
Doing the opposite of everyone is valuable - jackchristopher
http://sivers.org/contrarian
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pie
Perhaps "finding opportunities to be unique" would be a better way to describe
this concept. Doing the opposite of everyone else sounds like a profoundly bad
idea when applied to many, many things.

This stirs up some of the sense of irony found in business-friendly phrases
like "think outside the box."

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jamesbritt
Trying to figure out what "opposite" is can be a challenge.

Everyone is building Web apps; what's the opposite? Phone apps? Brick-and-
mortar services?

Many things don't have a proper opposite. Like when people say that "pepper"
is the opposite of "salt". You _know_ that's not true, but the actual
opposites is ... complicated.

~~~
wooby
The definition of "everyone" is even more difficult than "opposite," I think.
If the definition of "everyone" is "most people on the planet," then
developing Web apps is as close to the opposite of subsisting in a developing
country I can think of.

This post is a pretty useless generalization, notable only because the guy who
wrote it is wildly successful. And somehow, we're supposed to learn something
from it -- "Thanks."

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psyklic
The article is half-true. Doing something opposite everyone else is only
valuable if you create demand for it, or if (very rarely) everyone realizes
its worth.

Just as with everything else, it comes down to marketing. In popular areas,
you market how you are different from competitors. In unpopular areas, you
market how what you do is of value.

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rokhayakebe
Here is one thing you can do that 95% of web startups aren't: "add a Pricing
page "

