Welcome to the hobby economy

Economists don’t know what to do about it.

It’s hard to measure, hard to quantify and a little odd to explain.

More and more people are spending more and more time (and money) on pursuits that have no pay off other than satisfaction.

"Why should you have a blog?" they ask. "How are you going to make any money?"

"Why post your photos on flickr?" they wonder. "You don’t get compensated by people who see them." Or your garage band’s songs on an MP3 site. Or spending time and money on projects like: The Basket Book: Over 30 Magnificent Baskets To Make and Enjoy.

Of course, economists don’t really worry about this. They understand perfectly well that economics is able to easily explain that human beings pursue things that satsify them.

What the web is doing, though, is exposing lots of avenues for people to use to find satisfaction (but not necessarily cash). Make magazine is page after page of geek projects that are fun, but not profitable. Other sites make it easy for you to build a tube amplifier or splice your own DNA.

Now that white-collar workers regularly spend 75 hours a week at work (did you know the CEO of GE has been spending more than 100 hours a week–for twenty years?!) there’s plenty of time to surf the web and get paid for it.

Human battering rams

Yesterday I was cold-called by a telemarketer from the (formerly) prestigious Roundabout Theatre Company. This morning, it was phone spam from my bank (when I told her it was okay to send me a brochure, she said, please tell me…

Not just trash, but attractive trash…

and sometimes in Spanish. Check out these new handbags….

Great Marketers are Architects

A friend sent me this note yesterday: Seth,happy holidays to you and familyAfter much thought I want to go after a senior marketingperson ,Obviously you might know of someone. any thoughts? if youdo send my way . salary plus percentage…

Who’s that wearing the Spurs jersey?

Ernie Mosteller has a riff about Southwest’s home page… an image that’s all about Southwest, and not one bit about Ernie. tangelo ideas - erniesblog: November 2005….

Suprising Thanksgiving Statistics

We were away for thanksgiving this year. First, I have to apologize for not using current blogging etiquete and telling you before I wasn’t going to write. Second, we had a great dinner and time with my family about 3 hours south of us. It’s been a while since we spent time [...]

A Norwegian analysis of web 2.0

Flickr wins because of timing/story/openness, not by being first: A classic web2.0 case….

Can more than 50% be wrong?

12,000 people have taken a blind taste test. You do a search you’re familiar with, it shows you the results from Google, MSN and Yahoo. Which is the most relevant, it asks? Almost 60% of those tested said that Yahoo…