Perhaps I’m simply not sophisticated enough to understand the processes by which big business operates.

I can dig that.  I’m just a Joe…a consumer.  I’m fed a constant stream of engineered coolness from the interwebs, my handheld device (formerly known as a ‘phone’), Television, 2 minute YouTube clips and tech blogs…I’m inundated with things that are ‘cool.’  I see that others buy into this mantra of cool and I want to be like them…to share the coolness.  That way we’re all cool like we’re told we will be.

That’s such bullshit.

I don’t want or need ANYONE or ANYTHING to tell me what’s cool.  I think we’ve gotten used to ingesting so much force-fed information that we shit cool if we’d only take the time to look.  Cool feeds your ego…especially if you’re one of the “haves.”   Techno-patricians are the worst of the bunch because they consume so much ‘cool’ that they feel they are the arbitors of innovation…and stop questioning the status-quo of cool…and start defending it.  It’s a fucked up techno-centric Stockholm syndrome.

We’re trying to anticipate (and actively develop) what shape peg we’re going to need for hole we’ve never seen…which doesn’t make a lot of sense.  The chance for failure looms large because we’re making an educated guess and running with it.

I may be an narcissist but I think I know what’s cool.  I don’t need anyone to tell me what I should like and what I shouldn’t like.  I think that if WE create something that WE consider awesome then the rest will take care of itself.  Let’s design our ‘peg’ to be different and whatever shape it is it’ll fit…because instead of pandering to collective cool we SHOULD be developing what WE like.

We’ve got a responsibility to be true to the ideals of innovation if we’re really as cool as we hoped.

ADDENDUM: I’ve had some time to think this over and I understand that holding ideological standards OVER revenue is not viable.  I guess that’s what makes the ideologically stable AND financially profitable companies so rare.