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"No, seriously, a @#$% goldmine! Never in modern history has it been so easy to create something from scratch, with little or no capital and a marketing model t

"No, seriously, a @#$% goldmine! Never in modern history has it been so easy to create something from scratch, with little or no capital and a marketing model that is limited only by your imagination." ie, high supply. Lots of competition. It's getting to be like writing novels. Lots of people do it. The barriers to entry are low. But few can make a living at it.

muhfuhkuh 16y ago
But that's _everything_ worth doing, and isn't that how it's always been? For every Jimi Hendrix there were a zillion teenagers sitting in their poster-filled room with desires to melt faces and change the world with the power of Rock. Or for every Steel Magnate, there were guys running a 10-man shops hoping to roll enough steel this quarter to buy the coke smelter down the road a ways. It all starts somewhere, and almost everything with any market visibility has hundreds if not thousands of everyone from Mom and Pops to multinationals gunning for the big ring. This is why the corporations dominate: They know the "little guys" like us don't think it's worth it to disrupt their industries. I'd say the only technology company that really takes alot of capital to start is product manufacturing business, and even then, aren't there whole industries catering to garage businesses like thomasnet or rapid prototyping firms? Or just bootstrap it like DODOCase.
- eavc 16y ago
  "But that's _everything_ worth doing" Emphatically, NO!, it isn't. If the only thing worth being in your worldview is the equivalent of Jimi Hendrix, you are setting yourself up for disappointment, and you have a small view of your fellow man. There are thousands of ways to make a living that are not as competitive or as risky as entrepreneurship--and far less zero-sum too. The global impact of a job well-done is but one measure. Perhaps an even more important one is the attitude with which you approach your work and the meaning you make for yourself.
- ohyes 16y ago
  'This is why the corporations dominate: They know the "little guys" like us don't think it's worth it to disrupt their industries.' Also, huge advantages in terms of economies of scale, financing, lawyers, patent portfolios... and if you are successful, they buy you or you become a big corporation...
  - mistermann 16y ago
    Not to mention meeting your local politician for a cup of coffee to "discuss things".
jeromec 16y ago
It's getting to be like writing novels. Lots of people do it. The barriers to entry are low. But few can make a living at it. I don't think few people make a living at writing novels because of competition; if more people wrote better novels I imagine novel sales would be much higher.
- neild 16y ago
  People are writing good novels faster than I can read them. Perhaps there's some great, untapped supply of people out there who aren't finding enough that's worth reading, but I'm certainly not in that camp nor is anyone else I know who reads regularly.
  - jeromec 16y ago
    You say you read regularly, so I'm thinking you would read books many wouldn't take the time to read. I'm talking about writers which have such interesting stories that they bring in less avid readers -- the way Harry Potter did. This is actually a subject I have a lot of interest in. Can you list the last few books you've read?
    - neild 16y ago
      Last few novels I've read, in reverse chronological order: - Past Imperative, Present Tense, and Future Imperfect by Dave Duncan. (Trilogy.) - Foreigner, Invader, Inheritor, by C.J. Cherryh. (First three books of an ongoing series; rereads.) - Babylon Babies, by Maurice Dantec. This doesn't really count, since I gave up halfway through--the translation is horrible. I'm currently reading Vellum, by Hal Duncan. I have, I think, about 5-6 more books on my to-read pile at the moment, and I could triple that with a visit to the bookstore. (I'm avoiding visiting the bookstore because my budget would not appreciate the experience.) As you can see, I mostly read SF. This list is a bit unusual, in that it includes a number of books from the same series; I usually mix things up more than this. It's true that I read books that many wouldn't take the time to read. I don't think that's because those books are less interesting; I think it's because most people have much less interest in reading than I do, and therefore are satisfied with fewer books. It seems to me that you're formulating an argument where I have lower standards than people who read less--that people who read few books stick to the cream of the crop, while people like myself who read more are willing to read inferior works as well. As a counterargument, I submit Dan Brown, an author who produces (from my perspective) works of such execrable quality that only a person with little awareness of how good books can be would waste their time on him. To shift arenas: Consider two people. One of them eats nothing but steak and potatoes. The other is Anthony Bourdain, the host of the Travel channel's "No Reservations". Would it be correct to say that the reason the former eats such a smaller variety of food is that there's a lack of truly good food that lives up to the standards of the almighty steak and potatoes? Of course not. We'd say that Mr. Steak & Potatoes just doesn't like food as much as Bourdain. (In general; he likes his steak just fine, and there's nothing wrong with that.) Or to take myself as an example: I don't watch much television. Is the problem that there's just a lack of really good television out there, and I'd watch more if someone started producing more good shows like The Wire? Well, no. The problem is that I just don't like television all that much, and would rather spend my leisure time on other activities like books, video games, and programming. There are already plenty of TV shows that I'm certain I'd enjoy...if I had time to watch them. So, no, I don't think that people in general would read more if only there were more good novels being written. There are plenty of good novels out there.
megablast 16y ago
Lots of competition compared to what? The fact is, if you can write code, you are a very small number of people in the world. If you are good at it, and enjoy it, even smaller. This is the point the author it trying to make, you are an an amazing position in history, you can do great things, so much easier than anyone else. In the past, you would have had to have an army. Now, just with your skills, you can do something truly amazing and world changing.
- jpdbaugh 16y ago
  Even at school in a degree that one would assume most students can write some code I am finding that more and more when I meet students program they have no skills at programming or even want to learn. I think that people who can write production code are a very small population indeed.
  - megablast 16y ago
    I am always confused at how these people end up studying Comp Sci. I guess these are the ones with no interests at all, and might as well have been studying Biology, Chemistry or Geology.
- GBond 16y ago
  Yes. I'm surprise how many people missed this point of the OP. The golden ticket is in the "this is a perfect perfect storm; don't waste it" sense ("market demands" + "you can code" + "cheapest time to start" = golden ticket). Not in the "quit your sorry job NOW and get RICH" sense.

muhfuhkuh 16y ago

But that's _everything_ worth doing, and isn't that how it's always been? For every Jimi Hendrix there were a zillion teenagers sitting in their poster-filled room with desires to melt faces and change the world with the power of Rock. Or for every Steel Magnate, there were guys running a 10-man shops hoping to roll enough steel this quarter to buy the coke smelter down the road a ways. It all starts somewhere, and almost everything with any market visibility has hundreds if not thousands of everyone from Mom and Pops to multinationals gunning for the big ring. This is why the corporations dominate: They know the "little guys" like us don't think it's worth it to disrupt their industries. I'd say the only technology company that really takes alot of capital to start is product manufacturing business, and even then, aren't there whole industries catering to garage businesses like thomasnet or rapid prototyping firms? Or just bootstrap it like DODOCase.

eavc 16y ago
"But that's _everything_ worth doing" Emphatically, NO!, it isn't. If the only thing worth being in your worldview is the equivalent of Jimi Hendrix, you are setting yourself up for disappointment, and you have a small view of your fellow man. There are thousands of ways to make a living that are not as competitive or as risky as entrepreneurship--and far less zero-sum too. The global impact of a job well-done is but one measure. Perhaps an even more important one is the attitude with which you approach your work and the meaning you make for yourself.
ohyes 16y ago
'This is why the corporations dominate: They know the "little guys" like us don't think it's worth it to disrupt their industries.' Also, huge advantages in terms of economies of scale, financing, lawyers, patent portfolios... and if you are successful, they buy you or you become a big corporation...
- mistermann 16y ago
  Not to mention meeting your local politician for a cup of coffee to "discuss things".

jeromec 16y ago

It's getting to be like writing novels. Lots of people do it. The barriers to entry are low. But few can make a living at it. I don't think few people make a living at writing novels because of competition; if more people wrote better novels I imagine novel sales would be much higher.

neild 16y ago
People are writing good novels faster than I can read them. Perhaps there's some great, untapped supply of people out there who aren't finding enough that's worth reading, but I'm certainly not in that camp nor is anyone else I know who reads regularly.
- jeromec 16y ago
  You say you read regularly, so I'm thinking you would read books many wouldn't take the time to read. I'm talking about writers which have such interesting stories that they bring in less avid readers -- the way Harry Potter did. This is actually a subject I have a lot of interest in. Can you list the last few books you've read?
  - neild 16y ago
    Last few novels I've read, in reverse chronological order: - Past Imperative, Present Tense, and Future Imperfect by Dave Duncan. (Trilogy.) - Foreigner, Invader, Inheritor, by C.J. Cherryh. (First three books of an ongoing series; rereads.) - Babylon Babies, by Maurice Dantec. This doesn't really count, since I gave up halfway through--the translation is horrible. I'm currently reading Vellum, by Hal Duncan. I have, I think, about 5-6 more books on my to-read pile at the moment, and I could triple that with a visit to the bookstore. (I'm avoiding visiting the bookstore because my budget would not appreciate the experience.) As you can see, I mostly read SF. This list is a bit unusual, in that it includes a number of books from the same series; I usually mix things up more than this. It's true that I read books that many wouldn't take the time to read. I don't think that's because those books are less interesting; I think it's because most people have much less interest in reading than I do, and therefore are satisfied with fewer books. It seems to me that you're formulating an argument where I have lower standards than people who read less--that people who read few books stick to the cream of the crop, while people like myself who read more are willing to read inferior works as well. As a counterargument, I submit Dan Brown, an author who produces (from my perspective) works of such execrable quality that only a person with little awareness of how good books can be would waste their time on him. To shift arenas: Consider two people. One of them eats nothing but steak and potatoes. The other is Anthony Bourdain, the host of the Travel channel's "No Reservations". Would it be correct to say that the reason the former eats such a smaller variety of food is that there's a lack of truly good food that lives up to the standards of the almighty steak and potatoes? Of course not. We'd say that Mr. Steak & Potatoes just doesn't like food as much as Bourdain. (In general; he likes his steak just fine, and there's nothing wrong with that.) Or to take myself as an example: I don't watch much television. Is the problem that there's just a lack of really good television out there, and I'd watch more if someone started producing more good shows like The Wire? Well, no. The problem is that I just don't like television all that much, and would rather spend my leisure time on other activities like books, video games, and programming. There are already plenty of TV shows that I'm certain I'd enjoy...if I had time to watch them. So, no, I don't think that people in general would read more if only there were more good novels being written. There are plenty of good novels out there.

megablast 16y ago

Lots of competition compared to what? The fact is, if you can write code, you are a very small number of people in the world. If you are good at it, and enjoy it, even smaller. This is the point the author it trying to make, you are an an amazing position in history, you can do great things, so much easier than anyone else. In the past, you would have had to have an army. Now, just with your skills, you can do something truly amazing and world changing.

jpdbaugh 16y ago
Even at school in a degree that one would assume most students can write some code I am finding that more and more when I meet students program they have no skills at programming or even want to learn. I think that people who can write production code are a very small population indeed.
- megablast 16y ago
  I am always confused at how these people end up studying Comp Sci. I guess these are the ones with no interests at all, and might as well have been studying Biology, Chemistry or Geology.
GBond 16y ago
Yes. I'm surprise how many people missed this point of the OP. The golden ticket is in the "this is a perfect perfect storm; don't waste it" sense ("market demands" + "you can code" + "cheapest time to start" = golden ticket). Not in the "quit your sorry job NOW and get RICH" sense.