4 ms·

I read an interview with a record executive a long time ago and he answered the question, "How do you find the next big thing?" "That's pretty easy," he said,

by drblast 15y ago

I read an interview with a record executive a long time ago and he answered the question, "How do you find the next big thing?" "That's pretty easy," he said, "I just look for something that parents will hate." That this is a successful strategy is self-evident. (American) kids want to differentiate themselves from their parents and will pay money to do so. They'll probably latch on in some form to anything as long as it fits the criteria that their parents don't like it. I think it's a safe bet that the social networking site that replaces Facebook will have fewer features, be ugly, be more difficult to use, and have no redeeming qualities other than nobody's parents are going to participate in it, and kids will identify with it as the cool thing for that reason.

MichaelApproved 15y ago
He's not saying parents will hate this, they just won't hear about it or understand it if they do.
- civilian 15y ago
  Isn't that close enough to the same thing? There was also a period of a few years where facebook was college-only. Now everyone's mom is on it and some aren't fans of being FB friends with their parents, or friend's parents. They keep them on limited profiles, or even decline to friend them.
  - gilgad13 15y ago
    Grandparent might have been saying that while that is close enough for now, as you pointed out with your allusion to Facebook, that won't be enough to keep it excursive for long (ie. its not exclusive because of a core feature, but rather because most people haven't heard of it and can't be bothered). If it does become popular, everyone's mom will be on it, because she will have heard of it, and someone will take the time to explain it.
bluekeybox 15y ago
> I think it's a safe bet that the social networking site that replaces Facebook will have fewer features, be ugly, be more difficult to use, and have no redeeming qualities other than nobody's parents are going to participate in it, and kids will identify with it as the cool thing for that reason. Ugly or not, it will happen. Since human time is limited, a smart social strategy is all about identifying the right "circle" of people you want to join, and then performing activities that increase the chances of your interacting with people from that circle while reducing the chances of your interacting with people from outside. What this means is that even when your social site is small (compared to say Facebook), if you have all the right people in it (meaning people with high social favorability factor), you will succeed. Some people make the mistake of assuming that the larger their site is, the better off they are. It's not only about quantity, but also about quality. Low quality eventually leads to decline in quantity by driving people away. That's what happened to MySpace and what will happen to Facebook.
kragen 15y ago
> "I just look for something that parents will hate." That this is a successful strategy is self-evident. Quoting Joshua Ellis's piece on the grim meathook future: > Feeding poor people is useful tech, > but it’s not very sexy > and it won’t get you on the cover of Wired. > Talk about it too much > and you sound like an earnest hippie. > So nobody wants to do that. > They want to make cell phones > that can scan your personal measurements > and send them real-time > to potential sex partners. > Because, you know, > the fucking Japanese teenagers love it, > and Japanese teenagers > are clearly the smartest people on the planet. The full text is at http://zenarchery.com/?page_id=1180 http://zenarchery.com/?page_id=1180. It's short. Read it.
joelhaus 15y ago
The South Park guys recently had a funny take on this: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/388732/its-called-getting-older http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/388732/its-called-gett... The idea is that, to the extent their kids are 'hip', you could also seek out the parents who are having a mid-life crisis.

by drblast 15y ago

MichaelApproved 15y ago

He's not saying parents will hate this, they just won't hear about it or understand it if they do.

civilian 15y ago
Isn't that close enough to the same thing? There was also a period of a few years where facebook was college-only. Now everyone's mom is on it and some aren't fans of being FB friends with their parents, or friend's parents. They keep them on limited profiles, or even decline to friend them.
- gilgad13 15y ago
  Grandparent might have been saying that while that is close enough for now, as you pointed out with your allusion to Facebook, that won't be enough to keep it excursive for long (ie. its not exclusive because of a core feature, but rather because most people haven't heard of it and can't be bothered). If it does become popular, everyone's mom will be on it, because she will have heard of it, and someone will take the time to explain it.

bluekeybox 15y ago

> I think it's a safe bet that the social networking site that replaces Facebook will have fewer features, be ugly, be more difficult to use, and have no redeeming qualities other than nobody's parents are going to participate in it, and kids will identify with it as the cool thing for that reason. Ugly or not, it will happen. Since human time is limited, a smart social strategy is all about identifying the right "circle" of people you want to join, and then performing activities that increase the chances of your interacting with people from that circle while reducing the chances of your interacting with people from outside. What this means is that even when your social site is small (compared to say Facebook), if you have all the right people in it (meaning people with high social favorability factor), you will succeed. Some people make the mistake of assuming that the larger their site is, the better off they are. It's not only about quantity, but also about quality. Low quality eventually leads to decline in quantity by driving people away. That's what happened to MySpace and what will happen to Facebook.

kragen 15y ago

> "I just look for something that parents will hate." That this is a successful strategy is self-evident. Quoting Joshua Ellis's piece on the grim meathook future: > Feeding poor people is useful tech, > but it’s not very sexy > and it won’t get you on the cover of Wired. > Talk about it too much > and you sound like an earnest hippie. > So nobody wants to do that. > They want to make cell phones > that can scan your personal measurements > and send them real-time > to potential sex partners. > Because, you know, > the fucking Japanese teenagers love it, > and Japanese teenagers > are clearly the smartest people on the planet. The full text is at http://zenarchery.com/?page_id=1180 http://zenarchery.com/?page_id=1180. It's short. Read it.

joelhaus 15y ago

The South Park guys recently had a funny take on this: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/388732/its-called-getting-older http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/388732/its-called-gett... The idea is that, to the extent their kids are 'hip', you could also seek out the parents who are having a mid-life crisis.