What we can learn from spaghetti sauce

This is a great speech by Malcom Gladwell about what makes us most happy may not be the "best" or ideal product - rather a more segmented approach to meeting people's needs. If I were to run this to it's obvious conclusion - I believe the web has empowered people to develop products or content to meet very specific niches unlike anytime before. No longer is the entire country watching Johnny Carson simultaneously on TV - we are instead choosing our most passionate interests from a sea of options. I think this takes power away from the "one large widget corporation" and gives numerous entrepreneurs the opportunity to be masters of entire segments of widgets.

Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce -- and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.

What we can learn from spaghetti sauce

The rise of the amateur professional

Sometimes large companies create products for profit - or for a specific business model. This talk argues how the BEST products are designed by the users - the people who want the product. An example here is how the mountain bike was not designed by a large bike company - but by the biking enthusiasts. No longer can companies design products and then get a read from "passive" consumers who say they like it or not - now I believe the call is for entrepreneurs to design in collaboration with consumers.

In this deceptively casual talk, Charles Leadbeater weaves a tight argument that innovation isn't just for professionals anymore. Passionate amateurs, using new tools, are creating products and paradigms that companies can't.

The rise of the amateur professional