I’ve been doing some contract work for the company over the past month – editing together a video of Peter Diamandis pitching the benefits of using HeroX, which you will undoubtedly see on this website before too long.
I was given 18 minutes of Peter’s presentation which I cut down to 3 minutes to make it Internet-attention-span-friendly. I took a documentary approach, asking myself “What is his message?”, “How does he want the viewer to react?” and “What’s the shortest route from his intention to the action on screen?”
And in doing this, I discovered that my approach was not unlike the purpose of the company. What is the shortest route from someone’s intentions to someone’s actions?
The defining moment of this video, for me, is when, in describing the benefits of crowd-sourced challenges, Peter says, “When you’re looking for a needle in a haystack, it brings the needle to you.” I’m sure he’s not the first person to use this metaphor and likely won’t be the last. But damn if that ain’t the best metaphor I’ve heard in a very long time.
The truth is we are all needles in a haystack for somebody. Some of us might be a needle for many. Some of us might be a needle for just one, who in turn might be a needle for many. The trick is breaking down whatever obstacles exist between the needles and the needle-seeker. And that’s where companies like HeroX ultimately become necessary.
There are too many sources of content fighting for a share of our eyeballs. We’re inundated with advertising and messages and calls to action. We’re overwhelmed with videos of events in which “you won’t believe what happened next!” We’ve been link baited, rick rolled, and catfished. According to a San Diego Supercomputer Center study released late last year, US media consumption will rise to 15.5 hours/day by 2015. Per day!… Sleep much?
Curators are required to balance this content saturation. And to me, forward-thinking human that I am, that’s what a company like HeroX provides – the curation of some of those things that are worth giving our attention to.
I’m glad I made it to this haystack.
Art: Wheatstacks (End of Summer), by Claude Monet
