↵

Design Elitism(daneden.me)

9 years ago from Matt Achariam, Intent Renderer

  • Christopher MoodyChristopher Moody, 9 years ago

    Addressing the use of Yo in this opinion piece-

    We know what Yo is, we don't know what it will be.

    In other words, we know what the team behind Yo released, and we know how popular that became. What we don't know is what that same team pitched to investors.

    Imagine a pitch that goes something like this:

    "We've proven that there is a hole in the market for a radically simple, context based pinging system. That given the timing and sender of a ping, context can be derived from the end user. Now imagine a giant game of 'Marco Polo' with any connected device in your life. A systems administrator can go out to dinner with his team, and at any time send 'Marco' to his server bank. As long as it responds with 'Polo', he knows everything is ok."

    Investors never look at what software is. They look at what it could become.

    27 points
    • Sacha GreifSacha Greif, 9 years ago

      It's simple: would you rather invest in A) a team that's working on an innovative app but has no traction, or B) one that has already demonstrated they can make even the stupidest concept go viral?

      The answer is B), because that team will hopefully be able to apply the same skills to a better concept, and make that successful too.

      11 points
      • Eduardo NunesEduardo Nunes, 9 years ago

        That's an interesting point, but one could just as well argue that making something go viral doesn't necessarily prove you have what it takes to keep it going for longer than its 15 minutes of fame. Isn't that what building a solid product's all about?

        I feel like that was pretty much the point of Dan's post: that celebrating ideas for their ability to generate short bursts of media frenzy may be skewing our perception of actual value — for users, not investors.

        1 point
      • Ed LeaEd Lea, 9 years ago

        That's a false dichotomy. Your choices should be:

        A) a team that's working on an innovative app but has no traction B) a team that's working on an innovative app but has traction

        YO is innovative. Just because something is simple doesn't mean it's stupid.

        0 points