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Is the average iPhone owner willing to spend $28 on an icon pack? Probably not. Can you find 3626 iPhone owners willing to spend $28 on an icon pack? Sure you

by oefrha 6y ago

Is the average iPhone owner willing to spend $28 on an icon pack? Probably not. Can you find 3626 iPhone owners willing to spend $28 on an icon pack? Sure you can. In fact I bet you can find 3626 Android owners willing to part with $28 too. The key to this success story is this: > Then, MKBHD happened.

ahmadss 6y ago
the key to his success is honing his craft via side projects, sharing these ideas often, having a quick and easy tooling to publish ideas, pushing to prod and sharing these ideas. thats the key to success. the MKBHD pickup is just the recognition of the skill honed through this process.
- vmception 6y ago
  MKBHD picking it up had nothing to do with his journey or level of skill. MKBHD could have picked up something much less refined and it would have been popular, a different designer dabbling with no prior mobile icon interest could have come up with something appealing to others as well. Being there and getting an influencer is what made this story, and can be repeated by anyone. OP is conflating the rest of it with his own trials and tribulations.
  - sumedh 6y ago
    > MKBHD could have picked up something much less refined and it would have been popular I think MKBHD also has to worry about his reputation, if he promoted something less refined his viewers might get pissed off.
    - vmception 6y ago
      It can happen and happens to influencers all the time. I'm glad it worked out for everyone involved. OP's prior work is not why it worked out.
- necovek 6y ago
  That seems to ignore the fact that there are hundreds of people of equally "honed skills" not having earned $100k over 6 days. The key to a success of this type is luck. Sure, you can optimize for being on the path of success, but majority will still be missed.
  - jdmichal 6y ago
    I mean, it's obviously both skill and luck. Like pretty much anything else that's "instantly" successful.
  - edoceo 6y ago
    "Luck" is what happens when the prepared are given opportunity.
    - somesortofthing 6y ago
      Being "prepared" for a given opportunity is often trivial. Whether the opportunity you're prepared for ever arises is luck.
      - acomms 6y ago
        If you're good and persistent eventually you get lucky. Most people just give up because being persistent is emotionally draining.
        entropicdrifter 6y ago
        If you're good and persistent and happen to be prepared enough for whichever type of opportunity happens to present itself for you
        Talanes 6y ago
        Do you consider death to be giving up or getting lucky? Or had you just not considered that some people try very hard until the day they die without getting lucky?
      - 6y ago
- _ZeD_ 6y ago
  however, he would be still at "$17" of his first icon pack without the exposure trough MKBHD
  - trystero 6y ago
    He was already "around the $6k mark in sales" before MKBHD which is already not too bad for (allegedly) 2 hours of work. He succeeded because his time to market was shorter than anyone else's.
- oefrha 6y ago
  The discussion just pointlessly spun out of control. The key to finding those 3626 people willing to shell out $28 was the exposure, with MKBHD being the biggest contributor. Whatever was the key to getting that exposure in the first place is irrelevant to my point.
bluedino 6y ago
I wonder what he would have gotten had he did a paid advertisement on Daring Fireball, MacRumors, etc
shanecleveland 6y ago
Sure. He said it himself. And went on to say: > The market will decide a huge part of what comes after sharing something, so continually increase your odds by building, publishing, then repeating. All the people here decrying everything he had done up until this point and proclaiming any degree of success is attributable only to luck is amazing. It's not the same as stumbling on a winning lotto ticking on the street (unless you have spent years scouring the streets looking for winning lotto tickets).
- davidivadavid 6y ago
  If by "amazing" you mean "embarrassing and enraging", yes. It's one of those things that makes me want to scream at Hacker News regularly. Even if you think it's about "luck", how are you modelling it? MKBHD did a fair coin toss between all of his options? Nah, doesn't seem realistic. Some options are probably more likely than others. Based on what? Oh well, the quality of the product, the buzz around it (which itself is probably based on the quality of the product, how it matches the zeitgeist's aesthetic (which means good understanding of trends, marketing, psychology, etc.)), the original reputation of the person creating the product, and so on. Hacker News's take: it's just luck, it could have been any other icon set with the same probability. Yeah, no.

by oefrha 6y ago

ahmadss 6y ago

the key to his success is honing his craft via side projects, sharing these ideas often, having a quick and easy tooling to publish ideas, pushing to prod and sharing these ideas. thats the key to success. the MKBHD pickup is just the recognition of the skill honed through this process.

vmception 6y ago
MKBHD picking it up had nothing to do with his journey or level of skill. MKBHD could have picked up something much less refined and it would have been popular, a different designer dabbling with no prior mobile icon interest could have come up with something appealing to others as well. Being there and getting an influencer is what made this story, and can be repeated by anyone. OP is conflating the rest of it with his own trials and tribulations.
- sumedh 6y ago
  > MKBHD could have picked up something much less refined and it would have been popular I think MKBHD also has to worry about his reputation, if he promoted something less refined his viewers might get pissed off.
  - vmception 6y ago
    It can happen and happens to influencers all the time. I'm glad it worked out for everyone involved. OP's prior work is not why it worked out.
necovek 6y ago
That seems to ignore the fact that there are hundreds of people of equally "honed skills" not having earned $100k over 6 days. The key to a success of this type is luck. Sure, you can optimize for being on the path of success, but majority will still be missed.
- jdmichal 6y ago
  I mean, it's obviously both skill and luck. Like pretty much anything else that's "instantly" successful.
- edoceo 6y ago
  "Luck" is what happens when the prepared are given opportunity.
  - somesortofthing 6y ago
    Being "prepared" for a given opportunity is often trivial. Whether the opportunity you're prepared for ever arises is luck.
    - acomms 6y ago
      If you're good and persistent eventually you get lucky. Most people just give up because being persistent is emotionally draining.
      - entropicdrifter 6y ago
        If you're good and persistent and happen to be prepared enough for whichever type of opportunity happens to present itself for you
      - Talanes 6y ago
        Do you consider death to be giving up or getting lucky? Or had you just not considered that some people try very hard until the day they die without getting lucky?
    - 6y ago
_ZeD_ 6y ago
however, he would be still at "$17" of his first icon pack without the exposure trough MKBHD
- trystero 6y ago
  He was already "around the $6k mark in sales" before MKBHD which is already not too bad for (allegedly) 2 hours of work. He succeeded because his time to market was shorter than anyone else's.
oefrha 6y ago
The discussion just pointlessly spun out of control. The key to finding those 3626 people willing to shell out $28 was the exposure, with MKBHD being the biggest contributor. Whatever was the key to getting that exposure in the first place is irrelevant to my point.

bluedino 6y ago

I wonder what he would have gotten had he did a paid advertisement on Daring Fireball, MacRumors, etc

shanecleveland 6y ago

Sure. He said it himself. And went on to say: > The market will decide a huge part of what comes after sharing something, so continually increase your odds by building, publishing, then repeating. All the people here decrying everything he had done up until this point and proclaiming any degree of success is attributable only to luck is amazing. It's not the same as stumbling on a winning lotto ticking on the street (unless you have spent years scouring the streets looking for winning lotto tickets).

davidivadavid 6y ago
If by "amazing" you mean "embarrassing and enraging", yes. It's one of those things that makes me want to scream at Hacker News regularly. Even if you think it's about "luck", how are you modelling it? MKBHD did a fair coin toss between all of his options? Nah, doesn't seem realistic. Some options are probably more likely than others. Based on what? Oh well, the quality of the product, the buzz around it (which itself is probably based on the quality of the product, how it matches the zeitgeist's aesthetic (which means good understanding of trends, marketing, psychology, etc.)), the original reputation of the person creating the product, and so on. Hacker News's take: it's just luck, it could have been any other icon set with the same probability. Yeah, no.