Welcome to the home of Noah Brier. I'm the co-founder of Variance and general internet tinkerer. Most of my writing these days is happening over at Why is this interesting?, a daily email full of interesting stuff. This site has been around since 2004. Feel free to get in touch. Good places to get started are my Framework of the Day posts or my favorite books and podcasts. Get in touch.

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The Shotgun Approach

I’ve said this in the past (a little here, a bit more here), but I generally think the best approach to web success is lots of little ideas which you see through. In my mind this fits perfectly with both the ideas that most stuff is random and that everything is relative.

Anyway, Kevin Allison has a nice piece in the FT about businesses using this approach as their primary strategy. He explains, “some entrepreneurs factor the unexpected into their business models, eschewing business plans that rely on a single big idea. Instead, they set up companies in which small teams of engineers work on several ideas simultaneously. The hope is that one or two will take off – a ‘shotgun’ rather than a ‘sniper’ strategy.

January 19, 2009