Shot by both sides
In the quest for enlightenment extremes of self-indulgence on the one side and self-mortification on the other are not advised by the Buddha.
Thus the recommendation, as described by the Noble Eightfold Path, is often called the Middle Way.
Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
Notice there’s no specific mention of Right Facebooking and Right Tweeting (though these are covered as subsections of all of the above).
For the new marketing provocateur this, however, presents another problem.
Being the scourge of both extreme traditionalists, and also the extreme inhabitants of the social media echo-chamber means one has to beware of being shot by both sides.
What’s so funny ’bout Simplicity of Purpose and Coherent Actions (sic)?
Because channels take care of themselves.
’I wormed my way into the heart of the crowd,
I was shocked to find what was allowed,
Shot by both sides…’
Howard Devoto was correct.
…And as if by magic I stumbled on the blog of Luke Williams, Author of Disrupt (Amazon order placed, thank you) and co-founder of Frog Design.
‘The attitude, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is the enemy.
It’s the seemingly unbroken aspects of a situation that provide the richest opportunities for innovation. They tend to be the things we ignore, precisely because they don’t change.
It’s more effective to start by identifying something in your business that’s not necessarily a problem, in a place where others wouldn’t expect to look. In other words, think about what usually gets ignored, pay attention to what’s not obvious, and start with things that ain’tbroke.’
Innovation or disruption doesn’t happen with fixing things that are broken, it comes also from propelling things that are already working further up the curve than is reasonable to expect.