We almost had a smartphone in the 90s. Why did it fail?

General Magic, a 1990s startup, serves as a cautionary tale for how excessive resources and a lack of constraints can stifle innovation. Despite having brilliant talent and significant funding, the company failed because it lacked a clear customer focus, specific deadlines, and defined priorities, resulting in an incoherent product that flopped. Journalist David Epstein identifies this as a failure to embrace "desirable difficulties," where limitations actually fuel creativity. Former employee Tony Fadell, who later helped develop the iPod and iPhone, transformed these lessons into a framework for success. By imposing strict deadlines and focusing on specific user needs, he demonstrated that constraints force the hard thinking necessary to build impactful technology. This dynamic illustrates the "additive bias," where humans mistakenly equate more freedom with better outcomes, ignoring the necessity of boundaries in achieving creative excellence.