You don't change the world with a marginally better mousetrap

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2 points·tmarman··5 comments

You can change the world with something only marginally better in markets that are less competitive and less well-established than general internet search... unfortunately cuil chose search.

Facebook is a marginally better mousetrap, Wordpress and Movable Type are marginally better mousetraps...They just happened to enter markets where the other options were not the greatest.

Marginally better can also be accomplished by simply removing a feature or two... 37signals, Twitter

I think you can be a marginally better mousetrap if the ones that already exist aren't quite "good enough". If there's a need for a better one, and you fill that need, there might be success if you play your cards right.

In an arena without a need for a better mousetrap though you are going up against already established competition, because they are already "good enough". People rarely go looking for better when they have good enough. :)

Yes, I think you're right on that distinction, and I guess I sort of internalized that. As Seth discusses to in the linked article, things don't become "iconic" without at least being "good enough" in that category - so if you're saying you're the "next" something, they're probably at least good enough.

Yes you do. Think about it. Was the object we know as "The mouse trap" the first tool used to kill mice? I doubt it. It simply was better than the current solutions. Sure, I know that being 'marginally better' isn't going to guarantee success, especially in a competitive market, but slight improvements can lead to widespread successes.

True. Dvorak still hasn't caught on.

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