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The Tale of a ‘Normal’ Person: A Reality Check

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Re: The Tale of a ‘Normal’ Person: A Reality Check

#31

Post by nittwerp »

pavelludiq wrote: post #17

I once tried to imagine what one of those people was thinking and i felt a strong vacuum in the right part of mi brain. I don't know if anyone of you was ever asked himself what makes these people different. Weren't we the different ones? These people are boring, they live in their own worlds. Thats probably exactly what they think of us :D We understand nerds problems because we are nerds and these problems are our…

Maybe you could make some non-nerd friends and ask them for their input? Although, with the elitist attitude you exhibited in your comment, I can see how that might be difficult.

Re: The Tale of a ‘Normal’ Person: A Reality Check

#32

Post by bigbang »

lsc wrote: post #15
parker wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is that early adopters can evangelize your product and create its foothold, but it's the late adopters who play mass market kingmakers.

this is key. Look at Google. they target technical types, but for joe average, their product is just as usable as the compitition, who explicitly targets the average user. Joe average is going to have a technical person setup his computer- If that technical person, say, makes firefox the default browser, assuming it mostly works, joe average is going to use firefox. This might also be why OSX is doing so much better…

"Look at Google. they target technical types, but for joe average, their product is just as usable as the compitition, who explicitly targets the average user."

Do you mean search? Its not the case that yahoo or live search targets only at average ppl. It very well targets you and me too. On the other hand with Gmail, it targets only at savvy ppl. People are not used to conversations or tagging or archiving.

Re: The Tale of a ‘Normal’ Person: A Reality Check

#33

Post by unalone »

helveticaman wrote: post #27
LogicHoleFlaw wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a bog-standard cell phone (Razr) and I still get tripped up by the interface. I hate it!

Don't get carried away now. Razr is shit. Most other cellphones aren't that bad.

Yes they are. I can't think of a phone that I've actively liked beyond the iPhone. Voyager? Not even close. And apparently people think that's a good phone, too.

Re: The Tale of a ‘Normal’ Person: A Reality Check

#34

Post by demandred »

parker wrote: post #4
demandred wrote: post #3

is it just me or do these guys' post seem to reek of quite a bit of arrogance? Great that they're 'making something people want' but their posts are generally condescending -- stop the incessant chatter and show off this amazing product you've built for 'normal' people that is going to change the world and be uber-profitable.

I got the inspiration for this post after talking to some non-tech people about how they find and use new software. You realize that they live in a different world, without all the chatter. I'm not implying that what we're doing is going to shake the foundations of the planet, because it won't -- simply relaying what I'm thinking about as we work.

It was a solid post -- I'm all for finding real 'paying' customers, as well -- just seems that some of the posts are prodding other web app startups (a lot of your fellow YC compadres actually).

Solid writing though.

Re: The Tale of a ‘Normal’ Person: A Reality Check

#35

Post by mattmaroon »

"They believe that a wild horde of malcontented hackers are watching their every move in unchartered internet waters. . This is most conspicuously manifested in their distrust of giving their credit card information over a webform."

Though something like 5% of them will click any link in any email that has either "PayPal" or a misspelling of "Viagra" in it and enter their social security number, mother's maiden, credit card number, address, and waist/inseam sizes.

Re: The Tale of a ‘Normal’ Person: A Reality Check

#36

Post by eru »

altano wrote: post #29

"As it turns out, there is something special about them — they’re normal people, doing normal things." No, they're people in stock art doing absolutely nothing but standing around and looking stupid.

Yes. But can you find a better i.e. more normal photography?

Re: The Tale of a ‘Normal’ Person: A Reality Check

#37

Post by Retric »

unalone wrote: post #33
helveticaman wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get carried away now. Razr is shit. Most other cellphones aren't that bad.

Yes they are. I can't think of a phone that I've actively liked beyond the iPhone. Voyager? Not even close. And apparently people think that's a good phone, too.

The bar for a good cell phone is vary low. I really liked my SCH-A990 because it worked well as a phone and you could use it as a 3MP camera but while it was better than average its interface sucked.

To take a picture you open the phone, rotate the display, close it an it looks like a normal digital camera with a 2 inch LCD on the back and a nice large button on the top right to take photos. Now all you need to open the shutter your ready to take pictures.

But, while that button takes photo's with a short click, by holding it down you can go to movie mode and take movies. So then if you did a short click that same button wold start and stop taking movies or if you held it down again it would go back to pictures. Who on earth thought that up? Nobody I handed the camera to knew how to work it without messing it up several times. But, most of them still thought it was a Great cell phone.

Re: The Tale of a ‘Normal’ Person: A Reality Check

#39

Post by william42 »

bigbang wrote: post #32
lsc wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is key. Look at Google. they target technical types, but for joe average, their product is just as usable as the compitition, who explicitly targets the average user. Joe average is going to have a technical person setup his computer- If that technical person, say, makes firefox the default browser, assuming it mostly works, joe average is going to use firefox. This might also be why OSX is doing so much better…

"Look at Google. they target technical types, but for joe average, their product is just as usable as the compitition, who explicitly targets the average user." Do you mean search? Its not the case that yahoo or live search targets only at average ppl. It very well targets you and me too. On the other hand with Gmail, it targets only at savvy ppl. People are not used to conversations or tagging or archiving.

Aside from the tags-and-filters system, none of that is a massive shift from what people already do.
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