Not if you don't know that the better mouse trap was even possible. You are not going to search for "breathable, waterproof shoes" if you don't know GoreTex is a thing.
Granted somewhere in the last 20 years we have mostly stopped innovating and started optimizing and so now you get ads for branded Skinner boxes (sorry, free to play mobile games) rather than, say, cancer cures but if there were innovating products worth buying, you wouldn't search for them because you wouldn't even be able to imagine them.
> Not if you don't know that the better mouse trap was even possible. You are not going to search for "breathable, waterproof shoes" if you don't know GoreTex is a thing.
Sure I am, if I care about shoes being breathable and waterproof. Why would I not do that, and instead hope a magic box will read my mind and guess what I need?
Most people who get wet shoes just accept it as part of life. They don't get on Google and ask how to prevent wet shoes because they don't want to go around wearing kayaking shoes all the time.
The fact that there exists normal-looking waterproof shoes isn't something that they know about or would search about
Growing up in the pacific northwest, I don't think this is a most people thing. :) everyone I know walking around there cares about wet feet, since it's likely to happen 270 days out of the year.
Granted somewhere in the last 20 years we have mostly stopped innovating and started optimizing and so now you get ads for branded Skinner boxes (sorry, free to play mobile games) rather than, say, cancer cures but if there were innovating products worth buying, you wouldn't search for them because you wouldn't even be able to imagine them.