I don't know. Michael followed that sentence with the following:
"Similarly, if you’re a programmer, you’re probably perfectly capable of writing Facebook or the Google search engine or Twitter or a browser, and you certainly could churn out Tetris or Angry Birds or Words with Friends or Farmville or any of hundreds of enormously successful programs. There’s little value in doing so, though, and that’s the point – in the Internet age, software has close to zero cost of replication and massive network effects, so there’s a positive feedback spiral that means that the first mover dominates."
The problem with this: there are TONS of examples in the software world where the first mover DOESN'T dominate.
That said, I enjoyed reading this job post. It might be the best job post I've ever read.
Comments
I don't know. Michael followed that sentence with the following:
"Similarly, if you’re a programmer, you’re probably perfectly capable of writing Facebook or the Google search engine or Twitter or a browser, and you certainly could churn out Tetris or Angry Birds or Words with Friends or Farmville or any of hundreds of enormously successful programs. There’s little value in doing so, though, and that’s the point – in the Internet age, software has close to zero cost of replication and massive network effects, so there’s a positive feedback spiral that means that the first mover dominates."
The problem with this: there are TONS of examples in the software world where the first mover DOESN'T dominate.
That said, I enjoyed reading this job post. It might be the best job post I've ever read.
EDIT: user "roc" below says this same thing, but much better: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3839190