2 types of curiosity via the ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin (paraphrased):
When the shaman holds out the pipe, the anthropologist declines, saying it will make them impartial. The ethnobotanist says “yeehaw.”
Both are valid and both are needed.
Figure out which one you are and which the situation calls for.
Yeehaw
When groups of people with a shared preference or attitude choose to do something, we see markets and cultural trends.
But these people aren’t different kinds. They’re simply people responding or reacting to what’s on offer. This means that people can have different responses based on different offers and different conditions.
Generations are useless. In-depth personas have always felt overwrought to me.
Our ideal customers are best defined by the problem they’re trying to solve and the state they’re in.
Sometimes this leads to demographic similarities, but don’t confuse the two.
Daniel Jalkut with the product design dream:
If you can take something that people do today and make it doable in more contexts then it is now, you get a winner.
Previously the iPhone.
Next up, large language models + voice assistants (the new Siri already seems better).
Next next: broad augmented reality?
Different is better than better.
Broadening use cases / increasing contexts is a form of differentiation.
Another principle from the Nudge podcast episode mentioned earlier is to publically demonstrate your ability. It was mentioned as a way to find work (and should work for both employment and clients).
The other benefit is this process allows you to accumulate the small mistakes that will make you more resilient when you need to change and adapt.
I like these 4 marketing principles from the Nudge podcast:
- Different is better than better
- Keep your message consistent
- Price based on value
- Start with distribution, fit the story to the channel (“if you build it, they will come” really doesn’t work)
The thing with these is it requires marketing to be involved early. Not just as an amplification function.