And I, at the time, had the exact same take.

Despite being full of entrepreneurs and hackers, folks here are remarkably out of touch with the average consumer.

It's not a damning criticism. Like I said, I include myself in this group that reacted with a resounding "What? WHY?" to almost every single Apple product launched under Steve Jobs's tenure, and was wrong every time.

But it's a blindspot we should be cognizant of. And anything related with TikTok is the perfect confluence to lead to the most stale takes.

Having said that, there is always a bit of a survivorship bias with these trends.

I also was completely negative and dubious on Snapchat and turned out to have been vindicated.

I do think TikTok is something different. It captures my imagination and attention better than any platform EVER, and I include YouTube and Instagram in this. Their recommendation algorithm is truly wonderous.