sixes_and_sevens comments on The cup-holder paradox - Less Wrong

18 Post author: PhilGoetz 26 March 2013 04:47AM

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Comment author: mwengler 26 March 2013 03:42:09PM 7 points [-]

I submit to you the iPhone. Developed by a company that had never built a cellphone or any other kind of phone for that matter before. Developed in to an industry that spent billions every year thrashing about trying (it thought) EVERYTHING to see how to build a phone that would exploit data in a way which would compel all those who saw it to want one if not actually buy it.

Apple didn't do anything that it wouldn't have been easier for a larger more expert cell phone maker (Nokia, Motorola leap to mind) to do. And the iPhone blasted it out of the park and completely defined the current generation of smart phones virtually immediately upon its becoming available.

Perhaps the rate for being correct is low, but the times it is correct are powerful.

The idea that automakers are not as "stupid" about some design assumptions as the collective entrenched cell phone makers prior to the iPhone were, how likely does that seem? My experience teaches me I would be shocked if it weren't at least as true with automakers as it is with cell phone companies. Automaking is an even harder field for a newbie to come in to, but they do manage it once in a while.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 26 March 2013 04:03:54PM 9 points [-]

I don't disagree with you as such, but I don't see why you're saying this. Ground-breaking industry game-changers are highly available examples by their nature, but they're also far from typical examples.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 30 March 2013 12:31:06AM 1 point [-]

"PhilGoetz says maybe this is an instance of X. I asserted that X happens so rarely that we can assume it never happens. Why are you bothering me with your instance of X?"