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> people can’t make something they don’t like and hope others will like it

There are implicit assumptions here about what "making" and "liking" means in this context. The vast majority of stuff that gets done and used is rote (think preparing daily food) and doesn't involve likeability in critical ways. It simply requires usability and maybe the absence of dislikeability.

Now if you want to invent a new dish, the calculus changes and becomes a mix of hopeless inertia (people don't easily change tastes) and stochasticity (except when they do).

What is more important imho is that whatever you do is a concrete, articulated something. That is what is usually expressed by the "what problem does it solve?" question. While I don't think that casting everything as a "problem" covers all bases, the idea is that people like having their problems solved. An ugly solution is still a solution.

But even those are partial considerations. People also just like stuff that other people like (fashion) with little intrinsic justification besides being part of a group.




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