Patience vs. Quality

I had the pleasure of sitting with my teenage daughter the other night as she started watching her latest series on Netflix. She sat on the couch with the remote control in her hand and would quickly scan through the program every few minutes if it slowed down, the scenes changed too slowly, or if there was an overused theme in the conversation between characters. After I, the "dopey old dad," asked her why she lacked the patience to watch the entire program (warts and all) and appreciate the nuances of each scene building up to an eventual climax, I began to realize how the consumption of content has made patience a dispensable element of society!

Whether it's our desire for food, watching a game or movie, going on a date, ordering clothes, or banking, we demand instant gratification, or else we lose interest. Patience seems to have become obsolete. I understand that in today's rapidly evolving world, change is seen as positive, and I'm on board with that. However, how much quality are we sacrificing to satisfy the never-ending demand for content? And at what cost?

The unprecedented demand for high-quality content has created a competitive market where creators and providers strive to capture and retain their audience's attention. To meet these expectations, content producers have resorted to various techniques to make their offerings more captivating, visually appealing, and easily digestible. Attention-grabbing headlines, clickbait tactics, and rapid-fire editing have become commonplace, all aimed at satisfying our insatiable desire for immediate gratification.

However, my question is not so much about the "what" but the "why." Has patience truly vanished, or is it that our tolerance for poor quality has reached an unprecedented level? Is it always high-quality content that is demanded? If so, as someone who works in the sports, media, and entertainment domain, I face the obvious challenge that the demand for consistent high quality and the pressure to keep up with the fast-paced nature of content creation has never been higher!

It makes you realize just how far we are from Henry Ford's old mantra of "You can have any color car as long as it's black"!

As providers of high-quality content, we need to understand the triggers and engagement programs and realize that having high-quality content is actually more important than having an abundance of mediocre content just to satisfy the insatiable "bear"!

This mindset extends to relationships, work, sports, food, and how we consume everything. We are resorting to throwing more and more spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks, and moving ahead before it even hits the wall. As content producers, we need to understand that the demand will always be fierce, but ensuring that the quality is exceptionally high needs to be the paramount part of the puzzle. Always. Of course, some elements of content will slip through the cracks, but with more strategic planning, roadmapping supported by data and insights, and adjustments made for anticipated obstacles, we can build a North Star that outlines the content roadmap. This allows us to embark on the journey with enough room to navigate through all the detours we encounter.

I would go one step further and argue that as global marketers and content producers in the digital media and interactive engagement sphere, we are shaping society and how we as people interact, more than we can comprehend. Maybe I haven't been as patient as I should have been with many things, but I will never stop learning to improve, and I will never cease striving for the ultimate goal. Because one thing none of us should be is confined to a certain box that makes us easier to interpret!