Free content drives out unfree content.
If someone can do it for free, then it will be inevitably free
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Re: If someone can do it for free, then it will be inevitably free
#12Only if it's fun or prestigious. Corollary: The less talented the founders of a company are, the more they should focus on things that are not fun or prestigious. People who are very talented can do a better job even at things other people are willing to do free, and charge for the difference. But if you're no better than the people working for free, you can only charge for things they're unwilling to do. E.g. if you…
> People who are very talented can do a better job even at things other people are willing to do free
However, that doesn't necessarily mean that people doing things for free are not very talented. Linus Torvalds, for example, is very talented, and initially did Linux for free, and of course still releases his work under a free license, even if he gets paid well to do it. In those cases where you have very talented people doing things for free, getting paid for doing something similar for pay is going to be difficult.
I don't think the last word has been written on this, though... it's a fascinating phenomenon that is rapidly transforming industries like ours, and I have a feeling that it will take some time to reach the right equilibrium where producers get compensated adequately for their time, and people still get relatively open access to their work.
Re: If someone can do it for free, then it will be inevitably free
#13Only if it's fun or prestigious. Corollary: The less talented the founders of a company are, the more they should focus on things that are not fun or prestigious. People who are very talented can do a better job even at things other people are willing to do free, and charge for the difference. But if you're no better than the people working for free, you can only charge for things they're unwilling to do. E.g. if you…
>Corollary: The less talented the founders of a company are, the more they should focus on things that are not fun or prestigious.
Would it be a good idea for a founder to focus on boring/lame things anyway, if only as a way to improve his/her odds? Which viable ideas strike you as the most boring?
Re: If someone can do it for free, then it will be inevitably free
#14Only if it's fun or prestigious. Corollary: The less talented the founders of a company are, the more they should focus on things that are not fun or prestigious. People who are very talented can do a better job even at things other people are willing to do free, and charge for the difference. But if you're no better than the people working for free, you can only charge for things they're unwilling to do. E.g. if you…
>Corollary: The less talented the founders of a company are, the more they should focus on things that are not fun or prestigious. Would it be a good idea for a founder to focus on boring/lame things anyway, if only as a way to improve his/her odds? Which viable ideas strike you as the most boring?
Of the ones I included in that recent list
http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html
the most boring is probably 5 (enterprise 2.0), preferably in the form of 7 (something your company needs that doesn't exist).
21 (finance software) and 29 (site builders) are also promisingly boring.
Re: If someone can do it for free, then it will be inevitably free
#15Free content drives out unfree content.
Good free content that is