We’ve recently discovered a webseries on the Penny Arcade site called Extra Credits. It’s not a new series, so we’re having a lot of fun going through the archives.

The series appeals to me first as someone who plays the ocassional video game, and has worked in the software industry for over a decade. Each 5-6 minute episode focuses on an aspect of the video game industry and thoughts about it. Which might sound kind of dull to some of you…

…except as I watch, I’m able to draw so many paralells to publishing. I’m sure over the next few weeks I’ll delve into specific episodes and how I see them relating to this whole getting published thing because 1 – it’s really made me think, and 2 – I’ve run out of my own unique ideas 😛

But one episode stood out above all others for me, and I think it’s because it was dealing more with the business side of things than the creative side. Or rather, because of the business aspect it was specifically addressing.

The episode is Season 3, Ep. 1 – The Pre-Production Problem. The parallels are a little less obvious than with some of the other episodes, but I’ll try and explain my train of thought about this.

In the software industry, at every single company I’ve worked for, there’s a disconnect between planning what will be built, and actually building it. I hear some companies do this very well (for instance, Pixar is mentioned in the video), but in my experience it’s rare. Because it’s difficult.

Part of the issue is (and I’m simplifying here), one group designs the application, and another builds it. The group designing comes up with an idea and says “build this” and the group building say “okay.” And then after the building starts, the design group says “Wait, we changed our mind, build this instead.”

(To steal an analogy from a coworker) Imagine doing this with a house. You draw the blueprint, approve it, and hand it to the builder. If you decide to move the bathroom before he starts building, it’s easy. You take it off the blueprint and put it somewhere else. Okay, not easy, easy, but much easier than deciding once the plumbing is all in place and the fixtures have been installed.

And there are endless discussions about how to fix the issue. There are plans, and conversations, and meetings and ideas. And a lot of them are really good ideas. They would work. And everyone knows it. They all say “That’s a good idea, let’s do that right away.”

And for about a week, everyone tries. Maybe for as long as two weeks or a month. But nine times out of ten, in less than four weeks, everyone will be doing things the old way.

Because the issue isn’t finding a solution, the issue is changing the way we think so that we can implement the solution. We’re creatures of habit, change is difficult, especially when it contradicts our core beliefs and the way we’ve lived our lives up until now.

(Wow, this is going on longer than I thought, but I’m wrapping up, I promise).

How this relates to publishing. Everyone is talking about how the industry is changing. Ebooks and readers are becoming more and more popular, adult paperbacks are (slowly) on their way out, self-publishing is a straightforward process (on the surface) and more and more people are moving away from massive corporations to get their books out there.

And everyone has ideas and plans and threats about how the industry is changing and how we can keep up. There are bazillions of solutions and thoughts about it out there. Every day I see more and more posts and articles in my online feeds.

But none of it will happen unless we’re willing to change the way we think. Some people already have. They’ve recognized the need for flexibility, haven’t tied themselves to a single solution, and are trying to find that balance between being proactive and reactive.

I honestly don’t have the solution (I have some ideas, but that’s a very different post), but I know that as long as we continue to view things through the lenses of publishing even five years ago, we won’t be able to keep up. We’ll lose ourselves in our own industry.

The consumer will know what they expect, and we won’t be prepared (as a whole, I do believe some people are perfectly in place for whatever is about to happen) because we haven’t changed our way of thinking to keep up.

What do you think?