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Interesting retrospective. > The “tools for thought” trend was in full swing, and being described as note-taking or sketching app was in our review mirror. I'

Interesting retrospective. > The “tools for thought” trend was in full swing, and being described as note-taking or sketching app was in our review mirror. I'd love to hear the author dig more into this. I've never heard of Muse but the "tools for thought" seems to play into the zero interest rate phenomenon they describe. Specifically, I don't really need a tool for thought, my brain works perfectly well. Maybe it's a cool toy but what's the problem it's solving? The reviewers seem to hint that maybe Muse was particularly good at note taking and sketching. Those seem like more concrete problems, I'm surprised the team shied away from them. Were they not sexy enough? Collaborative sketching, even! Maybe for architect design iterations? Not sure, but the author does seem to recognize this problem in a different lens. > We were too unfocused in our target market, and ended up as an “everything app.” Of course no raindrop causes the flood but that observation is a highlight for me: it's important to be grounded in a real problem that's being solved. Thanks for the writeup, your writing certainly has a positive take to an unfortunate end which is very inspirational.

skywhopper 2y ago
I used Muse a bit early on around their soft launch. I think the “tool for thought” concept transcends just note-taking and sketching. The goal is to be able to collect, record, organize, and relate ideas in ways that let you explore their connections, drill deeper into specific areas, and zoom out to see a big picture. Lots of tools have been trying this in wildly divergent ways over the years: mind maps, outliners, diagramming tools, etc. In other words, the goal is always far bigger than the basic functions the app is built upon. The problem is that we don’t have a good word for what such an app is trying to do. Calling it a “note taker” would prevent a lot of folks who might actually love it from even trying it. But, maybe that comes back to the lesson of failing to focus on a specific user base.

skywhopper 2y ago

I used Muse a bit early on around their soft launch. I think the “tool for thought” concept transcends just note-taking and sketching. The goal is to be able to collect, record, organize, and relate ideas in ways that let you explore their connections, drill deeper into specific areas, and zoom out to see a big picture. Lots of tools have been trying this in wildly divergent ways over the years: mind maps, outliners, diagramming tools, etc. In other words, the goal is always far bigger than the basic functions the app is built upon. The problem is that we don’t have a good word for what such an app is trying to do. Calling it a “note taker” would prevent a lot of folks who might actually love it from even trying it. But, maybe that comes back to the lesson of failing to focus on a specific user base.