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Then you'll just end up with samey expensive garbage. People don't know what they want until they're told what they want. It's important to create a society whe

Then you'll just end up with samey expensive garbage. People don't know what they want until they're told what they want. It's important to create a society where ideas that have no current market can be developed. This is how the future is made. Not by making it aluminum and jacking up the price.

eckza 5y ago
Sure, but in order to do that, you need to know how to teach people how to want; and then, you have to be able to do that. NB, those two things generally comprise two different skillsets. You need a product that is powerful enough to give you the leverage to change deep-seated bits of human psychology. Henry Ford knew how to do this. So did Jobs. $0.02. I don't want to discourage anyone from building something and making money on it; just adding on to your comment.
- fartcannon 5y ago
  Henry Ford and Steve Jobs can have the mindless market they've created. Adjacent to that, a system that detaches the need for marketing would unlock more human creativity. Why is google so valuable? Because the system is designed to optimize for Google-like local minimums, and not for creativity or the unknown future.
JAlexoid 5y ago
> People don't know what they want until they're told what they want. That's not exactly true. This sentence only covers fro value generating products, not cost saving products. It's easier to sell cost saving product, but the profit margins on those are much lower. As an example in the article - the product is a cost saving product, but the cost it saves is very small.(Finding the right headache medicine is once in a lifetime $1 investment for most, or even less) When it comes to value generating products - that is where you need someone who can sell their own idea of value to the masses. That is where this sentence starts to make sense.
- jrumbut 5y ago
  It is a value generating product, better medicine is more valuable. If a genie popped up and offered to make sure I always got the best medicine available in exchange for $100 I'd give him the money for the improved health. It's just that I am not sure this random startup guy and his four doctor friends are such a genie.
  - JAlexoid 5y ago
    This is not the "value" you're thinking of. Value of having perfect health is not the same as business value. Valuable medicine isn't the same as a trip to Seychelles - even though both may cost thousands of dollars. You're also forgetting that medication is almost exclusively a cost issue. Unless you are taking performance enhancing products - other medication is a cost to getting to your "normal". (Even antidepressants exist to get you to a baseline mental state, not to give you extra - that's performance enhancing drugs) You already give your doctor that $100 and they literally do the research... and other than getting a better doctor, you will not get any better tool. But back to the reason for the product and it's very clear where the idea came from. Identifying what painkiller you prefer isn't a constant issue neither it is of great value to the vast majority.
WalterBright 5y ago
> It's important to create a society where ideas that have no current market can be developed. We have. It's the free market.

eckza 5y ago

Sure, but in order to do that, you need to know how to teach people how to want; and then, you have to be able to do that. NB, those two things generally comprise two different skillsets. You need a product that is powerful enough to give you the leverage to change deep-seated bits of human psychology. Henry Ford knew how to do this. So did Jobs. $0.02. I don't want to discourage anyone from building something and making money on it; just adding on to your comment.

fartcannon 5y ago
Henry Ford and Steve Jobs can have the mindless market they've created. Adjacent to that, a system that detaches the need for marketing would unlock more human creativity. Why is google so valuable? Because the system is designed to optimize for Google-like local minimums, and not for creativity or the unknown future.

JAlexoid 5y ago

> People don't know what they want until they're told what they want. That's not exactly true. This sentence only covers fro value generating products, not cost saving products. It's easier to sell cost saving product, but the profit margins on those are much lower. As an example in the article - the product is a cost saving product, but the cost it saves is very small.(Finding the right headache medicine is once in a lifetime $1 investment for most, or even less) When it comes to value generating products - that is where you need someone who can sell their own idea of value to the masses. That is where this sentence starts to make sense.

jrumbut 5y ago
It is a value generating product, better medicine is more valuable. If a genie popped up and offered to make sure I always got the best medicine available in exchange for $100 I'd give him the money for the improved health. It's just that I am not sure this random startup guy and his four doctor friends are such a genie.
- JAlexoid 5y ago
  This is not the "value" you're thinking of. Value of having perfect health is not the same as business value. Valuable medicine isn't the same as a trip to Seychelles - even though both may cost thousands of dollars. You're also forgetting that medication is almost exclusively a cost issue. Unless you are taking performance enhancing products - other medication is a cost to getting to your "normal". (Even antidepressants exist to get you to a baseline mental state, not to give you extra - that's performance enhancing drugs) You already give your doctor that $100 and they literally do the research... and other than getting a better doctor, you will not get any better tool. But back to the reason for the product and it's very clear where the idea came from. Identifying what painkiller you prefer isn't a constant issue neither it is of great value to the vast majority.

WalterBright 5y ago

> It's important to create a society where ideas that have no current market can be developed. We have. It's the free market.