Build the tools, then the community.

Some thoughts regarding today’s Apple announcements…

• First, build tools that make solving real problems effortless and fun (like organizing and listening to music).
• Grow the user base by tweaking an amazing product.
• Then, add a community to those tools. 

My problem with Facebook is that its tools suck.

Tumblr started out for me as a stupid simple way to power my blog. And then a community grew up around it. Flickr was the same. I wanted a place to publish my photos. Then a community grew up around it. I’ve been a music lover all my life and iTunes enabled me to easily organize my music. Now it looks like there will be a community that will form around my music interests.

There are professional photographers and professional writers. They need stupid simple tools to effectively solve their problem. If there’s a profession in need of tools, there’s a huge number of amateurs looking for the same tools. I’m worried that there aren’t professional location sharers.