehead and I understand that things need to be laid out, but to expose what is still a complex, fragile, ever-growing community connected together in hundreds of different ways as a one guy using Twitter feels wrong. It feels like a betrayal. When our leaders speak, we should expect great things.

“A culture is made — or destroyed — by its articulate voices.”

Not what we got.

We are a group built on the shoulders of other’s shoulders. Great things are happening and not because everyone is involved, but precisely the opposite. As in Seth Godin’s Tribes, one of the greatest things about highly-connected, highly-passionate groups is their exclusivity. Not everyone gets to see or play our games. They have to earn it.

Forget about good.
Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you’ll never have real growth.

They have to be innovators.

“I am an innovator. This is a term of distinction, a term of honor, rather than something to hide or apologize for. Anyone who has new or valuable ideas to offer stands outside the intellectual status quo. But the status quo is not a stream, let alone a ‘mainstream’. It is a stagnant swamp. It is the innovators who carry mankind forward.”

Stop being so damn focused on getting the word out. Real change doesn’t require publicity.

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received–hatred. The great creators–the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors–stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The first airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.”

Start focusing on what’s actually happening and the people who are making it real. And if you’re a local company, don’t ever take credit for someone who’s being honored for the hard work and passion of himself and many others.

Thanks to Ayn Rand for the quotes.

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