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Occasional ObservationsThoughts on "How to Build a Car"
Reading through How to Build a Car, a few product-related themes flow through the entire book: • The constant search for advantages. Poring over the newly released rulebooks to find gaps & technicalities to creatively exploit. Examining other domains for cross-over insights. Every team isn’t just racing on the track, the design/engineering teams are racing each other to identify the smallest of levers before the next team. • The car is a system, not merely an object. The interconnectedness of...
Occasional ObservationsMercedes & Microsoft
"Let's put that in the parking lot"
Occasional ObservationsSame ball, different games
Apple & Microsoft & Android have each built operating systems, but they're playing different games: premium, productivity, mass adoption; "bicycle for the mind", enterprise-oriented, flexibility. NASA & SpaceX each build rockets, but they're playing different games: government services, interplanetary commerce. OpenAI & Meta & Anthropic have each built generative tooling, but they're playing different games: integration, attention, responsibility. Obsession over comparing What It Is tends to ...
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Occasional ObservationsThoughts on "How to Build a Car"
Reading through How to Build a Car, a few product-related themes flow through the entire book: • The constant search for advantages. Poring over the newly released rulebooks to find gaps & technicalities to creatively exploit. Examining other domains for cross-over insights. Every team isn’t just racing on the track, the design/engineering teams are racing each other to identify the smallest of levers before the next team. • The car is a system, not merely an object. The interconnectedness of...
Occasional ObservationsMercedes & Microsoft
"Let's put that in the parking lot"
Occasional ObservationsSame ball, different games
Apple & Microsoft & Android have each built operating systems, but they're playing different games: premium, productivity, mass adoption; "bicycle for the mind", enterprise-oriented, flexibility. NASA & SpaceX each build rockets, but they're playing different games: government services, interplanetary commerce. OpenAI & Meta & Anthropic have each built generative tooling, but they're playing different games: integration, attention, responsibility. Obsession over comparing What It Is tends to ...
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There's a common narrative that in the age of AI, everyone's going to be a founder. This vastly overestimates how many people want to spend to much time in tech, let alone build their own software or be a founder.
Every piece of software is being deconstructed not by features but by increasingly niche-driven use cases. So while it takes a smaller team to create a product/company, the TAM is necessarily smaller.
Of course there will be more founders, smaller startups, and more companies — and more software that isn’t built/owned by companies. Not everything will be productized. There will be many, many more folks who will “build software” for themselves to simply do their jobs.
The truth is, this is already happening in most companies whether we know it or not.
The world doesn't need more founders. It needs better tools for good work. Sometimes that takes a founder; others, it just takes a creative, motivated mind with the right tools and timing.
* * *
Header photo by Anthony Aird on Unsplash
There's a common narrative that in the age of AI, everyone's going to be a founder. This vastly overestimates how many people want to spend to much time in tech, let alone build their own software or be a founder.
Every piece of software is being deconstructed not by features but by increasingly niche-driven use cases. So while it takes a smaller team to create a product/company, the TAM is necessarily smaller.
Of course there will be more founders, smaller startups, and more companies — and more software that isn’t built/owned by companies. Not everything will be productized. There will be many, many more folks who will “build software” for themselves to simply do their jobs.
The truth is, this is already happening in most companies whether we know it or not.
The world doesn't need more founders. It needs better tools for good work. Sometimes that takes a founder; others, it just takes a creative, motivated mind with the right tools and timing.
* * *
Header photo by Anthony Aird on Unsplash
1 comment
In a new blog post, @trh challenges the idea that everyone in the AI age will become a founder. While the landscape inspires smaller startups and personal software oriented towards niche use cases, the real need is for better tools to improve work, not just more founders.