Cool vs. Profitable, and the overlap

I have talked about this before, but it is worth pointing out again (mostly becuase I can't find where I talked about it so may be imagining things....).

Technology/Science, when done for a profit, follows slightly different rules than the academic setting. Spefically, COOL isn't enough. I deal, as part of my job, with a lot of COOL technology. The fact that it is "cool" is nice, and certainly helps me keep myself going. I am very tied in to the coolness of things. However, cool isn't enough. Stuff has to also make us money.

To make us mony, COOL is very helpful. COOL gets noticed. However, it really has to help people do thier jobs. At the end of the day, most folks don't really care about COOL. They care about getting their job done quickly and well. The faster they can stop dealing with X, the sooner they can start dealing with Y. Getting to Y, presumably leads them to product/raise/notice/whatever motivates them.

Much of what makes us money is NOT cool. An example is Tissue culture media. Not Cool but VERY neccesary. High margin's on it, and people don't like to change from one vendor to another.

The ultimate product is one that is COOL, USEFULL, and requires the user to keep buying parts over and over and over again.

A Vector is the worst product. People buy it once, share it between every lab within spitting distance, and then you never hear from them again. A vector that allows you to sell a resin for purification is an excellent product, as people will clone in to your vector and then keep buying resin from you.

Things that are the absolute worst are things where it is COOL but just involves the same thing people were doing before but it costs more. Technologically, maybe a 'newer' or 'more advanced' way of doing things, but at the end of the day what people get is not any more useful than the old fashioned way. New for new's sake. Way bad.