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I feel like I’ve seen an earlier version of this thought somewhere years ago. “Selling pickaxes to miners” is a terrible mental model for innovation. Mature tools sustain commoditized, fungible work. Miners digging for gold aren’t inventors or entrepreneurs. They’re gamblers.
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Innovation work generally looks like building your own pickaxes, to dig with rather than sell to others. Because nobody sells the exact tools you need. Selling pickaxes to miners is a better metaphor for democratization of consumption access. Shadow labor enabling.
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This is my attempt to simplify the core idea of this thread since people keep complaining my tweets are confusing
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Veblen-doer hierarchy Science is savagery. “Hmm what happens if I eat the apple like the nice snake says?” Engineering is barbarism: “How do I solve this problem with minimal refinement?” Design is civilization: “How can I express Brooklyn aesthetics with maximal refinement?”
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