Icarus Paradigms

A jinking target requires calm resolve.

Modern-day sages tell us to subvert the dominant paradigm, or dominate it, or otherwise bend it to our will (or much more likely, bend ourselves to it).

Whatever we do with it, the prerequisite is to grasp it. Not as easy as it sounds, with this moving, jinking target. Economic and cultural forces are rolling on the crests and troughs of seismic waves, turning over again and again as one upheaval or another transforms our world, ever more rapidly.

Think you got a handle on the dominant paradigm? Are you sure you’re not hanging on to a vanished reality from two or three paradigms past?

This is a world where information is currency, and industrial construction takes place on the nanometer level. A world of unrelenting connectedness, of data democratization, and of technologically enabled personal empowerment.

But don’t dwell too much on that world, on this paradigm. Because it’s changing again, right in front of you.

It’s easier, perhaps, to focus on what’s gone — to recognize the dinosaurs that have gone extinct. And there’s value in that, to a degree. There’s value in knowing what no longer works.

But we’re not really reactive types, are we? So how do we become proactive about this rapidly changing world? Simple — we change this world to suit our needs.

That’s not as arrogant, or as delusional, as it sounds. What is a paradigm, after all? It’s a pattern. It’s a pattern of behaviors, customs, interactions — that define how we work, play, live, and love. The patterns form from societal influencers, and they flourish because we accept and build upon them.

We excel at pattern recognition, but we’re even better at pattern creation. We are absolutely empowered, through technology and personal courage, to create new patterns, and thus new paradigms.

Easy? Nope. It’s much easier to go along with whatever the rest of the world is doing. Rewarding? Now you’ve got it. The reward for courage and tenacity is a world, or maybe just your little corner of it, that is patterned after your own ideals.

The C4:

1. We speak of paradigms and patterns. They’re one and the same. They’re the collective norm, the way most of us view the world and interact with it and each other.
   
2. For a myriad of reasons, the patterns are shifting faster and more dramatically than ever before. For most of human history, the patterns and paradigms recognizable in any one person’s lifetime were almost indistinguishable from those of their great-grandparents, or their great-grandchildren. Now our world shifts before our very eyes.
   
3. Do not despair. This isn’t future shock, it’s opportunity. The same seismic forces that roil our outlook also empower us. We can harness the agents of change to create patterns and paradigms that are worthy of our courage, our tenacity, and our noblest hopes and dreams.
   
4. “The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” — Napoleon Hill

Tend To The Trends

But beware of paralysis when mining your findings.

There's a lot going on in data mining,
and just as much when searching for it.

What's trending now? That's a culturally loaded question, and the answer very much depends upon where you look. What's trending on Twitter? What are the hot topics on Facebook? On a more macro level, what's trending with your customers? What are they buying, what are their gripes, what turns them off and what turns them on?

Start asking those questions, and it's all too easy to get sucked into a virtual world of information overload. You can data-mine yourself into paralysis, always parsing data but never acting on it. And if you're over-monitoring social network trends, you might find yourself with lots of online friends and followers, yet with a spiraling level of productivity.

None of which is to say that data-mining on topical trends isn't worth your time. It's free business intelligence, as close as the Connect channel on Twitter, or the Google Adwords keyword tool. You have at your fingertips some of the most powerful engines imaginable for getting inside consumers' heads, for seeing what matters to them, what they like about products (any products), and what they hate about them.

Just...beware that paralysis. Protect your productivity. Approach this venture with a plan — know which trends you want to monitor; make lists of search engine keywords you want to check hit rates for; identify in advance the specifics of your data-mining: demographics, product preferences, buying history.

Most importantly, know what you want to do with this info. Are you willing to make major changes based on what you find? Or will you at best make some minor tactical adjustments? Either answer is acceptable, as long as that's your plan going in. 

Things are trending right now. A lot of things. A few of them directly impact your business. It's easy to find them, a bit harder to act upon them...but it's all well worth the effort.

The C4:

1. "What's trending" is the new way of asking "What are people talking about?" With social media, they're talking quite a bit, and it couldn't be easier to eavesdrop.
    
2. So listen in. Decide what trends you need to know about — things impacting your business, your product line, etc. — and use the tools at your disposal to data-mine the trending topics in social media, and the most popular search engine keywords.
    
3. But beware analysis paralysis! You can expect a flood of info coming in. Budget your time and resources appropriately, and don't turn trend-mining into a full-time job.
    
4. Above all else, act! Find ways to turn trends (specifically, your knowledge of trends) into a business advantage. Think of your time and effort at trend-mining as an investment, and make sure you get a return on it.

The Six Billion Dollar Email

Just 11 words in a mountain of data may ultimately be the smoking gun.

If there’s a moral to this cautionary tale, it’s this: know what’s inside those boxes you’re handing over.

The background is a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit between Oracle and Google (go ahead and call it the Battle of Silicon Valley), in which Oracle alleges the illicit use of its Java programming platform in Google’s Android operating system.

It started off as one might expect; Google denied wrongdoing, while (reportedly) preparing to pay a token settlement of a few million dollars. Then sometime last year came the discovery phase, where Google responded to Oracle’s subpoenas with a good old fashioned data-dump: truckloads of documents meant to overwhelm and confuse the other side’s lawyers.

But somewhere within those truckloads was a single damning email. It was from a Google engineer to Andy Rubin, head of the Android division. It said (paraphrasing here), “You know, we really ought to buy a license for Java.”

So much for settlement. The trial is now underway; its conclusion is by no means foregone, but legal observers say Google isn’t looking so good. Damages were initially estimated at $6.1 billion, but might be negotiated down to around a billion. That’s still enough of a hit — even to Google’s deep pockets — to spell an end to Android OS as freeware, and higher consumer prices on Android phones and tablets.

For the want of a nail? More like for the want of reading your own email. Or, better still, the true root cause: if you’re using someone else’s software, pay for it. Because ultimately you will...one way or another.

The C4:

1. In August 2010, Oracle (owner of the Java programming platform) filed suit against Google for the unlicensed use of Java in the Android operating system.
2. Responding to Oracle’s subpoena, Google inadvertently supplied an email which apparently acknowledges the use of Java, and the need to pay licensing fees.
3. The trial is ongoing. It could result in a billion-dollar judgment against Google that would inevitably impact the cost of Android devices.
4. Learn from Google’s mistakes: data-dumps can be self-defeating, and it’s always best to simply pay for the products you use.