Haydn Shaughnessy's Blog
June 10, 2016
The Ideal Reader
There are plenty of blog posts on writing. In fact I wrote a few myself during my time at Forbes. What about reading?
I imagine there to be an ideal reader. Across the planet there must be a few thousand people who would fit my description of her or him. They are what writers like me are looking for.
The first attribute of my ideal reader is Impatient curiosity, someone with a sense that the stories they are hearing around them right now are not quite right.
The second attribute would be a desire to form or change an opinion. I cannot imagine it is worth reading my books to get confirmation of what you already know. The desire for a change must burn pretty bright, which means the perfect reader will be thinking through many issues beside the ones I raise.
Patience and open mindedness don't go together very well yet a good reader has to be open minded as well as being bloody minded. That person will let go of treasured assumptions reluctantly, only after a fight, but they will complete the act of letting go as they wrestle with new information.
Finally the perfect reader will be in awe of information. There is so much we don't know and there are so many stories where the appearance of reason has been patched together that in the end the good reading experience is to know information is over-abundant and to be happy to see some of it make sense.
I imagine there to be an ideal reader. Across the planet there must be a few thousand people who would fit my description of her or him. They are what writers like me are looking for.
The first attribute of my ideal reader is Impatient curiosity, someone with a sense that the stories they are hearing around them right now are not quite right.
The second attribute would be a desire to form or change an opinion. I cannot imagine it is worth reading my books to get confirmation of what you already know. The desire for a change must burn pretty bright, which means the perfect reader will be thinking through many issues beside the ones I raise.
Patience and open mindedness don't go together very well yet a good reader has to be open minded as well as being bloody minded. That person will let go of treasured assumptions reluctantly, only after a fight, but they will complete the act of letting go as they wrestle with new information.
Finally the perfect reader will be in awe of information. There is so much we don't know and there are so many stories where the appearance of reason has been patched together that in the end the good reading experience is to know information is over-abundant and to be happy to see some of it make sense.
NANO - Or Writing the Detail
This is an introductory post, a welcome and an explanation.
If you've read any of my work whether the books here or my Forbes blog or Gigaom reports and various white papers, thank you. They don't attract a huge audience so you might be wondering why I write them.
A few years ago I interviewed Steven Klepper. Klepper's book Experimental Capitalism does not fully do justice to his life's work or obsessions but it gives a hint.
He researched in the most exacting detail. His research took many years and his knowledge of industry change was profound yet he did not have a huge following and rarely appeared in thinkers' top 50 lists. It was all about the work.
I found myself drawn to the task. I've spent a good few years in the field of opinion, writing daily stuff and trying to win an audience. But this other way seemed to offer more fulfilment.
I am trying to get deep into the detail of why things change - what things?
On the surface it may seem like I am writing books about business. Really I am writing about wealth creating activity.
The important difference is that business is about entrepreneurs and their markets. Wealth creating activity involves all of us.
In Platform Disruption Wave there is a chapter about how experiences is changing. The reason I wrote it is because sentient experience is central to wealth creation. Changes to experience determine what is wealth enhancing or not.
But above all what I am hoping to do is tell the story of change in enough detail that it becomes compelling and somewhat obvious. Right now we all have an opinion and a channel to express it. I hope the detail goes beyond my opinion and might change yours.
If you've read any of my work whether the books here or my Forbes blog or Gigaom reports and various white papers, thank you. They don't attract a huge audience so you might be wondering why I write them.
A few years ago I interviewed Steven Klepper. Klepper's book Experimental Capitalism does not fully do justice to his life's work or obsessions but it gives a hint.
He researched in the most exacting detail. His research took many years and his knowledge of industry change was profound yet he did not have a huge following and rarely appeared in thinkers' top 50 lists. It was all about the work.
I found myself drawn to the task. I've spent a good few years in the field of opinion, writing daily stuff and trying to win an audience. But this other way seemed to offer more fulfilment.
I am trying to get deep into the detail of why things change - what things?
On the surface it may seem like I am writing books about business. Really I am writing about wealth creating activity.
The important difference is that business is about entrepreneurs and their markets. Wealth creating activity involves all of us.
In Platform Disruption Wave there is a chapter about how experiences is changing. The reason I wrote it is because sentient experience is central to wealth creation. Changes to experience determine what is wealth enhancing or not.
But above all what I am hoping to do is tell the story of change in enough detail that it becomes compelling and somewhat obvious. Right now we all have an opinion and a channel to express it. I hope the detail goes beyond my opinion and might change yours.
