I can't believe Chris Anderson is still pimping "The Long Tail." (His latest book: "The Longer Tail.") As his website mentions, his initial "The Long Tail" Wired article came out in 2004. OK, we get the concept. Please come up with some new material. Perhaps the fact that he still has an audience for "The Long Tail" books and speaking engagements proves his theory that the long tail does exist.
If tomorrow you come up with a catchy term for a concept that captures the imagination of the business media market and then write a bestseller around that concept -- I guarantee you will still be "pimping" it 4 years from now.
Even though the "concept" is a matter of common sense understandable by any 3rd grader... These "business types" surely know how to blow an average paragraph of text into an article, then into a book, then into a site...
It's almost like the dude discovered that circles are "more round than squares" and makes a career out of it.
Funny, rarely have I heard "excellent" in relation to HBR content. Every issue of HBR magazine tends to be re-hashing of various topics on "Leadership" from issues past. I did read "The Long Tail" so I'll give this one a shot.
I read the comment, which was good. I only wish Anderson himself was more clear about his attitude toward the HBR piece -- he calls it "rock solid" and says that he's sure the analysis is accurate, and then proceeds to say that the author's use of percentages is misleading and he disagrees with the conclusions.
Anderson collaborated with Prof. Elberse and she consulted on the book and came short endorsing it (strange, don't you think?) so Anderson didn't come out with any hard-hiting arguments against her well-researched piece.
Incidentally, Lee Gomes of WSJ pretty much nailed it two years ago:
