Branching off from the Kellogg patent insides, I started reading histories of stereotyping.
1. From Gutenberg’s movable type through the long line of inventors who repeatedly REdiscovered stereotyping, a pattern emerges clearly. Each inventor tried to keep the process secret through oaths (NDAs) and patents and copyrights. When the inventor died the process died with him, because he didn’t allow it to spread freely.
The papier-mache process finally became the universal standard in 1860 after the London Times followed what we now call ‘copyleft’ rules. They worked hard to improve the process, and communicated every new improvement to other printers as soon as they knew it worked.
Gutenberg was a notable exception, but not by his own decision. He swore his employees to secrecy, which lasted for 10 years… UNTIL a pointless battle between neighboring Archbishops** burned down the town where Gutenberg lived. He and the employees survived, but the company and the oaths were gone. The employees swarmed all over Europe creating their own printing plants.
Reminds me of the trees that rely on forest fires to break open their seeds and repopulate the forest.
If you want your ideas to survive, skip copyrights. A copyright blocks the spread of an idea, and the “rights” can die when a company goes bankrupt or simply decides to stop reproducing the content.
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2. Pursuing status is another guaranteed way to fail, unless you’re in charge of the conversation that controls fashion. If you’re GM or Blackrock or Disney you can do things purely for status because you’re writing the laws and determining who gets to participate. If you’re not a giant, you’re always better off in the back room.
Small towns and farmers are PERMANENTLY low status. For thousands of years the conversation controllers have mocked and dismissed peasants. Kellogg supplied country weeklies with high quality material that they couldn’t afford to write and edit. His company and the other preprint services lasted from 1865 to 1925, then faded when country weeklies faded with increasing urbanization. At the peak around 1920, he was sending stereotype plates weekly to 5000 newspapers.
This pattern was constantly repeated in the auto industry. Passenger cars, especially luxury cars, are a status symbol. Small companies always started by pursuing status. Smart companies soon realized that they were vulnerable to sabotage and trickery by GM and Ford. Even without the sabotage, a small company simply can’t keep up with the vagaries of fashion. Successful companies found an unglamorous way to supply steady needs, often as a supplier to GM and Ford.
George Romney said it best. When a reporter asked him if he was embarrassed that his Rambler customers drove in the slow lane, he answered “I don’t care, as long as there are a lot of them.”
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** Another reminder that we’re back in medieval times. Our archbishops are called “presidents”, and they’re still burning down cities to score points for their indistinguishable battling theologies.
Polistra's Mill 