Lillie Sun

Making it easier and cheaper for customers to do things that they are not trying to do rarely leads to success.

The structure of a market, seen from the customers’ point of view, is very simple: They just need to get things done, as Ted Levitt said. When people find themselves needing to get a job done, they essentially hire products to do that job for them. The marketer’s task is therefore to understand what jobs periodically arise in customers’ lives for w... See more

"Here’s the formula if you want to build a billion-dollar internet company," he said. "Take a human desire, preferably one that has been around for a really long time...Identify that desire and use modern technology to take out steps."

Make something people need, make it well, and put it in a place they can find it. Success will follow

But Instagram is not just one app, so it’s effectively become three different Twitters: Instagram Stories for the people you know, the grid for people you used to know (and their weddings and babies), and Reels for probing the profoundly upsetting psychic void at the heart of our country.

Or rather, parts of it. I’ve realized it’s best understood as a series of apps stacked on top of each other. But taken as a whole, it is, also, effectively, the last relevant social network. The only place where, if you’re of a certain age — between 28 and 45, I’d reckon — you can actually passively see what you’re friends are up to. A specific kin... See more