Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
You might have shiny object syndrome, you might have ADHD, or, you might not realize you’re following a shiny object strategy.
Innovation requires exploration, false starts, scrapped prototypes, and revisited projects. The development of the iPhone is the perfect example.
The touchscreen that changed phones started from experimentation that had nothing to do with phones. Apple first tried to use it to develop a tablet computer. They then abandoned that tablet computer to try to make an iPod-phone.
In parallel, they took what progress they had made with the touchscreen, and dedicated a team to trying to make it work in a phone.
After six months, it was anything but clear to them what was the winner. Going all touchscreen was a risky move.
Special thanks to Brian Merchant for his wonderful book, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone, full of research used in this reel, and to Walter Isaacson for his biography of Steve Jobs. #creative
You might have shiny object syndrome, you might have ADHD, or, you might not realize you’re following a shiny object strategy.
Innovation requires exploration, false starts, scrapped prototypes, and revisited projects. The development of the iPhone is the perfect example.
The touchscreen that changed phones started from experimentation that had nothing to do with phones. Apple first tried to use it to develop a tablet computer. They then abandoned that tablet computer to try to make an iPod-phone.
In parallel, they took what progress they had made with the touchscreen, and dedicated a team to trying to make it work in a phone.
After six months, it was anything but clear to them what was the winner. Going all touchscreen was a risky move.
Special thanks to Brian Merchant for his wonderful book, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone, full of research used in this reel, and to Walter Isaacson for his biography of Steve Jobs. #creative
