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Don't consider yourself deviant? Well, that just may be a career breaker. Deviance is nothing more than a marked separation from the norm. It is the kind of breakthrough thinking that creates new markets and tumbles traditional ones.
The Deviant's Advantage describes how deviance proceeds along a traceable trajectory from the Fringe, where it originates but has zero commercial potential; to the Edge, where word of mouth creates a limited audience; to the Realm of the Cool, where the buzz and market momentum really start to build; to the Next Big Thing, where demand is honed and intensifies; finally landing at Social Convention, the heart of the mass market.
Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker, two of America's most respected futurists, trace the "Path of the Devox" (the voice, spirit, or incarnation of deviant ideas, products, and individuals), using it as a way to explain how and why:
Mathews and Wacker also look at what happens to formerly deviant products and ideas after they are replaced by the next wave from the Fringe - how they morph into Cliche (where their commercial potential may actually increase), become Icons or even Archetypes, or fade into Oblivion, and how you can profitably manage even a fading concept.
Looking for the next big idea for your business? Quit staring at the Social Convention for inspiration and start scouring the Fringes of society. Tomorrow's breakthrough concept is lurking in the mind of a deviant individual. Your choice is simple: find it and exploit it, or be buried by those who do.
The Deviant's Advantage ...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How to Achieve "Permanent Transformation",
By
This review is from: The Deviant's Advantage: How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets (Hardcover)
Mathews and Wacker explain that, by definition, "deviant" and "deviance" refer to "someone or something operating in a defined measure away from the norm....[therefore] everything that is different is deviant." They go on to observe that positive deviance can be a "force for transformation" whereas negative deviance can be a "source of unspeakable evil." In the context of this volume, deviance "irrigates the imagination; offers an inexhaustible font of new ideas, products, and services; and in the end, is the source of all innovation, new market creation, and, for business, ultimately represents the basis of all incremental profit. Deviance equals innovation and innovation equals opportunity. Opportunity creates markets that in turn are destroyed by deviance." Mathews and Wacker assert that deviance follows a linear pattern: Fringe > Edge > Realm of the Cool > Next Big Thing > Social Convention > Cliché > Icon or Archetype or Oblivion. In other words, what began "operating in a defined measure away from the norm" eventually becomes the norm and thus vulnerable to something else "operating in a defined measure away from the norm" which eventually....You get the idea. Mathews and Wacker describe the voice, spirit, or incarnation of deviance with a neologism, the devox. Used as a metaphor, the devox illustrates that "things have changed -- and continue to change -- at such a rate that conventional language is no longer an effective tool for describing what's going on around around us." Nor can then conventional language describe what has yet to occur. "Remember the first rule of the devox: Nothing's more foolish than conventional wisdom." Of the ten themes which Mathews and Wacker examine (see pages 10-12), for me the most powerful is what they characterize as "the Abolition of Context" which occurs when Social Convention has eroded to the point at which it loses its authority to define reality for the society it theoretically describes. As context is abolished, the challenge is to build a new culture "and this demands a whole new set of plans and equipment. We need new language to communicate what we're about. We need to get beyond the wisdom of the ages and learn how to embrace the wisdom of the moment. We need to toss out the standards and design new standards." In this context, Mathews and Wacker do not limit their attention to the business world; rather, to the entire global culture within which business is conducted throughout the world. They insist that "real diversity" is all about ideas, perspectives, and sometimes good old fashioned weirdness, not race, age or gender." Deviance will abolish context with or without our permission. "The endgame is that there is no endgame. The goal is permanent transformation, not one-time self-definition." Mathews and Wacker conclude their book with a brief but insightful analysis of what they call "the public faces of deviance": the Trickster, the Clown, the Wizard or Magician, the Shaman, the Seer, Mystics, Visionaries, the Saboteur, the Provocateur, the Monk, the Hermit, and the Mendicant. "We saved the best deviant for last": the Fool who combines elements of the Clown, the Provocateur, the Saboteur, the Magician, and the Trickster. For those who have not as yet read the book, I realize that these are merely names of creatures who, in an entirely different context, would perhaps torment Batman and Robin. In fact, as Mathews and Wacker carefully explain in the final chapter, they are change agents who -- together -- can help us to initiate and then sustain "permanent transformation." How? Please allow Mathews and Wacker the opportunity to respond to that critically important question. For many readers, I think this may well be the most thought-provoking book they have read in many years and that may remain true for years to come. Were a higher rating available, I would give it.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
CUSTOMER REVIEWS , SO SO WRONG,
By DOUG BLANCHARD (Providence, Rhode Island) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Deviant's Advantage: How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets (Hardcover)
I haven't even finished the book and i can't disagree more with the reviews people have written here. My question is, should it really have been marketed as a "business" book. I would classify it as a book worthy required reading for an American Studies course. It fits in with the idea of "the other", people who had "deviant" ideas and thru their actions propelled society to move ahead. These deviances then become the so called "norm". They move society/culture whether it be "pop culture" or products. Hmmm? does America have "culture" other than "pop culture" which is so tied in with consumerism. I think this book is more for the creative thinkers/artists etc. than for business people or people who want to "cash in" on an idea. This book is for people who as kids did NOT color within the lines. I found out about the book thru a radio show interview that was so interesting. This is the type of book that you don't read in one sitting. It is not a "get rich" quick book. duh!!! This is a book where you can read one concept/idea they have pushed forth and you put the book down and "THINK" about it. I think it is brilliant.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who is Normal, Who is Not.,
By
This review is from: The Deviant's Advantage: How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets (Hardcover)
I read the three reviews on this book and they are all correct to some extent. It is a refreshing book but presented without a clear thread to their proposition; it does formalise how new ideas move from the cult fringe to mainstream everyday but does not provide a model of how this can be used; it does provide "outside the square" thinkers with a purposeful justification of their right to want to implement new ideas, but it does leave a lot of insights short of the "so what" end point.If you are someone who likes working in the unclear world of the creative ground breaker, this is a book worth having. If you are afraid of losing or quiting your job for an idea, then leave this alone - it is not your cup of tea at all. The creative will find the layout challenging but will probably ignore the dead ends and enjoy the journey through the ideas and examples. Worth the money if you are the deviant thinker in the team - you know who you are because all the other people are normal and just want to do the job that the boss wants and you want to deliver what the boss (and the customer) really needs.
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