tl;dr: How to bring new ideas to market.

My boss at Sprinklr, Ragy Thomas, used to give me the simplest advice: “Same, but different.”

When introducing a new idea, particularly if you are the innovator, you can’t just start with “let me tell you about this new thing and why it’s so amazing.”

Instead, you have to ground them with something familiar, something they already know.

From there, you can explain how it’s like the the thing they already know, but different in this particular way.

That’s why e-mail is a good name. So is e-commerce. Now, it’s obvious, but when it first came out, it wasn’t.

This came to mind for me recently because I just started Adam Grant’s new book, Think Again.

Grant, as you may recall, is the author of The Originals, which is a great book (and which I blogged about here).

On page 31 of the hardcover version, Grant writes:

“Research shows that when people are resistant to change, it helps to reinforce what will stay the same. Visions for change are more compelling when they include visions of continuity.”

I thought this was a powerful way of summarizing the idea, but giving a bit more meat behind it.

Provide some stability first, then explain the future state.

Maybe that’s why explaining Bitcoin/crypto is so challenging, but that’s a topic for another day.