During my recent lovefest with business books, specifically ones that can be categorized under economics, I've been giving good word-of-mouth to almost everything I've read - Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, Blink, Made To Stick, The Economic Naturalist. I followed some recommendations online which lead me to The Long Tail, which is pretty ironic since The Long Tail discusses recommendations online at great length. I just finished it last night and it took me forever to read because I just couldn't get into it. I started a new book last night when I finished The Long Tail and to compare my enthusiasm for it, I'm already on page 68. When I am interested in something, I'll get through it very quickly. My issue with The Long Tail is simple - it didn't need to be a book. It started as an article in Wired, which I subscribe to and enjoy, and it should have stayed that way. We get it. The hits are the head, everything else is the tail. With the advent of the internet and unlimited virtual shelf space - the tail never ends. If you add up all the sales of the tail items - it can be a significant chunk of the entire pie. That about sums it up. Anderson dissects buying music, books and dvds online as they exemplify the Long Tail perfectly. I just felt like the same examples were used over and over to the point where I wanted to just turn pages without reading them, which is really weird for me when dealing with newer books on subjects like this. I think I can sum up why I feel the way I do about the book like this: I've been online since 1994 and I've been net shopping since the beginning. A lot of topics in the book have been lunch topic material for me and my friends for a long time. I guess if you "get" the concepts in the book or already accept them - there isn't much more to gain from reading it. However, if you are new to this arena or interested in learning more about how items are chosen for distribution through places like Wal-Mart....pick it up. It's not a bad book at all and I don't want to give that impression, in fact he has great quotes from a ton of bigtime net players on the jacket, it's just that if you already accept the theory of TLT and understand it and the possibilities that come from it, you aren't going to gain a ton of new info from it.
Showing posts with label the long tail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the long tail. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
The Long Winded
During my recent lovefest with business books, specifically ones that can be categorized under economics, I've been giving good word-of-mouth to almost everything I've read - Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, Blink, Made To Stick, The Economic Naturalist. I followed some recommendations online which lead me to The Long Tail, which is pretty ironic since The Long Tail discusses recommendations online at great length. I just finished it last night and it took me forever to read because I just couldn't get into it. I started a new book last night when I finished The Long Tail and to compare my enthusiasm for it, I'm already on page 68. When I am interested in something, I'll get through it very quickly. My issue with The Long Tail is simple - it didn't need to be a book. It started as an article in Wired, which I subscribe to and enjoy, and it should have stayed that way. We get it. The hits are the head, everything else is the tail. With the advent of the internet and unlimited virtual shelf space - the tail never ends. If you add up all the sales of the tail items - it can be a significant chunk of the entire pie. That about sums it up. Anderson dissects buying music, books and dvds online as they exemplify the Long Tail perfectly. I just felt like the same examples were used over and over to the point where I wanted to just turn pages without reading them, which is really weird for me when dealing with newer books on subjects like this. I think I can sum up why I feel the way I do about the book like this: I've been online since 1994 and I've been net shopping since the beginning. A lot of topics in the book have been lunch topic material for me and my friends for a long time. I guess if you "get" the concepts in the book or already accept them - there isn't much more to gain from reading it. However, if you are new to this arena or interested in learning more about how items are chosen for distribution through places like Wal-Mart....pick it up. It's not a bad book at all and I don't want to give that impression, in fact he has great quotes from a ton of bigtime net players on the jacket, it's just that if you already accept the theory of TLT and understand it and the possibilities that come from it, you aren't going to gain a ton of new info from it.
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