[caseorganic]

This is a truly wonderful writeup. I especially appreciated the insight that "Marketplaces need a big disconnect between buyers and sellers".

I try to tell this to startups that try to add indoor location-based technology to businesses like Men's Warehouse. What they fail to understand is that those places run better because they are staffed by people who understand their customers. When someone drives into the parking lot of a Men's Warehouse, they are already there to buy a suit. They don't need discounts or information about the products from an app on their smartphone, they need real customer service.

A skilled salesperson can upgrade anyone on warranties and other items. Having a piece of software do it, especially one built by a group of programmers and marketers that know nothing about suits, is ridiculous, and so is the idea of training skilled salespeople to also be system administrators for software that's not needed.

[msrpotus]

One thing that a lot of tech people forget (including, frequently, myself) is that there are reasons systems are the way they are. It might be inefficient, it might be stupid, it might waste everyone's time, but if they wanted to change things, they'd already be looking for a solutions. That they aren't is evidence that they don't see it as a problem.

[MMXII]

Efficiency only makes sense as a concept if you establish the context it's measured in.

Geeks tend to fixate on efficiency in the time/cost dimension, but there are many other dimensions in which something can be efficient.

And efficiency in those other dimensions is why many given systems exist as they do.

[001sky]

This is a good point. There are two types of people in the world: thos that say "this is stupid" and those that say "oh, I get it".

[nitrogen]

Of course, only the first type ever changes the world.

[jacaranda]

yes, creating an app to supplement an existing business (Men's wearhouse) can yield sub-optimal results at best. A better way to do it is to disrupt the model like IndoChino did. They realized that buying a suit is all about the materials and the fit and did everything possible(refunds, alteration fee) to ensure that customers were satisfied.