Toilet Paper Principle
#big-ideas
Economist Tim Harford came up with ==the toilet paper principle. Named after toilet paper, an invention we take for granted because of how simple it is.== Harford said the most influential new technologies are often humble and cheap. More affordability often counts for more than the beguiling complexity of an organic robot. This was what made Apple great. They made computers to be affordable household items, not just office equipment. Jef Raskin, who originally led the Macintosh team, envisioned a computer that sold for $1000. In his manifesto “Computers by the Millions,” he wrote: “If personal computers are to be truly personal, it will have to be as likely as not that a family, picked at random, will own one.” A vision Steve Jobs was enthralled by. The history of innovation is created by the people who drove cost down and made their products as simple as toilet paper.