well, that's what you usually hear from people who strives to be different. they say, why follow others? why don't we be different? why blend with everybody else? why don't we seek our individuality, focus on it, and be different?
but, what happens when everybody tries to be different? then if there's nobody similar, then who's exactly "different"? hmm, that's confusing. let's try it with a familiar analogy, in a very limited context. let's try to imagine about the stock market. ok, i once read a book, about the stock market. and then there is this guy, who has a very simple method of investment. it was a bearish time, and this guy, saw that a lot of people are losing money. so he decided, since everybody is losing money, if you are the opposite, you'll be earning money, right?
so he sets out with his strategy. he started shorting (means selling in advance without buying.. investors will know what i mean) stocks that everybody is buying, and buying stocks that everybody is selling. and he made money, and he made a lot of money.
and he published a book (or gave a speech.. whatever it is), detailing his strategy. before long, everybody tried to go against the market (be different than others) but the problem is.. when everybody tries to be different, who exactly are we trying to be different from? since everybody is different, who is the mainstream? since everybody is trying to be different, and go against the original mainstream, the mainstream now is the people trying to be different, right? so if i try to be different from the people who is trying to be different, wouldn't i end up being in the original mainstream?
needless to say, the strategy backfires and everybody end up losing again.
the morale of the story? if you want to be different, keep it to yourself ;)
