In product development, the minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to gather validated learning about the product and its continued development. (the wiki)

This is what happens when efficiency concepts permeate culture.

The MVP, a good idea gone bad:

• Tinder the MVP of dating
• Online dating as the MVP of courtship
• Facebook the MVP of friendship
• The feed is the MVP of information
• Tweets are the MVP of news
• Blogging, the MVP of journalism
• Kanban, the MVP of WBS
• The sprint, the MVP of the Gantt
• Soylent, the MVP of healthy eating
• Listicles, the MVP of advice

I could go on forever.

Thank God there is no MVP brain surgeon, MVP plane, MVP nuclear power.

Yet.

But MVP is not a new idea:

• Libertarianism, the MVP of society
• Communism, the MVP of equality

Here is the thing:

1. MVP is compromise
2. Compromise is debt
3. Debt is certain future
4. Certainty lowers awareness

MVP misses the big picture on the long term.

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