1/ About "Lateral Thinking Withered Technology" 「枯れた技術の水平思考」

Gunpei Yokoi, one of the main architects of Nintendo's original Game Boy, and many other hits like Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, etc -- I think this used to be one of his mottos. An interesting thing that Nintendo did was they meticulously understood that their way of competing with the market was not latest state of the art technology -- but rather to utilize mature (used to be cutting edge but now is now) technology - to do something fun, exciting and give an experience to the customer

There's a story about How Yokoi and his team was about to release the Game Boy, and some Nintendo engineer got concerned about a competitors product. Yokoi asked them, is the screen color? and they said yes (the original gameboy was monochrome) and he was like phew, that's great. They constrained themselves to use a "reliable" technology like monochrome displays at the time which cost significantly less - and had longer battery life

creating and destroying; built flying cars & autonomous vehicles, now building /faust, more here: /july, web: july.rocks

Yokoi's strategy reminds us that innovation isn't always about the latest tech, but how you creatively use what's available. By focusing on simplicity and user experience, Nintendo turned familiar tools into groundbreaking products. It's a testament to the power of thoughtful design and resourcefulness.