Lesson from Middle-earth

My wife is a The Lord of the Rings fan. Naturally, our honeymoon had to take place in New Zealand.

While I’m not a huge fan originally, visiting Weta Workshop and Hobbiton struck me.

Probably not for the reason you would think though.

Dissecting Sauron’s armor, or smelling the fire inside a lovely Hobbit-hole, is super cool.

There’s no such thing as a skinny Hobbit.

However, what really stayed with me is the time invested to build something that lasts.

We are hedonists and storytellers, which for most people opposes the productivity required to earn a paycheck. More often than not, working means following the Pareto principle as much as possible.

Though like most rules, it exists to guide us, not bind us.

Hence, when I learned that 90% of the props that are made for Hobbiton or The Lord of the Rings aren’t reaching production, it tickles me.

It’s not « productive » by modern standards… Or is it?

Tolkien created billions of dollars of value with The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and derivatives.

This marvel cost him a lot. More than 10 years, just to write The Lord of the Rings.

Of course, it took thousands of people to make the movies, sell the merchandise, or build the games.

Now imagine he’d been « productive » about it. Three years instead of ten. Would the books have been as good? Would any of the rest have happened at all?

Naturally, if the output were the same, faster would always win.

Building « cool stuff, » as Richard Taylor would say, takes time. More importantly, it takes trials and errors.

In any case, it matters way less for things that scale.

If you are reading this (thank you by the way!), you may know I love building SaaS, because it scales.

It feels like a video game, with some luck in it as well. You can play, and play, and eventually, something is remarkable enough for people to use.

But you know what’s more scalable than SaaS? Writing a book.

Sure, maybe not in total possible revenue. Even J.K. Rowling won’t be close to Elon Musk.

Still, Elon Musk has to hire and manage a lot of people to get there. A writer can get a publisher, and royalties… that’s pretty much it, if you want to handle it minimally.

Above all, a book doesn’t need to be updated.

You can always do some tweak, add another book, but the core of it won’t budge. Whether you like it or not.

So why is it interesting?

Well, I’m pretty sure we can draw a parallel between a product’s quality and its scalability. The issue is real life: you have to pay employees to develop the code, or pay yourself enough to live decently if you’re a writer.

Therefore, one should aim to invest as much as possible, without getting killed, or living a horrible life. The goal being to create the best product possible. Whether it’s a book or a piece of software.

Of course, software is different, because it can’t last without evolving, so the balance is harder to find. But until the product is so good it prints money by itself, investing more is probably the best course of action possible. Invest money and time: your precious.

Attempting to build something that lasts probably won’t work the first time. It’s still worth trying.

After all, doing business in Middle-earth might get you killed.
Selling stuff about Middle-earth might make you rich.

Either way, the journey is the fun part. Not everything cool lasts. But the things that last should at least try to be cool.