Inspiring effect of Pokemon Go

Several weeks ago I walked around San Francisco and saw this (thousands of people playing Pokemon Go):

My first thought was “this is pure madness”. My second thought was “C’mon people, you are out on a beautiful summer day in the beautiful city by the bay and you are all looking at green monsters on your phone screens? WTF?” I went on and ranted for a bit about all the  time and energy that these people are wasting. My companions seemed to agree, including the one who was also catching Pokemons as we walked.  Still, I soon realized I wasn’t going to convince her either, because she had promised her younger son that she will catch Pokemons for him while he is camping.

That’s when I thought – this is also a great opportunity to build a new business. While all these capable people are wasting their time and effort, what are they not doing? They are not building new products and companies, they are not improving anything, they are not competing with anyone but other players for anything but the monsters. While this is really sad, this is also a great time to build and promote something new, because so much of potential competition is busy catching Pokemons. So keep playing…