April 22, 2025

When a Menstrual Pad Cleans Your Follower Count

How innovative is it to use existing technologies for novel use cases?


E-ink with audio-announced and reliable real-time updates in the sunny Taiwanese mountains

When I was a kid, I was surprised to see pads displayed on Taiwanese store shelves as a form of customer service, similar to how electronic products are available for customers to examine in Best Buy and Apple stores today. Few people bothered to touch, ruin, or steal the pads due to Japanese-influenced etiquette.

Linear algebra writing on a menstrual pad
Source: Reddit and a high schooler's desk, but gosh, I wonder why tampons look like sperm! Silicone menstrual cups and materials engineering research ftw

In contrast, pads were hidden away in the US retail experience, but there were 3D simulated television ads showcasing “how our pad works better!” across brands among other technical product specs provided on the packaging. A cousin who has long aspired to be an entrepreneur once remarked, “America’s good at marketing… they also have the money for it.”

Culture, high impact, and high scale decisions are recursively related so we should pay attention to those feedback loops and update our definitions as language evolves over generations along with our creations.