A new thing that doesn't fit into a pre-established box is hard for people to grab onto.

"What kind of thing is it?" doesn't have a satisfying answer.

People are used to being able to say things like:

"Uber for dog walking"

"Vertical saas for funeral parlors"

That is, "<pattern> for <population>"

When you can't do that people say "I guess the idea is very abstract."

But the idea can be extremely concrete, just big and new enough to be hard to grab onto.

The only way to grab onto it is with metaphors, but those can be confusing.

"It's a metaphorical equivalent of the browser for a new kind of web-like fabric of experiences."

"Oh, OK, I get it. … But wow, browsers are expensive to build and maintain!"

"Well, it's not literally a browser… it will manifest to start primarily as a special kind of web app"

"Oh, OK, I get it, so it's a web app."

"No, it's a special kind of meta web app…"

… And so it goes until the conversation dies out.

Truly new things can't be talked about; we don't have the labels and pre-existing expectations yet.

Truly new things simply must be experienced to get it.