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> If I just have the spark of an idea now, I can get a designer in Taiwan to design it. I can get a factory in China to produce a prototype. I can get a factory
by AndrewO 17y ago
> If I just have the spark of an idea now, I can get a designer in Taiwan to design it. I can get a factory in China to produce a prototype. I can get a factory in Vietnam to mass manufacture it... And I can do all this at incredibly low prices.
Have you actually done that, Tom? Or are you just reselling us your same old fantasy story about how easy it is to coordinate a bunch of companies from a bunch of different countries and actually bring a product to market?
I can't even remember all of the other stories I've heard about multiple rounds of prototypes, production problems, sub-standard end products, etc (some of which requiring extensive travel to sort out). Or perhaps a partner company dissolves its relationship with you and decides to market the product on its own. Sure, it has to work out some of the time, but stop presenting this idea that international business is somehow this miraculously effortless process.
I know this wasn't the central point of a piece nominally about immigration and youth achievement, but the fact that he had throw in the same stale scenario that he's been writing about for over a decade makes it entirely impossible for me to take this guy seriously anymore.
- bonsaitree 17y agoFor anyone interested in a real story about small-scale remote manufacturing (circa 2000) read "The Mouse Driver Chronicles" http://amzn.com/0738208019 http://amzn.com/0738208019 . I suspect Joey Roth ( http://joeyroth.com http://joeyroth.com ), as a one-person design shop, might also have some real, hard-earned, and even more current, insights into this space. I simply can't trust the opinion of a billionaire journalist (through marriage) who's never tried to earn a living using these strategies to bring a real product to market.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- oldgregg 17y agoNotice something about all those kids? They live in AMERICA. Cultural context does matter. I was working for a company a few years ago and the president read Tom's damn book. Without any input or understanding of how software is made he bought me a plane ticket and said go open an office in India. It turned into a two year long clusterfuck. All of this outsourcing bullshit would be more credible if it came from someone who actually wrote code and not some jackass in his manhattan penthouse. I'm all for importing great talent- it's one of the reasons the US has been so successful. But that's completely different from his overplayed world-is-flat delusion.
- marshallp 17y agoEver considered that you're just a bad manager? When you outsource to another country you have to change your tactics and communication style. The fact that you failed at outsourcing is more indicative of your refusal to smarten up than anything else.
- wisty 17y agoOr perhaps the president's a bad manager. If you send a manager off to another country to implement build a new team and implement a strategy that they think is doomed ... words fail me.