There are lots of cultural lotteries around us. The next pop song, the book that everyone is talking about, the blog post or video that goes viral… it even applies to who gets into a famous college or is selected by the AI screening for a good job.
The usual advice is: Fit in. Copy what came before. Use the fonts, the rhythms and the code words of previous lottery winners. Helpful guides will share the instructions for exactly how long your viral video should be, how it should sound and when you should post it. This goes beyond the cues of genre–it’s the desire to fit in all the way. Culture is partly built on this adherence to what won the lottery last time.
The thing is, though, that all useful bestsellers are surprise bestsellers. They have titles like To Kill a Mockingbird or The Celestine Prophecy (which make no sense until you read the book) or reviews like those the Great Gatsby got at first, or are biographies of people no one cared about (like The Power Broker). It’s movies like 2001 or Memento. Or perhaps a singer like Rickie Lee Jones or Tones & I. It’s the business card that doesn’t fit into a Rolodex (because it doesn’t belong in a Rolodex.)
Someone is going to win the lottery, but with so many people buying tickets, it’s probably not going to be you.
Perhaps the best strategy for lottery tickets is not to buy one.
Your odds go up when you do useful and remarkable work for people who care.
