3 ms·
Better Than Free (2008)
- lozf 7y agoFor context this dates from Jan 2008.
- dang 7y agoAdded. Thanks!
- kwhitefoot 7y agoMost of the supposed better than free ideas apply to a very small niche population. Most people, myself included, are not especially concerned about authenticity for instance; I don't care when something was created and am certainly not interested in getting something hours or days before the rest of the world. As for paying the creator, well in a capitalist world creators are ten a penny and getting cheaper, not to mention that the world is awash with interesting, useful, and beautiful stuff that already exists. In many respects we are already in a post-scarcity world not that it will make any difference to the vast majority of creative people; they will not be any poorer than they have always been.
- mathgeek 7y agoOne of the things about selling exclusivity or “first in line” is that you only need a critical mass of your consumers/users to crave it in order to be successful. An example being that people still preorder digital goods like games and movies even when there are no other incentives offered. There’s also a degree of “I’m going to forget and miss out” for some folks.
- dang 7y agoDiscussed a bit at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=108559 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=108559 More in 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14431233 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14431233