The Eiffel Tower Principle: Why we first resist change and innovation

There is a tower being built in your city.

How would you feel if someone decided to build a 300 metre tall tower in your neighborhood?

Excited? Upset? Outraged?

A bunch of Parisians in the late 1880’s were not enthused by the idea at all. That’s right — people actually resisted the Eiffel Tower.

Most of us think this is crazy. We understand that the Eiffel Tower has helped to attract millions of visitors to Paris over the last century and a half, and there are few who think of it as anything other than one of the most beautiful human-made landmarks in the world.

But back when there were no towers sticking up in the middle of Paris, when there was no idea of what this structure would be, many resisted it. How could anyone have resisted something that has always been a net positive for Paris?

Protests against the Eiffel Tower

Many were worried that the Eiffel Tower would be an eyesore! It’s easy to laugh at now, because when we build a 300m tower in our neighborhood, we can compare it to the Eiffel Tower. We have a visual and recognisable comparison, a proof-of-concept.

But Parisians did not have this.

This is why 47 notable artists wrote a letter of protest to Gustave Eiffel and members of the World Fair, a translation of which I’ve copied and included below. They labelled it The Tower of Babel. They called it hideous. They worried it would ruin the Parisian skyline. They worried it would fall and crush the other grand monuments of Paris.

In truth it would come to define Paris’ skyline.

We have come, writers, painters, sculptors, architects, passionate enthusiasts of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, to protest with all our strength, all our indignation, in the name of the unknown French taste, in the name of art and of French history threatened, against the erection, in the heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower, which public malignity, often marked by common sense and the spirit of justice, has already named of “Tower of Babel”.

The letter by the 47 artists goes on to discuss Paris’ unrivaled brilliance and beauty throughout the world. It begs the question, how could artists, of all people, protest against something that is so uniformly agreed to be beautiful today?

Let’s deconstruct some of the reasons…

For the rest of this article, please click here to open it up in full.

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Other Thoughts

The Eiffel Tower Principle is an important one for understanding innovation, learning and bias in particular. It is a very good visual model for understanding where and how blind spots pop-up in a predictable fashion.

It also reveals short-term, as a posed to long-term thinking. For example, Peter Thiel is famous for being the first outside investor in Facebook, and as the story goes, he paid attention to user session times on an early, clunky version of the product. That’s what gave him faith that he was looking at an early stage Eiffel Tower being built.

We’re almost two weeks into the Constant Student Pioneers Program, trying to understand how we can make learning and education more of a rewarding and interconnected journey amongst like-minded tribes.

There are less than 30 people in the program, but I’m blown away so far by the reactions, engagement, and contribution of this cohort of young people. Hopefully this is the Eiffel Tower we’ve been looking for.

In truth, I wish we’d run this sort of program a few months earlier. In a blog post this week, I reflected on the importance of catching the first bus, if possible.

That came after working out a hypothetical journey from Sydney (where I am) to Mystery Bay (a coastal paradise some distance away). Using public transport, I noticed there were 8 legs to the journey, the first that began in 3 minutes.

But crucially, if I missed the first bus in 3 minutes, the next journey would not start until 18 hours later!

So… what’s keeping you from catching the first bus?

The later you leave, the later you’ll arrive.

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Other Updates

• Reading recommendations — be sure to check out Walter Isaacson’s biography of Albert Einstein.

• In contemplation of season 2 of the With Joe Wehbe podcast — I’m feeling the call for it.

• I’m still remaining tight-lipped on the release date for our book 18 & Lost? So Were We… but we have almost completed our audiobook recording, which is exciting!