We Live in Public

WARNING. Video contains some nudity and offensive language.

Last night I attended the Chicago premier of a new documentary Titled "We Live in Public." The film covers one of the greatest dot.com entrepreneurs of our generation, but one many of us have never heard of (myself included). Josh Harris was a pioneer in the online space and was one of the first to power many of the tools we use today. I won't go into his full bio as you can get that elsewhere. (Side note: Josh was at the theatre last night which was quite a surreal experience.) First I suggest checking out the trailer below. Afterwards, a few questions worth discussing...

Are we losing a part of ourselves because of the web? 

After the film ended, Director Ondi Timoner addressed the audience and asked the following question, "are we losing our individuality and creativity through the internet?" We have social profiles that can tell others what our favorite bands, books, and foods are, but these are all categories that live inside predetermined boxes. Is this format truly one that allows us to express our creativity? Are we feeding information into the cloud thinking that it is an expression of our beliefs but in reality is being farmed by marketing companies trying to sell us things we won't be able to resist?

This question was a tough one to think about. After all, I have a fairly extensive digital footprint and have invested a large chunk of time into making that happen. On one hand, blogging to me, is not any different than offline forms of creativity. I can paint, write, record, in both world. The difference being that one has the potential to live forever on the web and the alternative is relatively private. 

This concept then brought me to the next observation, having eyes on our work will effect our psychology and thus our creativity. I accept this to be true, however the more difficult debate then is, does this change our creativity for the better or for the worse? Almost every character I type or pixel I create for the purpose of publishing on the web is something that goes through a mental scrubbing. A process of my brain trying to anticipate what others will think of what I'm creating and then catering it to making them happy, to keep them appeased, or to rile them up to argue with me. Some might argue that by building things on the web you're forced to explore topics that you might never pursue on your own, others might say it curbs your imagination and walls you into the expectations of others.

I don't have an answer and this is going to require a lot more thinking on my part, but what I do know is that I want to pledge more time to creating things for myself. I'm currently in the mindset of, if I'm going to spend my time making something, I better make it digital and viewable because otherwise, what value does it have? I've come to a place where the value of my work is judged by the opinion and eyeballs of others. That if I draw a picture or write a blog post and after publishing it gets no hits, that the work I've done is somehow poor. This mindset is one that I fear would derail me in the future from creating something that would give me an incredible sense of pride and happiness. As that is something I never want to happen, I'm going to attempt to augment my forms of creative expression. Don't worry, I'm not going to drop off the grid or anything, but thanks to the thoughts provoked by this movie, I am going to try to do more things that none of you will see. 

Credits

When you visit one of the casinos on Las Vegas Boulevard these days you’re not going to find many machines that you can slip a quarter into. Rather, you’ll find that you need to buy a card loaded with credits. This reality does many things. It keeps your hands cleaner. It makes it easier to track your comps. It also makes you forget that those “credits” on your card are dollars.

Excuse the Yogi Berra style quote but, when you don’t feel like you’re spending money, you’re not afraid to spend it.

We’ve seen hybrids of this model with iTunes and Sony’s PS3 marketplace, but many of these successful implementations have happened around non-tangible goods. And when they have been tied to tangible goods they’ve come in the form of gift cards.

But…

-Most stores market gift cards for you to give to someone else.

-Stores that offer Gift Cards also accept other forms of payment such as cash or credit.

-Items that can be obtained through gift cards are still listed in “dollars.”

If stores were to switch to credit loaded cards only, my question is:

-What tangible goods could be sold under this principle?

-What price points would be too high where consumers would become uncomfortable with not being able to compare goods?

-Would the lack of accepting cash or credit ultimately destroy a business?

-Would this be seen as being deceptive? Or would a “comps” program make it worth it?

-If competitors started to copy this format would it become irrelevant?