Re:Ask HN: What if the customer does not know what they want?
by brookst on Sunday February 05, 2023 @12:58AM
(#34662367)
Yes, but the spectacle is half the story. It only works if people say “wow, I nad never thought about it, but that’s a huge problem I face daily and would love to solve.”
Everyone knows you can’t travel 5,000 miles in a day. So it’s not a top of mind problem. We relegate it to the same space as not being able to breathe underwater or having to go somewhere to find and buy/borrow a physical book. But once the possibility of getting on a plane or downloading an ebook is presented, suddenly it’s an amazing solution to a problem we didn’t know we had.
Jobs was an amazing showman, and he certainly pitched some terrible ideas, but his successes were genuine solutions, with the spectacle being an accelerant.
Everyone knows you can’t travel 5,000 miles in a day. So it’s not a top of mind problem. We relegate it to the same space as not being able to breathe underwater or having to go somewhere to find and buy/borrow a physical book. But once the possibility of getting on a plane or downloading an ebook is presented, suddenly it’s an amazing solution to a problem we didn’t know we had.
Jobs was an amazing showman, and he certainly pitched some terrible ideas, but his successes were genuine solutions, with the spectacle being an accelerant.