By: Paul Sadler

Paul Sadler — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 23:21:44 +0000

Cool article, as always! I wonder, at times, if most of what we see is simply swarming behaviour, kind of like seeing those great clouds of bats flying at duck, swirling and turning. That if we look at a certain area, it looks like Glocal; if we look at a different segment in time, it looks like “think global, buy/act local” (TGBL); if we look at another, chaos; and step back, patterns start to emerge, even if they aren’t subject to predictive algorithms but only descriptive analysis (what was, not what will be). I find it hard to tell if something is truly “new” or simply it started to turn a bit upward and started what looks like a new pattern that will eventually fall back on itself.

While you like looking forward at the music area, I like looking “back” so to speak to other genres. Etsy/creative types who make crafts and things to sell. Etsy pushed it global, so much so that it is almost chaos…it is almost impossible to figure out who is “local” on Etsy and who is based somewhere overseas. There are a couple specific things I would like from a creative genre, but all of the producers on Etsy are all over US or overseas, where my shipping would be 3x what the price of the actual item is. There’s no option to specify “just Canadian creatives”.

But outside of Etsy, many of them look like newbie authors. Farmer’s markets, community groups, local retailers, community events…and if they got noticed, it could “build a brand” into something more commercially viable. I follow some of the homebrew 3D space, and it is amazing how many people are making things to sell having NO idea what they’re doing in terms of a business — like literally, they produced a product, selling it at the farmer’s market for $8, which they are happy about because it only cost them $6 to print. Except they haven’t factored in failed prints that they got no money for, the electricity to run the machine, the gas to go to the market, the rental cost for the table at the market, signage, and just the wear and tear on the machine that will have to be replaced. And fast-forward 12m and they realize they’ve spent a year on their side hustle with almost no profit to show for it. Not quite an empire. While it seems different, I know, they basically need the same guidance you give to authors about seeing their output as a business. 60% of your advice would likely directly apply.

Interestingly, I also shadow board game designers, DIYers, Print ‘N’ Play, etc. I see indy game designers (of which there are 1000s), and I feel if publishing is 10y behind music, physical games are about 10-15y behind. They’re struggling with customs, shipping, paying for production, managing quality issues, prototyping, etc. Eventually, 3D printing will disrupt that even more and reduce many of their internal challenges, but as I follow discussions in various DIY gamer groups, it’s amazing how similar it feels to emerging authors of 2012-2015. Complete with scammers who promise production and to have the toys in the stores by Xmas, etc. only to find out the company / designer is 2-3y behind promised schedules for other game designers.

The picture isn’t very clear to me, but I love your insights that I often try to port to other areas too. 🙂

Comments on: Glocalization (Generational Change)

By: Paul Sadler