Thoughts on Humane AI Pin

After having watched and read a couple of Humane’s AI Pin reviews here are some thoughts:

It used to be that tech was something niche. That people interested in gadgets like that were geeks and powerusers; and as such anything new was treated with excitement and wonder first and any skepticism was secondary.

Today, tech is mainstream and universal. When someone like the Verge or MKBHD puts out a review, it’s targeted towards a more general audience. More importantly an audience that is less perceptive to change, trying something new for the sake of trying, or willing to put up with some subpar experience just because the idea is cool.

Here’s an example: Compare Google Glass from 2014 to AI Pin today. Google Glass was expensive ($1,500) and unfinished, but everyone was excited about it; it was not “the worst product ever reviewed”. Granted, that criticism eventually came around and the product flopped, but at least we gave it a chance.

Maybe the industry has learned its lesson from failed moonshots like these and it’s more reserved. On that note, I will say that not all “pain” should lead to generalized learning; sometimes problems should be dealt with as one-offs and you move forward. We shouldn’t let ourselves become cynics.

At the end of the day what makes a good product and a great company is iteration and perseverance. Google Glass stayed at v1, I hope @bella_bongiorno, @imranchaudhri and the team keep at it strong and prove that moonshots are possible.