On small castles

I was on my way to see a castle in Vienna one Saturday morning when I was interrupted by something spectacular: Another castle. I ended up spending my morning there instead. It's a great reminder that being good and on the way is oftentimes enough.

If you've been to Vienna before, you already know they have a thing for castles. They're everywhere, kinda like Moroccan people. The thing about castles is that even the unknown ones are still very impressive. If you were ranking castles, Versaille would certainly be both #1 and #2. But is it really better?

Being the best is not the only thing that matters because they're not the only component of the experience. For instance, proximity is very important. Access matters... Intimacy, exclusivity... Serendipity matters. Logic dictates that we can't have all at the same time and practice confirms it.

You can't outcompete Versaille on paintings. But you sure as hell can compete on everything else. You don't slay the giant by playing the giant's game. You do it by playing all the other games that size prevents him from playing.

In my experience, a "humble" castle on the way can even be better than Versaille. No lines, no pre-bookings, no crowding, no instreaming morons... Yes, please! You get to stand in front of the painting for as long as you want. You pace yourself. You breath. Maybe you meet a person and have a memorable interaction. You can savor the thing...

I too usually go for the shiny thing. But in my little experience, there are no silver bullets. The best places are overcrowded, and the best widgets are overpriced and the best experiences are booked till kingdom come. It's all equalized somehow. There are no silver bullets. It means that we have a choice.

We can pick what we consume. We can pick what we build. We can all go to Versaille and stand in line in the sun next to American people. Or we can go sit in a cafe down the street and have an equally delightful experience. We can all waste our twenties chasing a unicorn that we can never have for ourselves, or we can contemplate its equally wonderous cousin that is the Zebra.

If you're cursed with chronic ambition and competitiveness like yours truly, then I know you find this rhetoric defeatist and cowardly. I hear you. I think so too 🥳. But then I go into these smaller, relatively unknown castles and churches and I start to adopt a different position. For a moment, competitiveness subsides and I can feel, in my own bones, that the more famous versions are not better. Better is a subjective experience, so we don't have to frame it in objective criteria. We can just experience it.

This is not a call for complacency. I'm just talking about values. Build the biggest company you can muster. It's necessary. Visit the biggest castle you can find. It's Amazing. But in my experience, it's not better. There's a place for a smaller castle on the way.