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Like monkeys trapped in a little room, we killed ourselves until there was just 25 smart monkeys left. Kudos to us in markeiting and pricing strategy. In this

Like monkeys trapped in a little room, we killed ourselves until there was just 25 smart monkeys left. Kudos to us in markeiting and pricing strategy. In this process we also programmed people to relate software to free content. Good luck trying to revert this damage. We should all quit coding and go to business school. Rule or be ruled.

teh 14y ago
Developers are a commodity (700k+ apps) so the prices go down. Unsurprising and good for the consumer. Are you proposing devs stop competing and fix prices in order to keep our jobs? (I am a developer)
- wildranter 14y ago
  Just because developers have been treated as a commodity it doesn't mean we are. Sure I don't feel so. Do you? Anyway, we have to change this as it is not right. We put a lot of effort to make good software, and cutting each others throats in a mindless price war isn't going to pay anyone's bills. What you find unsurprising and good for consumers is extremely bad for developers. The AppStore Price Wars Attack of the Clones was catalyzed by basic naïveté towards widely known business practices. Worst, we could've fixed it by reading some business books before committing to such low price tiers. But, unfortunately the damage is done. It is inconsistent with our intellects that we developers behave like mindless monkeys. Also, unacceptable is the fact that any guy selling bananas at any given farmers market understands more about pricing, and the facts of microeconomics, than most of us. This should've been fixed in the universities, but even so there's time for that. I'm not proposing price fixing as that's immoral, and against law. What I'm stading for instead is for us as a community to start behaving more intelligently regarding business matters. Also, I crave for us developers to value more the sweat and tears we put into our craft. Programs aren't just code, instead they're the materialization of our ideas through hard work. I think that worthy more than a buck. I am a developer too.
  - teh 14y ago
    How I feel has little to do with how markets work. Putting a lot of effort into something means nothing. I can spend days digging a hole with a lot of effort and then someone with a digger does it in one hour. The only metric that matters is what buyers are willing to pay. I'm curious what you have in mind when saying "more intelligently regarding business matter"? As an aside: I always find it slightly offensive when someone speaks for me by using "we", "us" or "our". I may or may not share your opinions but I'd rather speak for myself.
    - wildranter 14y ago
      Too bad you felt offended by my use of pronouns since I evidently wasn't speaking about you. Just because you're a developer doesn't mean you're the representation of an entire group. Perhaps you never heard about Behavioral Economics [1], and that's why you quickly dismissed your feelings from this subject. Nonetheless people's feelings play an important part on how the markets are played. I understand you're curious to learn about my views on business, but first you need to understand more about emotions, without it you're a dead duck. Sorry as I can't give you a link or recommend a book to help you out here. But you can always go out and interact with real people, be openharted, and try to learn from them. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics

teh 14y ago

Developers are a commodity (700k+ apps) so the prices go down. Unsurprising and good for the consumer. Are you proposing devs stop competing and fix prices in order to keep our jobs? (I am a developer)

wildranter 14y ago
Just because developers have been treated as a commodity it doesn't mean we are. Sure I don't feel so. Do you? Anyway, we have to change this as it is not right. We put a lot of effort to make good software, and cutting each others throats in a mindless price war isn't going to pay anyone's bills. What you find unsurprising and good for consumers is extremely bad for developers. The AppStore Price Wars Attack of the Clones was catalyzed by basic naïveté towards widely known business practices. Worst, we could've fixed it by reading some business books before committing to such low price tiers. But, unfortunately the damage is done. It is inconsistent with our intellects that we developers behave like mindless monkeys. Also, unacceptable is the fact that any guy selling bananas at any given farmers market understands more about pricing, and the facts of microeconomics, than most of us. This should've been fixed in the universities, but even so there's time for that. I'm not proposing price fixing as that's immoral, and against law. What I'm stading for instead is for us as a community to start behaving more intelligently regarding business matters. Also, I crave for us developers to value more the sweat and tears we put into our craft. Programs aren't just code, instead they're the materialization of our ideas through hard work. I think that worthy more than a buck. I am a developer too.
- teh 14y ago
  How I feel has little to do with how markets work. Putting a lot of effort into something means nothing. I can spend days digging a hole with a lot of effort and then someone with a digger does it in one hour. The only metric that matters is what buyers are willing to pay. I'm curious what you have in mind when saying "more intelligently regarding business matter"? As an aside: I always find it slightly offensive when someone speaks for me by using "we", "us" or "our". I may or may not share your opinions but I'd rather speak for myself.
  - wildranter 14y ago
    Too bad you felt offended by my use of pronouns since I evidently wasn't speaking about you. Just because you're a developer doesn't mean you're the representation of an entire group. Perhaps you never heard about Behavioral Economics [1], and that's why you quickly dismissed your feelings from this subject. Nonetheless people's feelings play an important part on how the markets are played. I understand you're curious to learn about my views on business, but first you need to understand more about emotions, without it you're a dead duck. Sorry as I can't give you a link or recommend a book to help you out here. But you can always go out and interact with real people, be openharted, and try to learn from them. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics