Startups need to solve problems, not boredom

This may seem obvious, but for some reason, when I survey the list of recent startups I see in the Valley, I can’t help but wonder what the hell they are thinking. What I’m talking about is beyond the old adage 'a solution in search of a problem'. This is more serious. This is an enormous number of startups focusing on one infinite black hole of a single ‘problem’: boredom. This is a shame for two reasons: 1) boredom is not a problem – it is a motivator; and 2) since boredom is not a problem, it cannot be solved for – only procrastinated. This makes boredom an incredibly tempting target for entrepreneurs, because we can all procrastinate. And on top of that, boredom seems to be solvable, according to the Valley, with only one tired tactic – endless communication.

There are plenty of other problems

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that we don’t need another communications platform to inundate us with a never-ending stream of user-generated content. There are a lot of great ones today, and I’m sure a few more great ones will exist in the future, but it should not be the majority focus of Silicon Valley when so many other problems exist in the fabric of our society.

To list a few that pertain to the United States:

• A degrading education system
• A struggling job allocation structure
• A stagnant, opaque political environment
• A growing divide between deep skills (economics, science, philosophy, art)
• An autistic digital business environment relying on marketing
• War

Software is not merely communication, it's philosophy in action

If I were to venture a guess, it would be that many entrepreneurs think of the internet as a vast communications network, rather than a software-hosting ecosystem that can communicate. They function with a deeply ingrained marketing assumption that intercepting and redirecting interpersonal communication is the ultimate way to invigorate commerce. They are wrong or perhaps simply inadequate.

The ultimate way to invigorate commerce is to make a great product that introduces a new, intrinsic value to a consumer’s life.

This may be an overstatement. Commerce can be invigorated through logical categorization, self-selection and a variety of other things, but an economy cannot function on these alone. What, if anything, are they selling? If it's products and services, I’ll give you a tip: the space is owned. And even if you are able to tip over one of the giants, you’ll be one in a million. The energy of the rest of the nine hundred ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine would be better spent creating products and services to sell, rather than increasingly convoluted marketing platforms masquerading as social networks.

How do you do that? Think of software as philosophy in action. When you code using an object-based language, you create libraries that define a universe. When you script, you order your created universe into an extremely malleable environment, limited only by your libraries and the input of users. This is a universe that runs, whether you realize it or not, on your own philosophy. Objects are what you call them, and they do what you tell them. A user who engages with a compiled version of your language is submitting themselves to your structure.

Tools are productive philosophies

In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m talking about tools that help individuals create. This isn’t about ‘creating’ pithy tweets or ‘building’ profiles. This is about developing software that passively and actively teaches users to organize and discipline their thinking into more productive structures. The definition of ‘productive’ is up to you, and I think changes based on a relative environment, but that is the goal. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I’d hope for many different software tools that promote dueling or even contradictory philosophies.

Why communication is not always productive

Communication is not productive when it is relative only to other communication. Re-tweeting is not productive; it is replication. Using a tool to create an organized structured element, which can be communicated, is productive. But fundamentally, when an ecosystem becomes mostly about self-promoted communication and replication, it is no longer productive and eventually loses its value. When a community has a strong foundation of productivity, augmented by communication, its value will grow.

I have spent time working on productive tools and communication products, both supporting and designing them. I work now with the hope that my tools for the iPad, my philosophies enacted through software, will help children learn (I’m focusing on educating right now). They might not, they might fail, or they could succeed. Whether or not I produce wealth from them, I will teach through them, imprinting systems that will affect the way children see the world around them through how they write. I take that responsibility very seriously and so should you.