I met Tony Fadell when I was working on the iPod.
It was brief. He attended a meeting between his Apple team and my team from Agere. Shook his hand. A few pleasantries. He kicked off the meeting and then left. That was it. He wouldn’t remember me.
He and I are the same age, interested in the same things, and have the same education. But other than that brief handshake and my doomed time working on his project, that’s where the similarities end.
I’ll sum it up this way — he’s got a Wikipedia page. I do not.
But not long ago, I thought about him again (and relived my nightmare that was iPod) because I read his book “Build.” In it, he talks about making great things and how to decide what to make. I say all of that, first as catharsis (you’re just a voyeur) but also to get to the point I’m trying to make, because he talks about it in this book:
When deciding what to make, make it a painkiller rather than a vitamin.
Painkillers are solutions that people voluntarily use. Vitamins are solutions that people should use but may or may not.
Some might say need versus want, and although that’s also a reasonable approach to determining what to make, they’re not the same. Do you need anesthesia before the doctor cuts off your leg? No, but you sure as hell want it. You’re volunteering vigorously to have the painkiller.
So painkillers may skew more towards the want end of the spectrum. If a painkiller disappears, people feel it. Many people use vitamins, but if the vitamin suddenly disappears, what happens? Some people will care, but many will not.
There is an emotional immediacy and visceral reaction to painkillers. There is a general malaise towards vitamins.
When deciding what to make, make it a painkiller.
