Do you ever look at a product that has been refined and asked the question, "Why didn't they make it look like this to begin with?" I can understand having rough drafts or concept versions in pre-production but it would seem after many years of study engineers, artists, programers, inventors, writers and business people who have the most effective work-flows and processes worked out. I guess at first glance this would be the most obvious question to ask but they are other factors to consider like;
- secrets help because of competition
- experimentation based on new markets, circumstances and discoveries
- the importance of getting a product to market in lieu of waiting to "perfection
- a focus on functionality over beauty
- and of course it's just plain cheaper to produce goods that are more basis and larger in scale
Those are my thoughts and I'm sure some of you can come up with others. I often feel so embarrassed when I look over previous versions of things I have worked on be it a short story, web sites, photos, landscaping in my yard, etc. It's almost if my life is a microcosm of human history itself.
They often said that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. What are you doing to shorten your products refinement time. Is their a way you have been able to make the creative or innovative process more efficient?
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