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There is always a small market for a slow lumberjack, but there is zero reason to use anything else than the best software. Best lumberjacks might live in diff

There is always a small market for a slow lumberjack, but there is zero reason to use anything else than the best software. Best lumberjacks might live in different corner of the world and they are most likely busy. So you hire the slow one. But with software things are different. When software is eating the world, it means creating monopolies in all markets. All text messaging is being eaten by one company, there is only one social network, there is only Twitter, soon there is only one taxi company and there have pretty much always been only one professional photo editing software. And the list just goes on forever. How on earth do we collect taxes and finance social services and all that stuff when there is only handful of companies turning a profit and they need fewer and fewer hands building the service and they are not tied to a geographical location?

e12e 11y ago
Strange definition of "best software", if you're implying that a) "best software" wins, b) the top 10 sites are examples of "best software". Google is still best at search for most sane metrics. But to claim that they're "best" at email, blogging, image services? Or even good? For the end users? Popular does not imply best (or even good). It implies marketing and mind-share.
- hpaavola 11y ago
  I don't claim to be smarter than the whole market. So yes, GMail is the best email application (assuming it has the biggest market share, not sure about that) because that's what the market tells us. It might not be good, but it is the best. But better term would have been "best software service" or something like that. Since at least early version of Facebook were bad software, but it was already the best social media service since all your friends were using it. Also, Netflix might be really crappy software (I doubt it, but it could) but because it has the best movie library combined with the best prices, everybody uses it.
  - e12e 11y ago
    By this line of reasoning I think you might find that coca-cola is better than water. I still think it's a strange definition of "better".
    - UK-AL 11y ago
      It#s better in that it meets needs other products don't. That's why people buy it.
      - e12e 11y ago
        There are areas in the world where coca cola is cheaper and more readily available than clean water. Are you trying to say that the only reason for that is that most people prefer it that way?
woah 11y ago
I have like at least 10 different apps I regularly chat on. This seems pretty typical. There are a bunch of better alternatives to photoshop. Facebook has to keep buying up and coming networks at exorbitant rates.
- hpaavola 11y ago
  The markets say that you are wrong. Pretty close to all who edit photos professionally use Photoshop. And as the presentation told us, WhatsApp is eating the whole text messaging markets. I don't use it and I don't like this trend, but that's what we got. And the fact that Facebook had to buy Instagram and WhatsApp just reinforces my point. If they would have not bought WhatsApp, WhatsApp might have replaced Facebook. So all markets are going towards monopolies because there is no reason to use second best software.
  - mdpopescu 11y ago
    You do realize that this is an US-centric view, right? From what I can tell China and South Korea have completely different sets of popular social networks. Another issue with your "everything will be a monopoly" is the fact that new networks keep popping up - see Slack. The King creates those who want to dethrone him.
    - hpaavola 11y ago
      No, it's not a country centric view. People do not use Weibo and Facebook, they use Weibo or Facebook depending were they live. Facebook has a monopoly in most western countries, Weibo in China. The reason why Weibo is dominating in China is political. That will change. It might not be Facebook that overtakes Weibo, but something will do it once China opens its Internet. Slack and its competitors are just forming a new market that will be overtaken by one company. Because software services are not tied to a geographical area and because they are immaterial and will not run out of stock, there is no reason to use second best software. While hiring slowest lumberjack to help the fastest one makes the project finish up faster, the same is not true with software. You just use the fastest one.

e12e 11y ago

Strange definition of "best software", if you're implying that a) "best software" wins, b) the top 10 sites are examples of "best software". Google is still best at search for most sane metrics. But to claim that they're "best" at email, blogging, image services? Or even good? For the end users? Popular does not imply best (or even good). It implies marketing and mind-share.

hpaavola 11y ago
I don't claim to be smarter than the whole market. So yes, GMail is the best email application (assuming it has the biggest market share, not sure about that) because that's what the market tells us. It might not be good, but it is the best. But better term would have been "best software service" or something like that. Since at least early version of Facebook were bad software, but it was already the best social media service since all your friends were using it. Also, Netflix might be really crappy software (I doubt it, but it could) but because it has the best movie library combined with the best prices, everybody uses it.
- e12e 11y ago
  By this line of reasoning I think you might find that coca-cola is better than water. I still think it's a strange definition of "better".
  - UK-AL 11y ago
    It#s better in that it meets needs other products don't. That's why people buy it.
    - e12e 11y ago
      There are areas in the world where coca cola is cheaper and more readily available than clean water. Are you trying to say that the only reason for that is that most people prefer it that way?

woah 11y ago

I have like at least 10 different apps I regularly chat on. This seems pretty typical. There are a bunch of better alternatives to photoshop. Facebook has to keep buying up and coming networks at exorbitant rates.

hpaavola 11y ago
The markets say that you are wrong. Pretty close to all who edit photos professionally use Photoshop. And as the presentation told us, WhatsApp is eating the whole text messaging markets. I don't use it and I don't like this trend, but that's what we got. And the fact that Facebook had to buy Instagram and WhatsApp just reinforces my point. If they would have not bought WhatsApp, WhatsApp might have replaced Facebook. So all markets are going towards monopolies because there is no reason to use second best software.
- mdpopescu 11y ago
  You do realize that this is an US-centric view, right? From what I can tell China and South Korea have completely different sets of popular social networks. Another issue with your "everything will be a monopoly" is the fact that new networks keep popping up - see Slack. The King creates those who want to dethrone him.
  - hpaavola 11y ago
    No, it's not a country centric view. People do not use Weibo and Facebook, they use Weibo or Facebook depending were they live. Facebook has a monopoly in most western countries, Weibo in China. The reason why Weibo is dominating in China is political. That will change. It might not be Facebook that overtakes Weibo, but something will do it once China opens its Internet. Slack and its competitors are just forming a new market that will be overtaken by one company. Because software services are not tied to a geographical area and because they are immaterial and will not run out of stock, there is no reason to use second best software. While hiring slowest lumberjack to help the fastest one makes the project finish up faster, the same is not true with software. You just use the fastest one.