PROTOPILOT
I just finished reading Survival is not Enough
Two little pieces of this memetic puzzle he's built jumped up and bit me on the nose: "The Power of Prototypes" and "Better Beats Perfect".
"The Power of Prototypes"
Writes Godin, "Prototypes are, by definition, rough drafts, designed to be wrong, not right." He suggests a radical approach to prototyping: do a lot of it, and hang them out for everyone to see. He cites the success Chrysler has had with rolling out mind-blowing concept cars (The Viper, The Prowler, the PT Cruiser.)
"Better Beats Perfect"
"Isaac Asimov wrote a new book every six weeks. Some of the books were classics, some were merely good. All of them, however, were far better than the books J. D. Salinger never wrote." It's dumb to wait until something is "perfect" before launching it. "Perfect" can take a lifetime to achieve. Get your product out, and fine tune it over time.
This reminds me of something a college professor once told me. "You have to know when to say 'that's good enough' and just walk away from the canvas." Words of wisdom.
I'm also reminded of an anecdote from Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without a Crew
So in this spirit, I've decided to go ahead and just shoot my first episode. No more waiting until I "really know what I'm doing." (I'd be waiting a long time.)
BUT, I'm building in a safety net: I'm calling this first episode a "protopilot." Sort of a combination of the terms "prototype" and "pilot." The idea is, this is going to be rough. It's sort of like a previsualization, but intended to be seen by the [gulp] public-at-large.
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