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Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

maxkle.in

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Re: Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

#31

Post by there »

sperry wrote: post #30

Bullshit. I used to be on one of the biggest drug dealers on my side of the city and I now make iPhone apps (among other ventures). I worked my way up to selling about 2 kilos of crack a week, starting from "20-pieces" (little rocks that weight 0.2 grams, sold for $20). I'm definitely not proud of myself for doing so, but those few years have taught a me a lot about running a business (including money management, cul…

if you're not trolling, you should do a reddit AMA. not sure how you'd get a gold star, though.

Re: Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

#32

Post by sperry »

there wrote: post #31
sperry wrote: post #30

Bullshit. I used to be on one of the biggest drug dealers on my side of the city and I now make iPhone apps (among other ventures). I worked my way up to selling about 2 kilos of crack a week, starting from "20-pieces" (little rocks that weight 0.2 grams, sold for $20). I'm definitely not proud of myself for doing so, but those few years have taught a me a lot about running a business (including money management, cul…

if you're not trolling, you should do a reddit AMA. not sure how you'd get a gold star, though.

I'm not trolling. I'll consider doing a Reddit AMA.

Re: Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

#33

Post by MJR »

jexe wrote: post #21

Taken on its face, this is pretty bad advice, especially for technologists. Do you really wish you were still writing DOS bookkeeping apps in Pascal, because that's what you were good at? Think hard about the things that actually make you excel at what you do, it's probably much less concrete. Richard Branson started several totally different businesses - but he's sticking to his core competencies of being a ridiculo…

I think the true analogy isn't to the programmer who's good at writing in a specific language. It's the skills behind conceptualizing software and developing its architecture that does translate well. If you're a great programmer, find someone who has knowledge of a specific subject area and combine your skills to create a great application that targets that body of knowledge.

Your final point about someone understanding how to give people what they want is the true skill. Its these true skills, like the analytical mind of a programmer, that can translate into different subject areas, you just need to find a way to acquire knowledge and apply that with your skills to another topic.

Re: Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

#34

Post by retube »

philwelch wrote: post #29
retube wrote: post #19

What about Richard Branson? He's done _exactly_ that. Throughout his career he has frequently started new businesses in totally new markets. Now his empire includes trains, planes, spaceships(!), record shops, music publishing, banking, telecommunications etc etc. In fact I would argue that people that have that business "spark" could pretty much make a success of any market if they were minded to. Whilst of course i…

His expertise is marketing and branding. Until he starts a business that doesn't sell to consumers (even very rich ones who pay for spaceship rides) and isn't branded "Virgin", he's still parlaying off of what he knows how to do. The very fact that people know the name "Richard Branson" and that he's personally involved in all these ventures is a big part of it. Edit: It's not a criticism--it's hard to succeed in dif…

Yes you're right he's leveraging a known brand. but marketing and branding - that _is_ business.

The point about staying in one industry is not about your technical knowledge, it's about your relationships. These are hard to build, and are the major barrier for all new ventures in any business: building your customer base, your sales channels, reaching out. That's tough.

Re: Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

#35

Post by hristov »

maxklein wrote: post #24
pdx wrote: post #20

As somebody who is attempting to transition from my old industry into web development, I am biased, but I disagree. I was a good ranch hand before I was a good fine dining waiter. I then proceeded to become a good engineer, and now I am proceeding to try to be a good web developer. My life would have been a lot more boring, had a stayed a ranch hand, or a waiter, or an engineer. In calculus, you learn about local max…

So you're going back to the beginning every time. If you had stayed with your first profession, who is not to say you could now be owning a series of ranches around your area?

I will say that. If you look at the economics of the situation it is very very unlikely for a ranch hand to ever be able to purchase a ranch.

Re: Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

#36

Post by jkent »

philwelch wrote: post #29
retube wrote: post #19

What about Richard Branson? He's done _exactly_ that. Throughout his career he has frequently started new businesses in totally new markets. Now his empire includes trains, planes, spaceships(!), record shops, music publishing, banking, telecommunications etc etc. In fact I would argue that people that have that business "spark" could pretty much make a success of any market if they were minded to. Whilst of course i…

His expertise is marketing and branding. Until he starts a business that doesn't sell to consumers (even very rich ones who pay for spaceship rides) and isn't branded "Virgin", he's still parlaying off of what he knows how to do. The very fact that people know the name "Richard Branson" and that he's personally involved in all these ventures is a big part of it. Edit: It's not a criticism--it's hard to succeed in dif…

Additionally, I also think he has a very good ability to hire and delegate.

That may be less important for him nowadays with a licensing/franchise model.

Re: Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

#37

Post by teaspoon »

marcus wrote: post #14

Actually drug dealers and developers are the only two groups that call their clients -> users... so maybe they should. Plus the holy grail of game development is making the game addictive

Contrary to that old saw, I don't believe I heard anyone called a "user" in five seasons of The Wire.

Re: Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

#38

Post by tansey »

jedbrown wrote: post #13

> Take people like George Soros. He does one thing. He’s about currency trading, and he’s really really good at it. You don’t see him suddenly going full scale into the real estate market, do you? Only for sufficiently large values of "full scale". http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/09/business/soros-real-estate... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/british-land-in-j...

Yeah, a better Soros analogy would be that he's good at speculation. He's not running off to build websites or start car companies.

Re: Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps

#40

Post by dnsworks »

retube wrote: post #19

What about Richard Branson? He's done _exactly_ that. Throughout his career he has frequently started new businesses in totally new markets. Now his empire includes trains, planes, spaceships(!), record shops, music publishing, banking, telecommunications etc etc. In fact I would argue that people that have that business "spark" could pretty much make a success of any market if they were minded to. Whilst of course i…

But really, has Branson done anything that has been successful which didn't rely primarily on better customer service being the sole differentiator from any of his competitors?
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