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"President Obama didn't post on Blogger. He posted on Medium." Is that really "doing something in a new way"? Or is it "doing the same thing in a new place?"

by untog 10y ago

"President Obama didn't post on Blogger. He posted on Medium." Is that really "doing something in a new way"? Or is it "doing the same thing in a new place?" You could say the same about Obama posting on Tumblr: http://barackobama.tumblr.com http://barackobama.tumblr.com - except he hasn't done so in three years. Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all.

awj 10y ago
> Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all. You say that as though it's easy to do these things...
- untog 10y ago
  No, I'm not saying it's easy, just that doing something very well isn't particularly innovative. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking down Medium's product - it's fantastic. But the OP claimed that Medium has "unambiguously, objectively succeeded" in being innovative, and I just don't see it. I'd actually argue that Tumblr was far more innovative - there are some fascinating forms of content that came out of that place, not to mention the whole social network, reblogging effect, etc. etc. But neither has shaped up to be a particularly successful business, and placing perceived innovation above that might not be wise when you're talking about user generated content. What happens if either of them fails?
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  Yeah but it's not that hard either if you have the resources. Now we see, though, that the cost of doing it has so far exceeded the return.
- coldtea 10y ago
  Easy? It's beyond easy. It's trivial.
oddevan 10y ago
> Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all. That's... not an easy thing to do. Making anything to do with technology "easy" is no small feat; that Medium was able to do this with as big an incumbent player as WordPress (for example) is an even bigger feat.
- rco8786 10y ago
  hard != innovative, was OP's point.
  - fuzzfactor 10y ago
    OTOH, solving well-established hard problems sometime requires more true innovation than developing new ideas. I prefer to do both.
- mgiannopoulos 10y ago
  Well they did that by basically limiting what the user can do. The editing options were extremely limited. There was also no customisation until recently. They built a basic-function responsive blog platform. How is that hard?
  - giovannibajo1 10y ago
    It's very hard to tell people to use your software that has 1/100th of features of the incumbents but it's done better. Apple did it with iPhone for instance, but normally startups die trying.
    - coldtea 10y ago
      That's because the iPhone didn't have 1/100 the features of competitors -- it had 80/100 of the features, but focused on the 80% that mattered (no "fm radio" or "mobile flash" for example).
    - mgiannopoulos 10y ago

by untog 10y ago

awj 10y ago

> Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all. You say that as though it's easy to do these things...

untog 10y ago
No, I'm not saying it's easy, just that doing something very well isn't particularly innovative. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking down Medium's product - it's fantastic. But the OP claimed that Medium has "unambiguously, objectively succeeded" in being innovative, and I just don't see it. I'd actually argue that Tumblr was far more innovative - there are some fascinating forms of content that came out of that place, not to mention the whole social network, reblogging effect, etc. etc. But neither has shaped up to be a particularly successful business, and placing perceived innovation above that might not be wise when you're talking about user generated content. What happens if either of them fails?
anigbrowl 10y ago
Yeah but it's not that hard either if you have the resources. Now we see, though, that the cost of doing it has so far exceeded the return.
coldtea 10y ago
Easy? It's beyond easy. It's trivial.

oddevan 10y ago

> Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all. That's... not an easy thing to do. Making anything to do with technology "easy" is no small feat; that Medium was able to do this with as big an incumbent player as WordPress (for example) is an even bigger feat.

rco8786 10y ago
hard != innovative, was OP's point.
- fuzzfactor 10y ago
  OTOH, solving well-established hard problems sometime requires more true innovation than developing new ideas. I prefer to do both.
mgiannopoulos 10y ago
Well they did that by basically limiting what the user can do. The editing options were extremely limited. There was also no customisation until recently. They built a basic-function responsive blog platform. How is that hard?
- giovannibajo1 10y ago
  It's very hard to tell people to use your software that has 1/100th of features of the incumbents but it's done better. Apple did it with iPhone for instance, but normally startups die trying.
  - coldtea 10y ago
    That's because the iPhone didn't have 1/100 the features of competitors -- it had 80/100 of the features, but focused on the 80% that mattered (no "fm radio" or "mobile flash" for example).
  - mgiannopoulos 10y ago