There are a class of tinkerer-style ideas for e.g.

There are a class of tinkerer-style ideas for e.g. calendars that have been hard to activate.

The idea of creating a better calendar scheduling algorithm requires first building a calendar app that is better than alternatives, and convinces people to give you–an app they just met–all of their most sensitive data.

A very steep hill to climb.

Also, a very scary one: most tinkerers don't want all of that radioactive data.

But what if there were an open platform that everyone knew that everyone knew was safe and secure and kept user's data out of view of everyone but the user.

People could create clever little things like calendar scheduling algorithms without that steep, scary gradient.

The open platform would become the schelling point for little things like this, which would make it more attractive to other participants: a self-accelerating loop, a gravity well.