But what if I want a faster horse?

I also dislike the TikTokification of everything, but I also know that all of us on this platform are wrong in the sense that we're not the user being designed for.

Consumer apps at massive scale like TikTok and Netflix don't design for nerds like us, they design for the average person. Actually, they design for the average behavior of the average person.

And most people on this planet are more or less happy with whatever they're presented with because they don't care about technology.

And when you control what's presented to people, not they (and they don't care), you can push them to consume what you want them to consume.

I heard a YC group partner once that he's worked with a ton of delivery apps. Many of them start out as differentiated apps for ordering from the best "hole in the wall" places or the app for authentic foreign cuisines, only to discover that the best growth hack is getting McDonald's on the app, because that'll be your top seller, instantly.

Most people just do the default thing everyone does—and we're probably all like that in one aspect or another of our lives, and that's who many experiences are designed for.

Earlier people used to spend 2-3 hrs watching and absorbing a single movie. Now people spend 5 hrs scrolling tiktok. So in a sense time spent on content has actually increased. People don't need filler and lengthy buildups. People have been exposed to so much culture they can almost predict the general plotline so no need to spend time on that. Give me the plot twist or the drop (in case of spotify) with short relevant context. I remember Balaji saying something to this effect. He said don't give me filler content, just give me "fixed point" content which doesn't change after successively summarization and pruning.

did anyone try taste dot io?

It solves this salad media issue, recommending films based on your taste.

People overuse the original quote as an excuse to never listen to customers, but the real wisdom is to ask why they’re asking for a faster horse (to get around quicker) and see if you can think of a better way to meet that goal.

eh, I feel like this is a nicely typed out comment but it hits some wrong notes.

1. I wouldn’t say the car veands you mentioned are popular because they can hit high speeds. In my experience nearly any car can with the right engine and equipment in it (of course due to weight distribution and other details I assume they’re not all equally safe but that aside).

Personally when I look at those brands I think they’re sleek and pretty and when I feel like wanting one it’s because they’re expensive cars, driven by the rich. They’re not chosen only by the rich cause they have the best taste, they’re chosen by the rich because they are the only ones to have the financial means to afford one.

Also I feel like the changes made based on analytics arent made to please (more) users but to make as much money as possible, whether that be pleasing users in the starting phases of your company or in the latter phases when you already dominate the market squeezing money out of your big existing userbase.