Build Something That Connects With People

The problem with “build something people want” is that people rarely know what they want until they see it. Then even when they do want something, it's not a guarantee it'll sustain itself and often even the people who ask for the thing you built can churn if it isn't actually what they wanted.

I mean, think about all the things you've purchased then stopped using. It's not uncommon. Staying power is extremely difficult and the wants of human beings can be flippant.

If you look at some of the most impactful products over the years, their staying power came not just from its ability to meet people’s wants but from the way it connected with people.

Great software helped people see something they didn’t before — sometimes it even changed the way people completely thought and operated.

Software has a unique ability to do this. The interactivity of software as a medium is severely underutilized, especially now with new superpowers like LLMs.

The reality is there’s more software than there ever has been and most of is pretty terrible to use.

With an over-index on short term optimizations, we’ve taken a very creative process and tried to over-quantify every aspect of it that we forget about the artistry that is required to make something that truly connects with people.

It’s time we tapped into this opportunity and thought bigger — to create new modes of interaction, connection, and even economics.

This doesn’t mean you should blindly follow your gut and throw away evidence backed methodologies, but it does mean there’s room to acknowledge the artistic process required to make something great instead of just blindly continuing to throw things at the wall of mediocrity and see what sticks long enough to get your next round of funding.