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by motoxpro 1661 days ago
I'm glad we didn't declare the phone "done" at the Razor flip phone or that we didn't declare personal websites "done" with Yahoo Geocities.

Progress has to happen. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong, but you have to try.
3 comments
SrslyJosh 1661 days ago
Not a great example. Phones became general purpose(-ish) computing devices without losing the ability to function as a phone.

Facebook trying to turn Instagram into Tiktok ruins the ability to use Instagram as Instagram.

It's more like Mr. Coffee saw that smoothies took off in popularity and decided to start making coffee machines that are also blenders, but now suck as coffee machines.

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motoxpro 1661 days ago
Haha I hear you. I think your point is exactly what I am getting at. Instagram wants to be more than "just" Instagram. My point is that sometimes you get that shift right, i.e. iPhone being more than "just" a phone, and sometimes you get it wrong.

I like living in a world where people have ambition. I won't ever fault Mr. Coffee for trying to become Mr. Beverage, best case they succeed and give me an amazing experience, worst case it allows for a ton of new players to satisfy the people who "just" want a Mr. Coffee.

I guess some people see this as greed. I just think we should all be constantly be striving to be better, including companies. Again, sometimes you get it right like Instagram allowing video, which also allowed for pure photsharing apps, and sometimes you get it wrong.

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JKCalhoun 1661 days ago
Ha ha, Luddite here, I wish we had declared the phone done back with flip phones. And personal websites were better before Geocities (you know, when they were hand-rolled).

But I get what you're saying. I just wonder though why so many people tolerate crap — simply because it's all there is right now.

Cable TV with all its commercials was crap, so I nixed it over 20 years ago. I didn't tolerate it until something better came along, I just did without it.

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krageon 1661 days ago
In many ways Geocities was peak internet. I don't see a lot of stuff nowadays that is an improvement over it - so much so that I cannot think of a single example.
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