I admit it. I am a malcontent, an outsider, and, as a result, a snob. It may be a result of my nomadic childhood, or maybe it is a result of ADHD addled brain, but I embrace my space. I am not agoraphobic but rather, misanthropic.

After years of struggling with my better nature, I can finally confess that my belief system is best triangulated by the Buddha, a samurai, and Harry Lockhart. I don’t play well with others. I fake it fairly well though, but hate myself for it later. I just don’t have any patience for posers, fakers, and paper-pushing mediocre middle management.

So it should come as no surprise then that, even in these desperate economic times, I have difficulty grasping the 21st century business models championed by Seth Godin and Tim Ferris. I see endless blogs and companies and people advocating these ideas without actually digesting them. Instead, these charlatans actualize success through surreptitious black-hat strategies while reciting chapter and verse that which their betters have said, well, better. The hype is so loud I cannot hear the message.

"Whatever else happens, I've got that sofa problem handled."

Skim through the posts at ArtsJournal.com and you too will see the negative effects this economy is having on the Arts as a whole. The misery is the reverse of trickledown: for every established art entity battling bankruptcy, there is a sea of talent drowning in the zeit geist of the changing markets.

IMHO, the failure of imagination by the carrion and the sheep at the center of our economic collapse has been dwindling the possibilities available to artists and creatives everywhere. If a prospective buyer can get a painting at IKEA or Pier 1 while shopping for a couch, why would it occur to him/ her to buy original art? The consumer "wins" by knowing the art they are purchasing matches their "style" because the retailer or HGTV told them so. That $400 painting produced in assembly plant style, has slowly strangled any opportunity for independent artists and craftsmen all over the US. In the years of the economic boom, Arts festivals all over the US partied more but have sold less, year after year.

So I do understand the need for the relevant application of these marketing principles to the business of art. It is why we here at DigitalAppleJuice chose to syndicate Bill Weaver's Blog as part of our content.  But it doesn't mean that it resonates for me personally.

I cannot explain why, how, or what blind-link- following I took to get there, but I stumbled across Mark, Tony, and Brian of  LateralAction.com. They have put THOSE concepts in perspective.

Tyler Durden’s 8 Rules of Innovation

Go on. Read them.
Yes, now.

You are thinking, "Really, Fight Club?". You may even think I am kidding. I am not. Buried deep in that aggressive testosterone driven rhetoric lives the seed of Buddhism:

"...suffering is brought on by desire and attachment to wordly objects..."

Or in Fight Club speak:  

"We're the bi-products of a lifestyle obsession."

"I Know This Because Tyler Knows This…"

The singularly brilliant mind of Brian Clark has correlated Tyler Durden's drive to be exceptional in a world of mediocrity to 21st century  Business Strategies.

Rule No. 1

“No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.”

See that? Succinct and precise. Surgical even. Do I really have to read another explanation or book or website about the 80-20 rule of productivity?  No, not I.

Cause the boys at LateralAction.com are speaking my language.

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