9x better or nothing!

For new entrants to stand a chance, they can’t just be better, they must be nine times better. Why such a high bar? Because old habits die hard and new products or services need to offer dramatic improvements to shake users out of old routines.

One possible explanations is because all humans are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain, to seek hope and avoid fear, and finally, to seek social acceptance and avoid rejection. Anything new, unless it is significantly better, poses a threat.

“Many innovations fail because consumers irrationally overvalue the old while companies irrationally overvalue the new.”
― Nir Eyal, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products