Vices Sell, Not Virtues

I learned this earlier in life when making a mobile app for the iPhone. Many advisers told me that I have to sell one of the seven sins.  Many told me that the app had to touch on one or many of the human vices to find success and make money.  I thought deeply about this at the time and felt it was true.

I took this as a fact at the time, it’s easy to do this when you quickly think of the most successful apps on the iPhone.  Think of most of the reasons many of them get used, they probably use a vice to get you hooked, like one of the 7 below:

Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride

It might be me, but I didn’t realize until writing this that there are 7 virtues as well.  It seems many know about the deadly sins, probably because it sounds so cool and movies have been made around the vices and not these virtues:  

Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Kindness, Patience, Humility

These are the opposite of the seven sins, if you line them up next to each other.  

So are there apps on the phone that have wild success and have the virtues and not the vices as their product?

Yes! Of course there are.  Journaling apps like my friends Day One.  Apps that let you create art or music seem to be virtuous. Apps like Uber and Airbnb seem to be popular and only act as tools and seem to fall in the neutral space, not a virtue or vice.  Some apps on your phone are there for you to learn, like Audible and podcasts.  They are tools and probably neither virtue or vice. I feel like they have found success by nearly being a tool for humanity to use. Humanity can use them for virtuous content or for content that is a vice.

Let’s make sure we all understand that sins are subjective and not universally thought of as vices by all people. I have friends who believe greed and lust are great for humans to embrace.

I am not here to judge apps and tell you what is what, as everyone can do this by themselves and it’s unique to where your heart and vibration is at as you use Instagram or Candy Crush. I love both of those apps and Instagram makes me happy for my friends who get to share their advice and favorite moments. For others, the same content may induce fomo or envy. I feel envy often but I sit with it and try to understand it and rewire my brain to feel the opposite.

I am just inquiring to the readers here if an app that doesn’t chase the vices can find success.  I was told last week that our app that uses AI to be a health advisor might struggle to get adoption because it doesn’t feed into behaviors of lust, greed or envy.

I thought about this deeply after this advice was given to me again 10 years after attempting and failing at my mobile app (which was full of vices). I am concluding that we are pulled to vices and not as much virtues, but that humanity will ultimately seek virtues as we evolve to higher consciousness. It is at the individual level that we should make effort to think and feel different. I think our collective effort will create a new economy of wellness and love. We might have to all experience the vices to then turn to the virtues.

SP

This is 3 hours late on this Sabbath day because I got sucked into the moment of eating with my friend. Completely forgot about 4:20. I am going to try to enjoy this evening, but had to get this out. Thanks for you patience (a virtue) and for those who depend on my email at 4:20 like they do the tide coming in or the sun rising… I am sorry to throw off you circadian rhythm.