Let me tell you the story of Thomas Midgley Jr. and why solutioneering can become a serious problem when building products (thread)

Midgley was hired by @GM to solve a little problem they had with knocking in cars.

A few solutions were tried in the process:

Solution 1: alcohol

Too cheap, cannot be commercialized

Solution 2: iodine

Too expensive to make

Solution 3: leaded gasoline

Just right

Except for the little it kills everyone that comes into contact with it, but hey..they could trademark it and sell it, so why not!

Now @GM was entirely aware of this, and even removed Midgley Jr. from the project

When asked to run validity on the claims that leaded gasoline was dangerous

The Committee decided it couldn't agree either way so marked it "safe"

But Midgley's story doesn't end there.

Years later @GM hired him again, this time to find the solution to exploding refrigerators

And so came along freon

Outcomes from that:

We can now store our food and have an icy cold beer

Freon is also the stabilising agent in aerosols

Aerosols are responsible for that big hole in the ozone we found in the 1980s

Imagine being this guy though... What a karma he racked up being responsible for not one

but two of the biggest contributors to climate change

(thankfully, he wasn't also responsible for the invention of plastic)

But what can we learn from all of this?

Keep product ethics in mind when building products
Think ahead! Second action consequences are important
Focus on the problem for the end user, not the solution that best fits *you*

I wrote more about Midgley and product ethics on this @MindtheProduct blog post https://www.mindtheproduct.com/we-cant-trust-technology-providers-is-it-time-for-a-code-of-ethics/