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> Software doesn't need to be manufactured like physical goods do: the software construction step is fully automated by compilers and build systems. Source cod

> Software doesn't need to be manufactured like physical goods do: the software construction step is fully automated by compilers and build systems. Source code surely is manufactured. I write it with my hands, using years of knowledge and experience, spending a lot of time on it.

vram22 8y ago
>Source code surely is manufactured. I write it with my hands, using years of knowledge and experience, spending a lot of time on it. Right. We not only write it with our hands, but with our brains too, as well as with the effort we put in over years to gain the skills needed to write the software in the first place. Otherwise any newbie programmer could write any of the software in the world, including complex ones. This reminds me of that story of a senior retired engineer who was called in to diagnose a problem with some expensive, complex machine that he had worked with or operated a lot earlier (and/or maybe had invented). He walks into the room, bends down near the machine, taps it a bit, then makes an X mark with chalk near the bottom left corner. "There's your problem", he says. They open the machine, check that area, and sure enough, the fault is found and fixed. They ask him what his fee is. "$50,000", he replies. "What?", they ask. "$50,000 for making a chalk mark?". "No", he says. "$1 for making the mark. $49,999 for knowing where to make it." https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/
- matheusmoreira 8y ago
  Exactly. You're providing a service. The digital goods, once produced, can be replicated infinitely at extremely low costs. Nobody can create copies of you or your expertise. In order to pay for your software development services and turn a profit, the digital goods you produce are made artificially scarce so as to enable their sale. However, that does not change the nature of those goods. Copying them is still trivial.

vram22 8y ago

>Source code surely is manufactured. I write it with my hands, using years of knowledge and experience, spending a lot of time on it. Right. We not only write it with our hands, but with our brains too, as well as with the effort we put in over years to gain the skills needed to write the software in the first place. Otherwise any newbie programmer could write any of the software in the world, including complex ones. This reminds me of that story of a senior retired engineer who was called in to diagnose a problem with some expensive, complex machine that he had worked with or operated a lot earlier (and/or maybe had invented). He walks into the room, bends down near the machine, taps it a bit, then makes an X mark with chalk near the bottom left corner. "There's your problem", he says. They open the machine, check that area, and sure enough, the fault is found and fixed. They ask him what his fee is. "$50,000", he replies. "What?", they ask. "$50,000 for making a chalk mark?". "No", he says. "$1 for making the mark. $49,999 for knowing where to make it." https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/

matheusmoreira 8y ago
Exactly. You're providing a service. The digital goods, once produced, can be replicated infinitely at extremely low costs. Nobody can create copies of you or your expertise. In order to pay for your software development services and turn a profit, the digital goods you produce are made artificially scarce so as to enable their sale. However, that does not change the nature of those goods. Copying them is still trivial.