Worse Is Better

A maxim used to explain such things as

• the success of UNIX and C
• the failure of Lisp.
• the success of the World Wide Web vs Xanadu and other pre-web HyperText systems.

(Here failure and success mean market penetration (Adoption Life Cycle) or mindshare.)

Some varying key points

• people will sacrifice "quality" (as previously defined by the status quo) for new features/benefits (lower-resolution digitized music in exchange for easier sharing/carrying, lower cost): Disruptive Innovation
• the simpler the thing, the more people will do/use it
• things designed for simple interaction lead to Generative Network Effects

Most often associated with Jamie Zawinski, but he got it from Richard P Gabriel.

Victor Lombardi points to Clay Shirky piece in praise of evolvable systems - Iterative is good

Tim Bray wrote a good series on predicting Which new tech­nolo­gies will make it, and which will fail?

one approach toward Disruptive Innovation?

This doesn't mean that everything that seems worse is actually better, of course! PerlSucks, and so does Yo Mama.