The Variety Revolution

I find it reassuring that Virginia Postrel, the former Reason editor whose writings on culture and economics are a model of the form, is chronicling "The Variety Revolution", which is a close cousin of The Long Tail. She's just updated her website to include the category of  variety and choice, which currently includes her writings on these subjects going back to 1998. She describes it thus:

The "variety revolution" is one of the biggest business stories of the past decade. Thanks to production and distribution innovations, consumers now have access to far more choices for all kinds of goods and services, from fresh vegetables in the supermarket to DVDs from Netflix. I am exploring the management practices that have made the variety revolution possible, the psychological challenges it poses for consumers, and the opportunities it presents for both future business models and personal pleasure and meaning. The variety revolution is an economic story, but it has much broader implications for how we think about pluralism and individual differences.

Comments

[Douglas Galbi]

Actually, my work on given names suggests that the "variety revolution" started about 200 years ago. At that time in England and Wales, about 24% and 22% of newborn boys and girls were named Mary and John, respectively. In 1994 in England and Wales, the leading names for newborns, Emily and James, were given to 3% and 4% of newborns. For more data going all the way back to before the Norman Invasion in 1066, see "Long Term Trends in Given Name Frequencies" at the Given Name Frequency Project

[lash marks]

Yeah, the big news of the PAST decade. The variety revolution is over in retail, every inch of shelf space is staked and claimed by a multinational conglomerate food chain or clothes manufacturer. Only variety revolution remaining is freeware and blogs, and blogs are fast disappearing as soon as their owners grok server bandwidth expenses.