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I disagree. Bodybuilder hard at described in the article is just a matter of effort. High barrier-to-entry means that you need extreme resources to start compet

I disagree. Bodybuilder hard at described in the article is just a matter of effort. High barrier-to-entry means that you need extreme resources to start competing. I think they are quite different.

paulryanrogers 6y ago
There is also social-hard in the network effects of incumbents and familiarity to overcome.
simonh 6y ago
Having resources is just a different thing, they’re not a kind of work. Getting the resources is work, sure, but it takes either cleverness (maths hard) or effort (bodybuilder hard) to get them, or is not hard at all because you already have them. But actually building the things you cited is bodybuilder hard.
- solidasparagus 6y ago
  That's really not true. You can try as hard as you want but you will not be able to spin up a search competitor right now because the funding literally doesn't exist.
  - Firehawke 6y ago
    Even suggesting you want to tackle Google's lead in search or ads as a startup will get you laughed out of the room. The amount of time, effort, and funding needed is well beyond what any investor wants to even consider.
    - lumost 6y ago
      There are search competitors in non-US markets. The lack of funding begs the question of whether Google's search lead is simply due to no one trying to compete within the last 10 years. DDG doesn't really qualify here as they aggregate google/bing search results.
      - simonh 6y ago
        How about Bing? Yes I know, they're easy to forget about, but....
        lumost 6y ago
        Bing started 15+ years ago as a feature for feature clone of Google. Historically they've simply crawled Google results and replicated whatever Google returns. It could be a data point that Google has made the perfect search system as of 15 years ago - or just a footnote of the balmer era of Microsoft like Windows phone.
    - solidasparagus 6y ago
      DDDG has raised $13 million. Neeva has raised $37.5 million. Hulbee has raised $9 million.
  - simonh 6y ago
    Resources aren't a kind of work you can do, they're not an activity.

I disagree. Bodybuilder hard at described in the article is just a matter of effort. High barrier-to-entry means that you need extreme resources to start competing. I think they are quite different.

paulryanrogers 6y ago

There is also social-hard in the network effects of incumbents and familiarity to overcome.

simonh 6y ago

Having resources is just a different thing, they’re not a kind of work. Getting the resources is work, sure, but it takes either cleverness (maths hard) or effort (bodybuilder hard) to get them, or is not hard at all because you already have them. But actually building the things you cited is bodybuilder hard.

solidasparagus 6y ago
That's really not true. You can try as hard as you want but you will not be able to spin up a search competitor right now because the funding literally doesn't exist.
- Firehawke 6y ago
  Even suggesting you want to tackle Google's lead in search or ads as a startup will get you laughed out of the room. The amount of time, effort, and funding needed is well beyond what any investor wants to even consider.
  - lumost 6y ago
    There are search competitors in non-US markets. The lack of funding begs the question of whether Google's search lead is simply due to no one trying to compete within the last 10 years. DDG doesn't really qualify here as they aggregate google/bing search results.
    - simonh 6y ago
      How about Bing? Yes I know, they're easy to forget about, but....
      - lumost 6y ago
        Bing started 15+ years ago as a feature for feature clone of Google. Historically they've simply crawled Google results and replicated whatever Google returns. It could be a data point that Google has made the perfect search system as of 15 years ago - or just a footnote of the balmer era of Microsoft like Windows phone.
  - solidasparagus 6y ago
    DDDG has raised $13 million. Neeva has raised $37.5 million. Hulbee has raised $9 million.
- simonh 6y ago
  Resources aren't a kind of work you can do, they're not an activity.