The Dull Blanket of Sameness

When an industry starts to become cannibalistic and incestuous, it might be a good time
to walk away.

We’ve seen
it in a number of fields, from comedy to publishing to consulting to
entertainment. 

People start feeding off and breeding with their own kind, inhaling
each other’s fumes, building business models around each other, sharing
the same stories, being guests on each other’s shows, living in each other’s pockets, swapping
customers and saturating the market. And because these folks meet most of
their needs inside the boundaries of their own family, playing nothing but
inside ball, they eventually isolate themselves from the outside world and retreat
into an effortless, airless,
echo chamber stroke fest.

The result is
an infinite regression, a dull blanket of sameness draped over an entire industry, where people’s
willingness to listen and stretch and expand is muted.

That’s when
it’s time to move on.