Back in school I was part of a small group of students chosen to meet Eric Schmidt. He walked into the room and asked, "Who here is making something really imp

Back in school I was part of a small group of students chosen to meet Eric Schmidt. He walked into the room and asked, "Who here is making something really impressive?" I thought a long time about what that says about Google. Maybe it's about Google's competing on talent--they already have a $70 BN revenue machine and simply need a way to attract people who can keep the lights on. Maybe it's just the personalities of those at the top. Recently a friend showed me Google's Project Soli, a gesture interface that uses radio waves to sense hand position. You click by touching your fingers together and scroll by rubbing your fingers. The project looks fantastic and is clearly produced by some smart people. But the product video is a big call-to-action to developers: "We're excited to see the gestures you come up with." I feel bad for the talented people working on this. Because the first time somebody uses the product, they'll try a new gesture and it just won't work. Creativity and curiosity yields frustration and a feeling of stupidity. If you make something really cool, make it easy to love at first sight. There are ways to use Project Soli's precise depth sensing so that there's nothing to learn and no way to fail. There are applications that will make people rethink what our devices can do and reward natural curiosity. Unfortunately I can't go into details. Instead, people will be waving at their Google watches and wondering why it keeps taking selfies instead of scrolling through their notifications.