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Lou Tamposi's avatar

Lawson, this is terrific as always. Lots that resonated. I think your assertion that “everyone should start a business” is rightly caveated by the belief that the function of the product should be secondary (tertiary, even) to the form. Make things, not brands. You see this so often in tech companies — “here’s my shiny widget and sexy branding; let’s raise $20M.”

That focus on raising money (support, confidence, anything) from others, from strangers, forces you toward hyperbole not practicality. Performance, in the sense of showmanship, becomes more important than performance in the sense of actual function. Growth is fine — but it should be organic, local (at least at first), not synthetic.

(There’s an analogy with soil health in there waiting to be dug into…)

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Lliam Gray's avatar

It makes me think that branding is so often concerned to cover up the faults in what we 'sell' to others. If we start selling ourselves, even unconsciously, we start trying to hide all of our faults too. That makes everything we portray less real.

Maybe one way we can combat this is by posting incomplete things, unedited things, uncharted things. Just to remind ourselves and other's that were not just a brand. So we would have less fear.

Loved your piece. Thanks for writing it.

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