On: So you "just need a hacker", huh?

[astrec]

Perhaps better stated that a lot of products did not identify their eventual use beforehand. For your list the seed product had some utility:

* adhesive gives rise to postit * rubber alternative gives rise to silly putty * pedagogic device gives rise to game, kernel

[chaostheory → astrec]

"the seed product had some utility"

for some of the seed products their makers intended for them to have utility, but they didn't - that's why they were initial failures...