This seems to be the default plan in big companies. They do it because it decreases the standard deviation of the outcome. Only a small percentage of hackers can actually design software, and it’s hard for the people running a company to pick these out. So instead of entrusting the future of the software to one brilliant hacker, most companies set things up so that it is designed by committee, and the hackers merely implement the design.
If you want to make money at some point, remember this, because this is one of the reasons startups win. Big companies want to decrease the standard deviation of design outcomes because they want to avoid disasters. But when you damp oscillations, you lose the high points as well as the low. This is not a problem for big companies, because they don’t win by making great products. Big companies win by sucking less than other big companies.
…The other problem with startups is that there is not much overlap between the kind of software that makes money and the kind that’s interesting to write. Programming languages are interesting to write, and Microsoft’s first product was one, in fact, but no one will pay for programming languages now. If you want to make money, you tend to be forced to work on problems that are too nasty for anyone to solve for free.
All makers face this problem. Prices are determined by supply and demand, and there is just not as much demand for things that are fun to work on as there is for things that solve the mundane problems of individual customers. Acting in off-Broadway plays doesn’t pay as well as wearing a gorilla suit in someone’s booth at a trade show. Writing novels doesn’t pay as well as writing ad copy for garbage disposals. And hacking programming languages doesn’t pay as well as figuring out how to connect some company’s legacy database to their web server.
Here’s a fun game. If you were only allowed to have 10 books to keep and read (libraries are allowed so we can allow textbooks and pass school, etc.), which ones would you keep? I think this might be one.
Liu’s Reviews
Hackers and Painters (4/5): Keep in mind that most of the book is free.
Futurama (3/5): Our scientists are close to perfecting a formula that will allow you to generate a hit cartoon show on demand. Included free are: obnoxious side character, episode on the influence of television, musical episode.
The Mission:
Possibly going to review for use:
Random links:
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/
http://autoreview.belproject.com/item/19