This is becoming real on many levels.

It can be true in terms of the long tail, someone’s art,* business, and a person’s life.

Iincreasing understanding doesn’t lead to being a know-it-all, but to becoming a connector, maven, or marketer.**  Humility means it’s the development of skill which is focused on, not the packaging.

‘Creativity is a skill and a habit.  You need to learn and practice the skill, which then becomes a habit.^

I love this because it holds out the hope of increasing understanding for anyone.

When we follow our curiosities, develop practices, take these deeper, then we create habits of skill.  It means there are as many creativities as there are people.  Being informed by something beyond ourselves – a value, a need, a philosophy, a god – can turns this into something even more groundbreaking and impactful.

None of this implies great size.

This is an infinite game, welcoming as many as possible to play and keeping the game going for as long as possible.*^

‘Today, you can have a narrow movement, a tiny movement, a movement in a silo.’^^

(*For long tails think, Etsy, Pinterest, NoiseTrade and more.)
(**In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell names three kinds of people who make a difference: connectors know lots of people and get a buzz from connecting them; mavens know lots of things and love to share helpful things in the right places; and salespeople love to see someone won over and joining them in what they love – I offer marketer as an alternative term, though am still looking for a better one.)
(^From Edward de Bono’s How to Have a Beautiful Mind.)
(^^From Seth Godin’s Tribes.)
(*^For more on infinite games, check out James Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games.)