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Nest and the Apple-ification of everything
- unalone 15y agoOne important bullet point this article left out: * Identify a significant social problem, and endeavour to solve it through innovation. Nest has a big page on its site (http://www.nest.com/why-we-made-it/index.html http://www.nest.com/why-we-made-it/index.html) explaining how much energy is wasted by thermostats every year. This has an impact both on personal finances and on the environment. Nest isn't succeeding just because it's well-designed; it solves a problem both for individuals and for larger society. Apple's known for its talk about the intersection of technology and the liberal arts. Steve Jobs was always the most excited when discussing what his technology would let people do that they couldn't do before. Both Jobs and Tony Fadell at Nest aimed higher than just making an attractive product/making a good profit. They made sure that the products they made were going to do something useful for the people who bought them, and possibly for greater society as well. If we're going to learn from Apple, I think it's essential we learn that innovation isn't just about getting a product to do something it hasn't done before. It's also about figuring out which products might significantly impact society if they were done differently – both because it's a nobler aim and because if you figure out how to change the world, come on, your marketing basically writes itself.