The Deviant's Advantage: How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets (Hardcover)

The authors are usually speaking about deviants and deviance in the positive sense of "something or someone operating in a defined measure away from the norm." In our quest for the "new" and "authentic," such deviances sometimes attract a wider audience. In the process of attracting that audience, the deviance is "cleaned" up to be acceptable to a broader group of people until a majority find it appealing . . . at least until the novelty wears off or something more "authentic" shows up.

To understand this process, readers will probably benefit from also reading The Tipping Point and The Anatomy of Buzz.

The authors go on to point out why this process operates more rapidly than in the past. They primarily focus on language becoming more ambiguous, science making reality less objective, and the impact of a more visually stimulated culture. The point about language is particularly well done.

Finally, the authors look at how corporations, those models of conformity, can incorporate deviance by becoming aware of it and incorporating more external perspectives. Hire differently, get new stakeholders involved, and use creative brainstorming techniques to look for potentially more valuable core competencies). This last section is filled with examples of the authors' consulting experiences with major corporations. They end up with an entertaining use of social archetypes to discuss how to disseminate ideas (trickster, clown, wizard, shaman, seer, provocateur, fool).

The authors are unusually well read and very into the latest "new, new" thing. As a result, they make many allusions that are constructive and interesting for their case.

The book does, however, (as my 3 star rating suggests) have substantial weaknesses.

First, the prose is often hard to comprehend due to allusions that are incomplete. This is the fourth sentence in the introduction. "Our simple answer is that deviance happened, and our simple bet is that the barbarians haven't even begun to party." To make matters worse, the authors like to add new terms to spice things up (devox -- "the voice, spirit, or incarnation of deviant ideas, products, and individuals"). When these terms are applied, meaning can become obscure. "Deviants seek out other deviants -- this is how 'scenes' are formed and 'scenes' eventually birth markets. The neotribe . . . ."

Second, the authors claim too much for their point. "Innovation -- all innovation, positive and negative -- begins as a deviant idea germinating in the mind of a person dwelling on the Fringe of society." You can translate that into someone who is not an average person with average behavior thought of it first. Does that amaze you? Almost no one is an average person with average behavior. Further, the importance of major innovations (such as electronics, biotechnology, new sources of energy) comes from developing concepts into reality. What difference does it make who thought of these concepts first? If you look at the important, lasting innovations, these were mostly developed within some large organization (Bell Labs for the transistor, major universities for biotechnology, Boeing for modern jet transportation and so on). Yes, the early conceptualization started with a few individuals . . . but until we develop a Borg-like mind that will happen by definition. Most of what the authors are talking about are "trendy" happenings in social situations. Even those trendy new things are often stimulated by major companies (for example, most of those trendy drinks mentioned in the book start out in the market research departments of some liquor company . . . and are then seeded into trendy bars with corporate promotional efforts). In other words, the authors are ascribing behavior to everything that only applies to some things.

Third, the authors also draw unnecessarily on shock value. Early on there is a detailed description of how HBO portrayed the new torture chic (involving intimate parts of the anatomy). How is that a positive deviation?

Fourth, in describing the application to businesses over a third of the material comes across sounding like an ad for their consulting services. That wouldn't be so bad, except that the examples mostly seem to be ones that the companies didn't use very long . . . or never started with. Those examples don't even seem to add credibility to the process.

Fifth, the authors are very interested in businesses creating new business models, usually through focusing on a new core insight into what will reward stakeholders (customers, end users, employees, shareholders, lenders, distributors, partners, etc.). But they make almost no attempt as to how to take the new core insight and apply it into making a new business model for that organization. In other words, the hard part is left out. That is surprising, because the authors describe many continuing business model innovators like Richard Branson, Dell Computer, Red Hat, and Harley-Davidson. Most companies will need a lot more guidance than this book provides for how to apply these lessons.

Ultimately, the book seems flawed more by a lack of editing than anything else. It's almost as though the editors did not have the right knowledge of business and organizations to make the material both comprehensible and relevant.

After you finish this interesting book, I suggest that you think about how you can listen more carefully to what those who are different from you are saying. Who are you ignoring now? How can you start understanding them better? If you do those things, this book will be a winner for you.

The authors are usually speaking about deviants and deviance in the positive sense of "something or someone operating in a defined measure away from the norm." In our quest for the "new" and "authentic," such deviances sometimes attract a wider audience. In the process of attracting that audience, the deviance is "cleaned" up to be acceptable to a broader group of people until a majority find it appealing . . . at least until the novelty wears off or something more "authentic" shows up.

To understand this process, readers will probably benefit from also reading The Tipping Point and The Anatomy of Buzz.

The authors go on to point out why this process operates more rapidly than in the past. They primarily focus on language becoming more ambiguous, science making reality less objective, and the impact of a more visually stimulated culture. The point about language is particularly well done.

Finally, the authors look at how corporations, those models of conformity, can incorporate deviance by becoming aware of it and incorporating more external perspectives. Hire differently, get new stakeholders involved, and use creative brainstorming techniques to look for potentially more valuable core competencies). This last section is filled with examples of the authors' consulting experiences with major corporations. They end up with an entertaining use of social archetypes to discuss how to disseminate ideas (trickster, clown, wizard, shaman, seer, provocateur, fool).

The authors are unusually well read and very into the latest "new, new" thing. As a result, they make many allusions that are constructive and interesting for their case.

The book does, however, (as my 3 star rating suggests) have substantial weaknesses.

First, the prose is often hard to comprehend due to allusions that are incomplete. This is the fourth sentence in the introduction. "Our simple answer is that deviance happened, and our simple bet is that the barbarians haven't even begun to party." To make matters worse, the authors like to add new terms to spice things up (devox -- "the voice, spirit, or incarnation of deviant ideas, products, and individuals"). When these terms are applied, meaning can become obscure. "Deviants seek out other deviants -- this is how 'scenes' are formed and 'scenes' eventually birth markets. The neotribe . . . ."

Second, the authors claim too much for their point. "Innovation -- all innovation, positive and negative -- begins as a deviant idea germinating in the mind of a person dwelling on the Fringe of society." You can translate that into someone who is not an average person with average behavior thought of it first. Does that amaze you? Almost no one is an average person with average behavior. Further, the importance of major innovations (such as electronics, biotechnology, new sources of energy) comes from developing concepts into reality. What difference does it make who thought of these concepts first? If you look at the important, lasting innovations, these were mostly developed within some large organization (Bell Labs for the transistor, major universities for biotechnology, Boeing for modern jet transportation and so on). Yes, the early conceptualization started with a few individuals . . . but until we develop a Borg-like mind that will happen by definition. Most of what the authors are talking about are "trendy" happenings in social situations. Even those trendy new things are often stimulated by major companies (for example, most of those trendy drinks mentioned in the book start out in the market research departments of some liquor company . . . and are then seeded into trendy bars with corporate promotional efforts). In other words, the authors are ascribing behavior to everything that only applies to some things.

Third, the authors also draw unnecessarily on shock value. Early on there is a detailed description of how HBO portrayed the new torture chic (involving intimate parts of the anatomy). How is that a positive deviation?

Fourth, in describing the application to businesses over a third of the material comes across sounding like an ad for their consulting services. That wouldn't be so bad, except that the examples mostly seem to be ones that the companies didn't use very long . . . or never started with. Those examples don't even seem to add credibility to the process.

Fifth, the authors are very interested in businesses creating new business models, usually through focusing on a new core insight into what will reward stakeholders (customers, end users, employees, shareholders, lenders, distributors, partners, etc.). But they make almost no attempt as to how to take the new core insight and apply it into making a new business model for that organization. In other words, the hard part is left out. That is surprising, because the authors describe many continuing business model innovators like Richard Branson, Dell Computer, Red Hat, and Harley-Davidson. Most companies will need a lot more guidance than this book provides for how to apply these lessons.

Ultimately, the book seems flawed more by a lack of editing than anything else. It's almost as though the editors did not have the right knowledge of business and organizations to make the material both comprehensible and relevant.

After you finish this interesting book, I suggest that you think about how you can listen more carefully to what those who are different from you are saying. Who are you ignoring now? How can you start understanding them better? If you do those things, this book will be a winner for you.