Plicity

Obsessive people who are in love with the problem they are solving can make up for a litany of management sins. (Perhaps that is also the lesson of Apple and Ive.)

Discovery is a fascinating topic that is extremely difficult to nail in any industry. Countless failed start-ups attempted to enable Discovery in the Travel industry. Shopify has tried 4 times to step in the Discovery business with no success. Discovery in Communities and the Passion Economy makes no exception.

Here's the counterintuitive truth: users tend to embrace features they discover on their own.

When Airtable forced a "New Automation" pop-up, adoption crawled to 9%. When repositioned as a subtle "+" menu for natural discovery, adoption jumped to 41%.

Why? Self-discovered features trigger dopamine releases that create ownership. I experienced this wh... See more

In most AI apps, System Prompts should be written and maintained by users, not software developers or even domain experts hired by developers.

Most AI apps should be agent builders , not agents.

We need to use these new tools in a truly creative way. And that’s why the really powerful inputs will continue to be human – empathy, observation, humour and cultural understanding. These are things that help us break through the creative ceiling.

Most travel apps immediately ask, “ Where do you want to go? ” Airbnb takes a different approach. When users open the app, they see a curated set of inspiring destinations and stays. Instead of pressuring users to decide, it invites them to explore possibilities.

This clever use of the Foot-in-the-Door principle lowers the friction to engage. It tap... See more

What is really interesting is considering the second-order effects of the ability to create software 10 times faster than just a few years ago.

Midjourney’s launch on Discord was brilliant. As a new user, I knew enough to ask for an image of a rabbit on a firetruck. But by watching others, I discovered I could create vector images, recast photos into Ghibli-style art, change aspect ratios, or convert photos to pencil-shaded drawings.

Playdate excels within constraints. Its one-bit screen and tiny processor mean it can’t run graphics-heavy games, but that limitation encourages developers to think about what they can build. The tiny black-and-white screen. The bright yellow color. The ‘season’ of games. The crank. The crank! Playdate proves that craft isn’t about doing more: It’s... See more