WeChat has integrated both approaches in the product development process. However, it leans more heavily on the Grand Design approach given Allen’s top-down management style. All features have to go through Allen for approval. As a result, WeChat has benefited enormously from having a singular and coherent identity.
This doesn’t mean the paywall shouldn’t be there. But it does mean that it costs time and money to access a lot of true and important information, while a lot of bullshit is completely free.
Most startups die not because they can’t get their tech to work or because their competition out-executes them. The death of most startups is indifference. Put simply, most companies fail to launch because no one cares: not users, not employees, not investors, and certainly not the media. It’s death by a thousand shrugs.
Some creative professionals can get by without even having to sell anything in particular to their 1,000 True Fans. Maria Popova, for example, makes a living publishing essays on literature, art, and science on her site, the Marginalian. Most of Popova’s income comes from asking fans to help support her work directly, without expecting anything ext... See more
1) The banks have to predict your income through the life of the loan in order to assess your ability to repay. Because banks do not have a long history of data sets on Substack revenue or other creator based content, both across borrowers and through time, they probably can’t predict your income with the same level of certainty as they can for tho... See more
Applications are basically interfaces + some business logic + databases. That's true of the vast majority of products online. The interface is what you see and interact with. The business logic defines and delivers the core functionality. Databases store the information presented, the events that occur, and the record of everything that has happene... See more
But what if the coming revolution is a silent one that will be led by those who, in the face of this increasing activity and ear-splitting noise, choose the anti-mimetic path? Who grow quieter and more intentional?