Needs and solutions

We think needs comes first and then solutions follow. But in reality it’s not that simple.

In fact, it’s often the opposite.

Thirty years ago, we didn’t have the need to walk into the bank every day, to ask them what our account balance was. Or what payments we had made that week. Back then, we also didn’t feel the need to take pictures of ourselves every day. We didn’t feel the need to watch amateur videos of people on the other side of the world. We didn’t feel the need because those things simply weren’t possible. Or at least, very hard to do.

Then the internet came and smartphones. Companies started making things solutions for needs that didn’t exist yet. The solutions created the needs.

That’s what technology does: it gives us new needs. And it will keep doing that. AI, programmable cells, the goddamn Metaverse. Who knows what new needs technology will give us?