|
"It’s less about Reed Hastings answering your questions — he has too much to lose by being blunt. It’s more about a guy from Netflix answering them. The everyday people that actually create the products, sites, and movies we love. The previously nameless and faceless parts of the machine that know where all the bodies are buried and are just “unimportant” enough to be honest." This is the section that most resonated with me, and describes why Quora can be so powerful and valuable. It reminds me of an answer that has 828 upvotes, "What's it like to play on the same basketball team as Jeremy Lin?" -In it, a former Harvard teammate gives intimate, candid insights on observing a great player before the world had any clue he was great (though UConn eventually did). The UX of Quora encourages this type of ask and answering: where long-tail bits of curiosity can be met with long-tail flashes of idiosyncratic insight. It's the best thing about it. But, as with many kinds of truly valuable, deep insight into something, I'm myself curious how far and wide it 'scales' as a business or industry. Perhaps they are creating what financial-types call "optionality", with a diversified reach at lot of little bits of insight, any number of which might be hugely popular at any time. Either way, I'm glad Quora is there for this. On the other hand I do very much believe that online Q&A is still quite nascent in its ability to help people not just learn, but achieve, produce, and collaborate on both deeply value-creating endeavors as well as the daily block-and-tackling of our work and personal lives. |