Where does survive the inventive user ?

[Lynn Fredricks]

> Without that once in a lifetime vehicle, it is an uphill 
> battle to engage people who might fall in love with LC if 
> they only were simply exposed to it. Worse, these days, the 
> mindset is that everything comes in small ready-to-go 
> packages, complete and compact. I have three kids who just 
> don't think about building stuff, especially from raw 
> materials. I used to, though.
> 
> 
> Thank the iMac, iPhone, iPod, etc., for creating that 
> expectation, a far cry from reading a bank of eight lights 
> telling you what byte was currently passing by.

I think that began long before the iDevices.

There are still creative kids out there, just sadly, far fewer of them. I
also see an equal dwindling of interest in the adults that engage them (Im
not implying anything about you, just look around at the next
parent-involved event at your children's school to see what I am talking
about).

Products are easier to sell if there is instant gradification. In software
for example, you should design your product so that it rewards your user no
less than every five minutes when its in its demo mode. This reward can be
subtle or not, but it should deliver a sense of satisfaction. By no means is
this sort of thing relegated to software.

It is a lot of hard work to light the fires of competitiveness and
creativity in kids in this consumerist society. I know many intelligent,
well educated parents who for whatever reason end up with a bunch of high
school drop out Lotus Eaters living in their basement. But I also know a
much, much smaller number of families that raise competitive, creative and
intellectually engaged kids too. They exist - just in much smaller numbers.

It is a lot easier to sell to the Lotus Eaters though.

Best regards,

Lynn Fredricks
President
Paradigma Software
http://www.paradigmasoft.com

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