Thoughts
So then to the question: does this mean minimalism is dead? That a simple product will always be beaten by a more complex one?
My argument is kind of this: given n, the number that hear about your product, and k, the percent of those people that think it’s a good product, growth is O(n^k), not O(k*n). (Don’t look too hard at the math. It doesn’t actually make sense.) Further, that “think it’s a good product” is more precisely defined as “solves a problem for this person.” So for example if someone doesn’t have the money or the time to use your product right now, they don’t negatively impact your k, since they might still tell other people or later use your product. On the other hand, someone who thinks it’s a cool product but doesn’t think it will solve their problem does negatively impact your k. And I’m kind of conflating things, but that’s the idea.
Like, I’m not going to build a Gemini client because I’m not going to use a Gemini client. And so the fact that Gemini doesn’t solve my problem also hurts all of these other people who might have used my Gemini client. And so the fact that I agree with Gemini’s ideals doesn’t mean anything.
This argument isn’t dependent on the thing being a social platform and it isn’t dependent on your growth model. Because people aren’t going to engage with any growth model if they don’t have a use for the product.