Lately I’ve watched rooms full of people get genuinely excited about an idea. Like, actually excited. And then not approve it.
The excitement was real. So was the fear. And the fear wins out.
And then six months later what do we see? Something running that nobody hates but also nobody remembers.
Bold ideas are easy to love in a conference room and impossible to approve in one. And it’s such a trap! The thrill of the idea without the courage to actually make it real.
I genuinely don’t think the problem is bad taste. Most of the people in those rooms have great taste. They know what bold and exciting looks like when it’s shown to them. The problem is that the system rewards the person who killed the risky thing a lot more than it punishes the person who never made anything worth talking about.
So we keep making stuff that’s fine. There’s too much fine going around.