Podchaser

The internet removed the gatekeepers. Instead of having to get approval from someone in authority, now creating something of significant quality, and generously spreading the word about it is important.

However, rhe hunt to put the gatekeepers back in the building is on. In nearly every industry, someone is looking to building a recommendation engine. Somewhere online where people can go to find out who they should hire, what they should listen to, or the next video to watch.

The thing is by keeping these gatekeepers weak, competition is encouraged. Succeeding in a competitive environment requires generosity, innovation, and quality execution. It means being better than the competition. That’s a good thing for the consumer.

In a quest to make things easy for consumers and easy for creators, society seeks out the gatekeepers. Podchaser is looking to be a recommendation engineer for podcasts. I hope that society can resist bringing these back in full force. While it’s easy to approach a gatekeeper and say, “Can I be on your platform?” Then after the yes or no, move on with the rest of your life in exuberance, or declare it was never in the stars for you. It’s ultimately better for the consumer if everyone can compete and drop out when they feel it’s not working, or double down when it is.

For quality to rise, it’s much better to allow any of those who want to show up with their work. Showing it to those who are interested for years and decades and letting the good things spread and the bad things fizzle. Let our culture be the gatekeeper. If society thinks something is good, it will undoubtedly spread, that’s what the smartphone in our pocket is for. If it’s not good, it won’t spread.

The only gatekeepers we need are individual persistence and culture.

P.S. This thought is about things like entertainment which are not life critical. This isn’t a post about anarchy, or hate for government or anything that may be perceived like that.