better mousetrap

Filed under: Metaphors
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"Any challenger to a market where one player holds 80 percent share not only has to build a better mousetrap but improve upon the mouse," said Jonathan Spira, chief analyst at Basex, an IT research firm specializing in knowledge sharing and collaboration.

--"Amazon Challenges iPod," article in Red Herring, 16 February 2006

Block that metaphor! ~Yeah, I'd sure buy an improved mousetrap from someone who's also made a better mouse.~

I suppose "improve upon" might mean something like "make less objectionable." But I don't think he thought it through that carefully; I think he just thought it sounded catchy.

One Response to “better mousetrap”

  1. jacob

    I don’t think he thought it through carefully either, but one charitable interpretation could be that you need to improve upon the targeted mouse; that is, when you’re planning your mousetrap, imagine a smarter, stronger, more dextrous mouse that you’re trying to catch. In other words, don’t just solve the problem better, solve a harder problem.

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