Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash
I am currently in the process of exploring new projects. Below is a timely reminder to self.
...
Hannah Arendt is a political philosopher known for her theory of the Banality of Evil after WWII. One of her lesser known works is her investigation on the human condition of Natality.
Every day there are new births entering our world - bringing along the potential for new beginning and introduction of novelty to our society. Because of natality, collectively we have an innate capacity and impetus to act, to begin something new, and to redefine the world as we know it.
While Arendt uses natality as a foundation for her work in political engagement and freedom, I am going to hijack it to make the following point.
No problem space is forever solved
As new generation comes along and the way people live and work changes, there will always be opportunity for better products.
Email:
Yahoo --> Gmail --> Hey, Superhuman
Video call:
Skype/Google Hangout --> Zoom --> mmhmm (check out their cool demo)
Team collaboration:
Asana/Slack --> Notion/Monday
Team chat: Skype --> Slack --> Discord
Publishing:
Blogspot --> Wordpress --> Medium --> Substack
Investing:
Charles Schwab --> Robinhood
Design:
Photoshop --> Sketch / Invision --> Figma / Miro
Unbundling
Unbundling is the "opportunity to carve out niche products from broad horizontal networks" like Craigslist, Reddit, and even Linkedin. Learn more here.
There are even opportunities to unbundle Excel spreadsheet.
10x
The challenge of creating something new is that having new and slightly better solution is often not enough.