Enjoy this cool talk by an Australian, Rachel Botsman, about collaborative consumption as a powerful economic force, reinventing both what we consume and how we consume.
Her main point is that in the 20th Century, we became fixated on owning things, when what we really want is not the thing, but the experience that the thing generates.
Once we have made this insight, life becomes a lot simpler and cheaper.
Thus the books and CDs that we all have lying around the house but we can’t bring ourselves to throw away, have latent value to someone else. Now we can easily exchange those for stuff that we want, through swap trading sites like www.swap.com.
Even a few years ago, it would have seemed impossible to trust a total stranger. But Botsman’s research shows how sites like these generate the trust that can enable exchanges between total strangers.
Ultimately we (usually) don’t want the physical CD (although we may be sentimentally attached to some physical CDs). What we want is the musical experience that the CD will generate.
Similarly, the electric drill that I own is something I need only ten minutes a year. For the rest of the year, it’s totally wasted, just taking up space. In reality, even for that ten minutes, I don’t really want a drill: I want a hole. Why not get a drill when I need it?
People who don’t drive much are spending an enormous amount of money just owning a car, when what they really want is not the physical car but rather the convenience of being able to drive somewhere when they need. Firms like zipcar.com are beginning to oblige.
A new world is opening up in which we focus on the experiences that the things generate, not the things themselves. In the process, life becomes simpler and cheaper.
Enjoy!
Very powerful video! So important to step back and try to understand the shift in society caused by technology. This economic downturn is a reset, not a cyclical recession. New economic indicators will emerge from this; they will be based less on consumption and more on qualitative and collaborative metrics.
Posted by: Mike Sporer | January 16, 2011 at 09:30 AM
Thanks Stephen, I loved this video
Gets you thinking a lot!
Posted by: tom gilb | January 17, 2011 at 06:44 PM
Mike
I agree: it's a reset, not a recession.
Steve
Posted by: Steve Denning | January 20, 2011 at 12:12 PM
My addiction i dont want to get rid of... my addiction to THE INTERNET!!! TED is awesome, someday I want to check it out, especially if it's like this http://bitly.com/HIjTPA heck yeah!
Posted by: Mike12 | April 02, 2012 at 09:25 PM