Free the ghost in the machine

The Pirate's Dilemma isn't out till May (although if anyone wants to send me an advance copy, it will be gladly received), but everything I've come across so far from author Matt Mason suggests it will be well worth reading.

There's a blog here; a presentation on the thinking in the book here; and an interview with Steve Hardy of Creative Generalist here.

From this, I particularly liked a bit about remixers (of all types, not just music), and how they are inspired by the 'ghosts in the machine': the background 'white noise' that exists in all products and markets, but which often goes unnoticed until a remixer comes along and unlocks the hidden benefits contained within...

"One of the major benefits of the remix is its ability to eke out the “ghosts in the machine.” In music, ‘ghosts in the machine’ is a term producers use to describe the happy accidents that occur when sampling an old sound. Some of the best bits of samples are the white noise that is recorded unintentionally - hidden information in the audio that distorts and makes itself heard when the sample is changed in some way. Remixing allows us to find the ghosts in all kinds of machines, not just the ones that create music. We can find these same original elements of innovation inside business models, and pull out and amplify the weird and interesting noises nobody thought to look for in the first place. Letting others remix our ideas too further increases our chances for finding the ghosts. Letting others remix your work leads to more people pitching with suggestions and ideas, who have a different perspective and can see things that we cannot."

We all have our ghosts. We just can't see or hear them. It needs a remixer without any constraints to come in and set them free. So let the pirates come and play, and benefit from the results.