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Irrational Design is more or less defunct at this point. Some of the projects may live on. The company may be reborn as something else in the future, but for now, at the very least, I won’t be blogging here any more.
I’ll be blogging much more often on my personal blog: Jared Cosulich
I frequently mention Craigslist in my writing and talks. I also love what Wikipedia has accomplished.
Why?
Both have these great aspects to them that people rarely understand:
“Why does Craigslist look like it’s from 1998? Why don’t they update it?”
“Who has time to do all this work on Wikipedia, and for no pay?”
It’s worth paying attention to products that gain traction despite being ugly, or lacking features, or requiring the work of thousands of volunteers without pay.
There’s probably something fundamentally important about these products that is too often ignored by developers, designers, product managers, entrepreneurs, vc’s, etc. What many people see as faults are actually strengths for these products. These faults may actually be some of the more sustainable competitive advantages out there.
P.S. Here’s a little explanation of the behind-the-scenes thinking at Craiglist: How To Design Kick-Ass Products
Sometimes pessimism overwhelms me.
I can’t help it, I just don’t feel optimistic about things. At a logical level I know things aren’t that bad (that they’re actually good), but the pessimism is too powerful.
I have 8 products I run, 7 by myself. I have no savings. I’m losing money on most of my products. Frankly I don’t have any fucking idea what I’m doing. Oh and I have a baby on the way.
What the fuck am I doing?
But I keep going; for some reason.
I’d call it blindly, but it feels more like improvisation.
When I’m jamming on my guitar I try to let go of all thought and let my instincts guide me. At a certain level this is what my life feels like right now.
Something inside of me is steadfast. Take one step at a time. Stay creative. Keep moving.
The rest of me is freaking out.
Then one night I’m walking home and the weather is perfect (a rarity in San Francisco). I’m listening to some great music (Ben Howard – The Wolves) and everything clicks. The panic subsides, the pessimism fades. Things click. Just for a little while, but they really click. I still have no idea what I’m doing or where it’s all going, but at a certain level it makes sense – it will work.
That’s when I realize that the world is a crazy cool place. It’s so much more than each of us individually. It’s evil and good, chaos and tranquility, danger and peace, all wrapped up in one crazy package. You have to appreciate just how much opportunity it gives each of us to live the most interesting lives.
Over the past few years I’ve made a few attempts at trying to figure out and optimize Google Adwords and Facebook ads. Generally speaking I’ve been pretty unsuccessful in these attempts.
I keep reading about other people finding success, though, so I keep coming back, getting frustrated and going away again.
If I could figure out how to achieve good rates through these programs, though, then it could be a big win for a number of the products I’ve built.
So I decided to turn it in to something bigger, something that will keep me motivated despite the likely frustrating lack of progress I’ll make. I’ve decided to launch HackingAdvertising.com and share the results of my advertising experiments. I figure might as well create some sort of value even if my efforts are ultimately unsuccessful…
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