Bad ideas are often the best 25 Jun 2007

Paul Buchheit says that product ideas can be divided into three categories:

1. "Obviously good ideas that are very difficult to implement. Efficient cold-fusion, flying cars, and a lot of other sci-fi ideas fall into this group."
2. "Obviously 'good' ideas that seem possible but haven't happened yet. Video phones and HDTV were in this category for a long time. I think this happens when people get excited about technology and overestimate the benefits (and possibly underestimate the cost). I just don't care that much about having a video phone."
3. "'Bad' ideas. Many of these ideas are truly bad, but some of them will in hindsight turn out to have been very good ideas. I put them in the same category because they are difficult to distinguish without the benefit of hindsight. Some examples are the personal computer ('why would anyone need a computer?'), Google ('there are already too many search engines, and besides, search engines don't make money'), and Blogger ('can't you just use Geocities, and besides, are there really that many people with something worth saying?'). More recent (and still controversial) examples include Facebook and Twitter."