My favorite line in PGs essay:<p>"I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly."
A little sad to read this 10 years later knowing that Arc hasn't really caught on. There's a clear optimism in the writing about the project's presumed future success - I think anybody who creates something public shares that feeling - but marketplaces are unpredictable and the odds aren't usually in your favor.
I wonder if initial crudeness actually has a _strictly positive_ contribution to the likelihood of success.<p>Perhaps the form of the product has a role in setting expectations. If so this would have a role in attracting forgiving first customers (e.g. those most in need of your product) and repelling those customers expecting a more "complete" product.
I'm on the fence about the message here.<p>PG announces Arc and receives flack for it. Then writes an article noting that he's always received this same flack for everything that he's done.<p>Sounds to me like the message is less about Arc or even the principles that he states but more about keeping your head down and working through unproductive feedback.
Can someone share info about Cezanne and Klee that PG was referring to? I doubt their approaches were as solution-oriented as PG believed them to be because of the disposition of artists, who usually create for themselves first and society a far second.