They go by different descriptions:-<\/p>\n
” Birds of the same feather, flock together ”<\/p>\n
” Herd mentality ”<\/p>\n
” Collective bias ”<\/p>\n
” Wisdom of the crowds ”<\/p>\n
Agreed. In his book ‘The Descent of Man<\/strong>‘ published in 1871, English naturalist Charles Darwin<\/strong> presented the idea that\u00a0human beings and apes have a common ancestor<\/b>. There’s a simple answer though: Humans did not evolve from chimpanzees<\/b>\u00a0or any of the other great apes that live today. We instead share a common ancestor that lived roughly 10 million years ago.<\/p>\n So much for ‘aping<\/strong><\/em> ‘ then!<\/p>\n Imitating others may not be the way to go. Or copying their tactics<\/strong><\/span>. But tactics, as Neil Gaiman<\/strong> reminds us, can be the subtlest of traps<\/em><\/strong>. Just because others are using a tactic or a tool doesn\u2019t make it the most effective way to accomplish your objective.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, when you copy the \u201cproven\u201d tactics of others, you end up basing your decision only on success stories<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Sure, that photo of hundreds of people waiting in line for Seth Godin<\/strong> to sign books looks impressive. But you\u2019re not Seth Godin<\/strong> (and if you are, I\u2019m a big fan). And you\u2019re not seeing the hundreds of authors who walked into a Barnes & Noble<\/strong> to do a reading only to find a handful of readers waiting for them.<\/p>\n The wiser thing to do maybe to go back to the drawing board and first principles<\/em>. Understand the principle behind a tactic. Zoom out of a conventional tactic and see the other possibilities that escaped your attention. And as we go along, here is what we could learn:<\/p>\n To stop being a hunter-gatherer<\/em> of other people\u2019s tools, tactics, and formulas.<\/p>\n Instead, master the principle behind them.<\/p>\n Once you know what the principle is\u2014once you know the\u00a0why<\/i>\u00a0behind the tactic\u2014you can create your own extraordinary\u00a0how<\/i>.<\/p>\n We assume erasing our fingerprints from our work and following the herd makes it safe.<\/em> We hide behind what\u2019s expected and what\u2019s accepted<\/em><\/span>. We\u2019d rather be wrong collectively\u2014we\u2019d rather fail singing the same gospel song that everyone else is singing\u2014than risk failing individually. So we chase trends, adopt the latest fad, and, as misfortune would have it, walk the line.<\/p>\n The line \u201cno one does it that way<\/em>\u201d stops a conversation before it can bud. This monkey see, monkey do approach<\/em> creates a race to the center. But the center is too crowded with others. Birds of the same feather. In the herd, you rarely get heard.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Becoming extraordinary requires becoming more like yourself\u2014and embracing your own gifts, whatever they maybe.<\/p>\n When you do that, you become a magnet that attracts some people with the same force that it repels others.<\/p>\n The people you attract are your people<\/em>. The others aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t be liked by all and disliked by none.<\/em> If you aim for that unachievable objective, you\u2019ll only reduce the force of your magnet\u2014the very source of your strength.<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t work if it\u2019s a gimmick\u2014if you\u2019re just trying to get attention or zigging simply because everyone else is zagging. This isn\u2019t rule breaking for the sake of rule breaking either\u2014rebelling without a cause against the establishment. Rather, it\u2019s an intentional bending of the rules<\/em>, driven by a desire to live in a way that\u2019s aligned with who you are<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s only by embracing, rather than erasing, your idiosyncrasies\u2014the things that make you extraordinarily you\u2014that\u00a0you<\/i>\u00a0become remarkable<\/em>. Tactics<\/em>\u00a0mean doing what you can with what you have.<\/p>\n Rather than spend several, deeply unproductive days wishing that the universe had dealt you a better hand and going into a canyon of despair, unleash you<\/strong><\/em>. There is an audience waiting. With drum rolls.<\/p>\n You reckon this is a tactic worth pursuing?<\/em><\/p>\n ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They go by different descriptions:- ” Birds of the same feather, flock together ” ” Herd mentality ” ” Collective bias ” ” Wisdom of the crowds ” Agreed. In his book ‘The Descent of Man‘ published in 1871, English naturalist Charles Darwin presented the idea that\u00a0human beings and apes have a common ancestor. There’s … Continue reading “A subtle trap called ‘ tactics ‘”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1166,1169,1159,1172,1164,1165,1160,365,1168,1161,1170,1158,908,1162,571,75,1167,1157,1163,1171],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apes","tag-attract","tag-barnes-noble","tag-books","tag-charles-darwin","tag-chimpanzees","tag-first-principles","tag-herd-mentality","tag-human-beings","tag-hunter-gatherer","tag-magnet","tag-neil-gaiman","tag-possibilities","tag-remarkable","tag-seth-godin","tag-strategy","tag-success-stories","tag-tactics","tag-the-descent-of-man","tag-theory-of-evolution"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}