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I'd put Pinterest and Twitter in the same category as Dropbox and Evernote. Evernote: What I note of the real world. Dropbox: Bring places from physical device

by WA 13y ago

I'd put Pinterest and Twitter in the same category as Dropbox and Evernote. Evernote: What I note of the real world. Dropbox: Bring places from physical device A to physical device B. But if you think it through, the whole list is kind of arbitrary too. Microsoft started as electrons-only company and was hugely successful. I'd describe it less in terms of atoms and electrons, but in value delivered. And obviously, people derive value from both atoms and electrons. But they derive value differently from different services. So, hugely successful companies help people to get value from their service and achieve something like money, fame, emotions (music, movies, art). More value for users = more success for the company.

andrewflnr 13y ago
If you accept Evernote in the atom category, you pretty much have to accept anything. Evernote notes are just bytes, and the way you interact with the app doesn't depend on whether the notes are about the real world, imagined worlds, future plans, or lunatic ravings. It's just bytes. Bringing "physical devices" into the description of Dropbox doesn't actually imply anything; what else are you supposed to store files on? What else is any app supposed to run on? "Look at your friends' pictures on a physical device". Welp, I guess instagram is an atom company too. You've extended a useful, incomplete heuristic into a perfect, useless tautology. I think the more useful definition of an "atoms company" is one that directly tells you which atoms to move and where to move them. This handily covers Uber, Amazon, Airbnb and very faintly Facebook, as expected, while mostly excluding Dropbox, Evernote, Google (search), etc.
- WA 13y ago
  You've extended a useful, incomplete heuristic into a perfect, useless tautology. No, I just pointed out that the list of my parent poster is somewhat arbitrary. I'd put Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Dropbox, Evernote, Instagram all in the second category, because they exist only in digital life. My atom life is complete without Facebook for instance. Whether I use Facebook or not makes not much difference. But booking a place via Airbnb has a direct (and only) result in the atom world: I now have a social acceptable reason to stay at a stranger's place. And furthermore: There's no other way to book that stranger's place except for maybe walking up to random strangers and asking them if they offer me a couch for 50 bucks. I think the more useful definition of an "atoms company" is one that directly tells you which atoms to move and where to move them. I mostly agree. But then it also depends if you take action in the atom world based on information you gathered from the electron world or not. And if you go down this route, the whole heuristic is completely nonsense, because people take action based on information gathered from electrons all the time.

by WA 13y ago

andrewflnr 13y ago

If you accept Evernote in the atom category, you pretty much have to accept anything. Evernote notes are just bytes, and the way you interact with the app doesn't depend on whether the notes are about the real world, imagined worlds, future plans, or lunatic ravings. It's just bytes. Bringing "physical devices" into the description of Dropbox doesn't actually imply anything; what else are you supposed to store files on? What else is any app supposed to run on? "Look at your friends' pictures on a physical device". Welp, I guess instagram is an atom company too. You've extended a useful, incomplete heuristic into a perfect, useless tautology. I think the more useful definition of an "atoms company" is one that directly tells you which atoms to move and where to move them. This handily covers Uber, Amazon, Airbnb and very faintly Facebook, as expected, while mostly excluding Dropbox, Evernote, Google (search), etc.

WA 13y ago
You've extended a useful, incomplete heuristic into a perfect, useless tautology. No, I just pointed out that the list of my parent poster is somewhat arbitrary. I'd put Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Dropbox, Evernote, Instagram all in the second category, because they exist only in digital life. My atom life is complete without Facebook for instance. Whether I use Facebook or not makes not much difference. But booking a place via Airbnb has a direct (and only) result in the atom world: I now have a social acceptable reason to stay at a stranger's place. And furthermore: There's no other way to book that stranger's place except for maybe walking up to random strangers and asking them if they offer me a couch for 50 bucks. I think the more useful definition of an "atoms company" is one that directly tells you which atoms to move and where to move them. I mostly agree. But then it also depends if you take action in the atom world based on information you gathered from the electron world or not. And if you go down this route, the whole heuristic is completely nonsense, because people take action based on information gathered from electrons all the time.