Services over Products
This morning I came across an essay of Paul Graham called Stuff. No need to say it was well written piece as most of his essays are, but there was something interesting about the topic he introduced. He basically said in a very rational and understandable way we need to start avoiding stuff. Here is the paragraph which for me sums up his argument:
I’ve now stopped accumulating stuff. Except books—but books are different. Books are more like a fluid than individual objects. It’s not especially inconvenient to own several thousand books, whereas if you owned several thousand random possessions you’d be a local celebrity. But except for books, I now actively avoid stuff. If I want to spend money on some kind of treat, I’ll take services over goods any day.
Full essay on Stuff
This is exactly at the core of the latest form of design: service design. The good thing is that service design and all its association (SDN) are booming business these days. Hence supply and demand seem to be existing. Lets just hope company’s realise this as well. And who knows perhaps it will give Europe a future…
