Sunday, July 22, 2012

Selling vs Inventing.

Psychologically, selling and inventing are two opposite activities. As the seller, you exploit people's biases so that they see and appreciate the features and benefits of your product only. You want to focus their attention on the "box" you are offering to them as the best solution available. In short, you want to create what David Kahneman calls the WYSIATI effect - jumping to conclusions with limited evidence.

In contrast, as an inventor, you have to unbias people (mostly of your co-creators and early adopters) so that they approach the situation with the least amount of prejudice. You want to unfocus your team, at least initially, so that they take the broadest view and cast the broadest net. You want to destroy the WYSIATI effects.

tags: psychology, invention, intuition

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