[CuriouslyC]

Plot twist: anything original will look stupid, until some cultural event makes the original thing the new "way," then all the small minds will act like that was the only way the thing should have been done all along.

"The emperor has no clothes" is a much deeper story about society and human nature than people realize.

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> Plot twist: anything original will look stupid

Clearly not true, lots of original things that instead looks like "Ah yeah, obviously, duh!" once they're public, rather than looking stupid. Browsers/WWW, the iPhone and putting wheels on suitcases are things that come into mind that the amount of people thought "looked stupid" was very low, and they became very popular relatively quickly.

[CuriouslyC]

Those things are all incremental improvements based on existing patterns that people were familiar with. Also, Apple is the king of "no clothes". People shill Apple products even when they suck.

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> Those things are all incremental improvements based on existing patterns that people were familiar with

So what in your mind has ever been "truly original" then that someone couldn't argue is just "incremental improvements" instead?

> People shill Apple products even when they suck.

I agree, but don't think I'm doing so myself here.

[CuriouslyC]

Look at Vincent Van Gogh's art. He didn't sell shit except to his own brother in life, people hated it. Fast forward to now and his art is among the most valuable in the world, and people consider him one of the greatest geniuses of all time.

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How is one person's art not just incremental improvement on other's art? I expected some actually insightful answer, not just "Person Bs media creation was better than Person's A media", does that really count as "truly original" in your mind here? Yet browsers/WWW was just an incremental improvement? I'm sorry but I'm really confused now, sounds like we're really talking past each other here.

[CuriouslyC]

Browsers are just better gopher. If the WWW hadn't existed, we'd have xGopher 8.0 NG and our user experience would be mostly the same. Evolutionary pressures drive convergent evolution to stable solutions. We're on a technological gradient, and these things are incremental jumps driven by common human need (otherwise they wouldn't gain traction).

Creativity at the deepest level is seeing the cultural slope you're doing gradient descent on, and taking a hard left through the trees to a hidden slope that's way better rather than the one you were on.

I like Van Gogh as an example because of how hard he failed and the cultural U-turn, but hostility towards things that challenge the entrenched paradigm is a common response. Maybe Einstein and relativity is a more relevant example for you. People didn't read it at first and nod their heads, thinking to themselves "yes, of course!"

[r_lee]

I think the best example for this are the Airpods

like, it was such a joke at first but then it just became the "new normal"

[gzread]

I got a pair of airpod clones on a whim (they were only $20 in the impulse buy section). Sure, they have less cable, but keeping them charged is very annoying, especially if wearing them for a long stretch of time. The charging contacts also tend to oxidize and not make good contact, but that's probably because they're a cheap clone. I find wired earphones are more convenient for long stretches because they draw power from my phone. I also know the wired earphones don't broadcast a tracking signal.

[r_lee]

you can always buy a BT receiver and get the best audio quality/flexibility while mostly retaining the convenience

[gzread]

Seems like the worst of both worlds, still having the cable, but two things to charge.

I'd understand if your phone lacks a headphone jack, though.

[r_lee]

most phones today do not have a headphone jack. You also can't EQ properly without such a thing, and you must be connected to your phone all the time and it pulls on the cable every time you do something

[jgwil2]

I remember thinking that wheeled suitcases were funny the first time I saw them. How silly I was...

[taintlord]

What if the emperor had no clothes but he has a monster cock swanging left to right dickslapping the citizens as he walks by

They would be like Sir, Hey put that huge dick away you're scaring people

There would be a different lesson, is all I'm saying

[CuriouslyC]

I'm pretty sure this comment is going to get flagged, but I hope not because it's really funny.