The Vine

There is an easier way to peel a banana.

There is a faster way to tie your shoelaces.

There is a more nuanced way of creating spaghetti sauce and many other types of products that people don’t even know they want yet.

There is always a better, smarter, more elegant way of doing things, whether it’s writing code or organizing your socks or designing towns and neighborhoods. Finding it can be difficult and messy—after all, there’s already an established, familiar way that works, even if clunkily.

Sometimes it’s deceptively simple (shoelaces). Sometimes it takes seeing an “outsider” doing it differently, then unlearning the way you’ve always done it  (bananas). Sometimes it requires years of careful observation and a willingness to think fundamentally differently about what you’re trying to solve (spaghetti sauce).

Almost always it’s more work, and you’ll be tempted to give up.

Always it’s worthwhile—both in the pursuit and the results.