How to profit from your ignorance...

Hi Jesse!

> Great article, Dien! Thanks for sending it
> our way.

I'm glad you liked the article! :)

> If you think about it, Richard's approach is
> actually a variation of the tried & true
> method of "Find the market (read:
> problem), and then create the product."

> Only difference is, he has the guts to
> define a "problem" as his own
> personal experience, rather than doing all
> kinds of systematic research.

> This, of course, is the high risk/high
> reward approach. It can spectacularly fail,
> or spectacularly succeed. But like with
> anything else, perseverance is the name of
> the game. And he certainly seems to have
> weathered his share of storms and emerged
> very nicely!

Yes, I agree with you....

I think the nice thing about his approach is that, in essence, all the "market research" happens in his head.... He just tries to make things the way HE would like them to be.

(This is different from the way many people who don't do market research do it.... They try to come up with what they THINK that OTHERS want. However, he comes up with what he KNOWS that HE wants, so I think there's a difference.... If nothing else, he at least knows he has a market of one person!)

The nice thing about this approach, I think, is that it's probably easy to come up with new types of products, created just how you like them.... I agree with Richard Wurman's sentiment, that there are LOTS of things in the world that could use improving, and be better designed or made easier to use.

Of course, the danger is that maybe not enough people think the way you do! As you essentially said, Jesse, you may have to take more swings at the ball with this method before you get a hit!

I agree with your assessment. :)

By the way, here's a quote I really liked from the article....

"When you sell your expertise - whether to a boss, a client, or even a friend - you have a limited repertoire. On the other hand, when you sell your ignorance, when you sell your desire to learn about something, to create and explore and navigate paths to knowledge - when you sell your curiosity - you sell from a bucket that's infinitely deep, that represents an unlimited repertoire.

"My expertise has always been my ignorance - my admission and my acceptance of not knowing. My work comes from questions, not from answers."

- Richard Wurman



I love the idea of selling from something that is infinitely deep - your curiosity.... You can never run out of new questions to ask....

Perhaps it's the scientist in me. :)

Thanks Jesse.... very insightful comments!

- Dien