Scoble suggests I need more exercise: "Run circles around Microsoft."
Actually, I just flat out love making things that people want to use and it's great solving problems for people. If I have to run, I will--although I prefer hikes through the desert. :-)
In the meantime I'm still learning how to write this blog. My Friday post was written in a moment of down time. I probably should have taken a walk rather than posting it, but I wanted to share a real and predominant concern that many people have about what I'm doing.
In terms of product "stealing," I agree with Scoble. Sometimes it looks like others are stealing an idea, but they almost never are. Give me any idea and I bet a couple dozen people already have thought of it and a handful of others are actually implementing something. The good part is that everyone brings just a little different perspective on the problem. Plus the practicalities and issues at hand may subtly or demonstrably change over time, potentially giving value to each solution.
Take ShareKMC, for example. When I realized the problem that I needed solved I looked everywhere for a solution. I couldn't find one--partly because I had no idea precisely what I was looking for. I found lots of things that were similar, but their 80% focus was not on solving the problem that I wanted solved. So I started coding. When I was well into the app only then did I learn of Synergy and some other solutions that I could have used to solve my initial problem. I could have stopped, but the key point I kept coming back to was that these other seemingly equivalent solutions were not tuned to the Tablet PC. They might do a better job than mine at let's say managing multiple computers, but did they provide the valuable copy/paste features I wanted with OneNote? No. Besides, maybe through the process of developing ShareKMC, I reasoned, maybe I'll see another problem that needs solving.
At the time of my Friday post, it seemed so clear to me that everyone would benefit from Microsoft and ISVs working together more efficiently to develop complementary products for the Tablet PC. There are lots of applications to be developed.
However, after I posted my comments, I realized even I wouldn't want to live out my life in this utopian development world that I thought I was yearning for. Instead, I'd see what it would be like and try to make another, better one. So, Yes, Scoble, I agree--that's why the very next day I posted the ink editing screenshots.
Posted by Loren at September 17, 2003 10:41 AM