CC, How do I Make Something New?

"I am a product designer. Lately, I'm feeling stuck - every product (or idea for a new use of a product) is already in existence, and with technology, I can get it in 2 days or less. What makes something new or different? Or is being new or different even important anymore?"

- Jessica

Inspire Jessica with Your Thoughts (https://deathtostock.typeform.com/to/jnwZty)

The sameness you're seeing is thanks to an echo chamber that's repeatedly sharing the same ideas which are recycled over and over again.

If you're looking to come up with new ideas, stop looking at places where other ideas are.

Because it's more likely that you kill your own unique ideas than the market getting there first.

When people talk about their ideas, they often describe their idea, and then somewhere during the conversation, they let slip, almost as an aside, a different or twist on the idea they have.

They'll say "yeah so it's an app that helps you storyboard your animations, I'm going to call it UnAdobe."

.....

"But it really came from this idea I had when I was a kid from fingerpainting where I recognized that designing could be made easier if the interface was built for finger touch only rather than desktop, and you could get haptic feedback, changing the objects from the pointer tool to..."

"Anyways, so about the storyboard idea."

......

Why do we try to keep that to ourselves?

When we see the pool of ideas online, we don't often check back to see how many of the ideas that distracted us, went out of business 6 months later.

What if you work on this for the next 10 or 20 years. How would that change what you think about building? How would that amount of time let your idea mature and differentiate, to where only you know the ins and outs of the smallest details that people notice?

I'm honestly excited about what ideas you have.

But the surface (beginning) is the least interesting part of an idea as it develops. You dig in to find what's interesting, by seeing things other people don't see and then sharing them through your work.

Use the rabbit holes you find interesting and go down them.

The farther down those holes you go, the fewer people there will be, and the more you will make something truly unique.

xx David

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