Earlier quoted context omitted.
griswhat?
Firefly reference
https://firefly.fandom.com/wiki/Griswald_grenade
TIL, thanks.
A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
361–370 of 408 posts
Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
We're not talking about straight failure. There's giant companies all over the world and sure they'll produce software. But the FAANG/MANGA/Whatever acronym for the five/six near monopolies aren't from India. If I'm in Korea and tomorrow I want to use a cloud provider, I won't choose an Indian one short of wanting to market to India. But chances are it will be an US one. That's the gap I am pointing at.
I see where you're coming from but that is a very narrow view only taking into account B2C service type software, and that too for a sample size of you. Not to mention the fact that FAANG hires a ton of Indians
Is Cloud Services B2C ? or computer OSes ? Do your Indian giants give their sales team laptops with an Indian OS managed through an Indian Directory system backed by an Indian Cloud, and make them build spreadsheets and presentations on an Indian Office suite ?
I know there are serious efforts to cover all this ground, but have they landed ?
I’d actually see China landing first on that scenario, and while the future is too murky to say anything, if they ever get through the tunnel they’re in now, they’ll have rebuilt the whole stack literally down to CPU technology.
Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
#363Earlier quoted context omitted.
What part of that video are you referring to? I also don't use dishwasher pods, if that's part of what you're saying.
Ah sorry, should have copied that: https://youtu.be/_rBO8neWw04?t=1613
It's highly dependent on the dishwasher you have then. Maybe he has a more powerful one because mine often does not get food that's stuck onto the plate and it just have to wash it again. I'd rather rinse it before putting it in than after, then.
Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
#364Tim Romero (author of linked podcast) misses the point. Paul Graham has a far better take on this topic: http://www.paulgraham.com/usa.html The problem isn't that Japanese companies "missed" the opportunity to do software at X point in time--the problem is that they are culturally Japanese. Japan is about consensus-based design, there is a high penalty for making mistakes, and individuality/creativity is not valued.…
Hi. Tim here.
I find the "it's just Japanese culture" explanations to be weak sauce. Examining the market and political forces at play will usually get you closer to the truth.
The fact is, Japanese companies have taken big, creative, successful risks in many industries. If you look at the developers who work in console gaming, they find ways to push those machines far beyond what they were designed to do. If you've been in Japan for a while, I'm sure you've seen the amazing levels of creativity that exist here in both engineering and the arts.
It's not that Japanese are more risk-averse than Americans. It's that the risk-reward equation is different in Japan. On average, people are behaving rationally in both places.
If you want to change the "culture", change the risk-reward balance. That's why I find it more productive to look at market forces and game theory than attribute things to "Japanese culture:".
Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
#365The key part to me: > But the rest of the word was moving in a different direction. The rest of the world was moving away from dedicated hardware and towards innovative software running on standard hardware platforms. This piece is about Japan vs the world, but looking at countries other than the US I'm not sure this narrative works. For instance did the UK become a Software behemoth ? France ? Germany ? Brazil ? Ind…
In Japan's case, they kicked the ball into their own net 25 times.
Because of the Keiretsu market power coupled with Japanese culture (social status, financial risks, career risk, labor mobility rates and bankruptcy laws) very few startups existed, especially in this space even though the capital requirements are far lower.
This left all the market power in hands of Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Sumitomo, etc about 30 companies. And in the case of the major hardware vendors they also owned content libraries and firms eg - sony / sony music, bmi, toshiba warner brothers etc. they were extremely protective against piracy and especially digital piracy - this killed them.
We see the same in US, look how much innovation happened in virtually unregulated tech and software but not highly regulated Detroit autos - DOT, DOT, NLRB, OSHA, etc.
Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being culturally Japanese didn't prevent Japanese companies from achieving dominant positions in electronics, automobile manufacturing, video games, shipbuilding, steel production... Why is software so special? I would argue that the kind of risk aversion that holds back software companies is just as evident in most of Europe as it is in Japan. It is also the norm in a bunch of American companies in the tech industry…
Software is different from those other industries cause it's not really a science. No one's figured out a "right way" to make software, and it seems being well-made is a very small factor in the grand scheme of whether a piece of software becomes ubiquitous/successful. So throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks works better than iterating and perfecting a technique. Video games are a strange exception I supp…
I think video games are the exception that proves the rule. They are software, yes, but due to their primary use being casual enjoyment (as opposed to productivity), being well-made is important for them -- video games have to run well, look pretty, have few bugs, etc. precisely because there's no other reason to play them other than to enjoy them. Meanwhile productivity software offers something else into addition to being merely well-made.
Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
#367The key part to me: > But the rest of the word was moving in a different direction. The rest of the world was moving away from dedicated hardware and towards innovative software running on standard hardware platforms. This piece is about Japan vs the world, but looking at countries other than the US I'm not sure this narrative works. For instance did the UK become a Software behemoth ? France ? Germany ? Brazil ? Ind…
In Japan's case, they kicked the ball into their own net 25 times. Because of the Keiretsu market power coupled with Japanese culture (social status, financial risks, career risk, labor mobility rates and bankruptcy laws) very few startups existed, especially in this space even though the capital requirements are far lower. This left all the market power in hands of Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Sumitomo, etc about 30 comp…
This is a weird point to do here, but in my opinion startups aren't the end all be all of innovation: they are needed in a system where incumbents are mostly static, but in different configurations the role of a startup can be accomplished inside behemoths or through joint ventures, or other settings.
To back my point, the Walkman didn't come from two guys in a garage. The GUI wasn't invented by Apple, linux wasn't born out of VC investment, NFC payments weren't brought to market by drop out college hippies.
Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
#368Earlier quoted context omitted.
Join a Western company's Japanese branch, both pay and working conditions will be much better.
Based on the experience of people I know, the 'easiest' way is to get hired by a company in the US (or wherever you are) that has a significant Japanese branch, work there for a while, and then ask to get transferred. But be aware that even 'better' working conditions can be much worse than you are used to.
That's a big long shot. The easiest way is to simply get a job at a Western or internationally-focused company here; that's what I did. If you're an experienced software engineer, there's lots of companies looking for English-speaking engineers.
Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
#369Earlier quoted context omitted.
Software is different from those other industries cause it's not really a science. No one's figured out a "right way" to make software, and it seems being well-made is a very small factor in the grand scheme of whether a piece of software becomes ubiquitous/successful. So throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks works better than iterating and perfecting a technique. Video games are a strange exception I supp…
I think video games are the exception that proves the rule. They are software, yes, but due to their primary use being casual enjoyment (as opposed to productivity), being well-made is important for them -- video games have to run well, look pretty, have few bugs, etc. precisely because there's no other reason to play them other than to enjoy them. Meanwhile productivity software offers something else into addition t…
Have you played Japanese pc ports on steam? I… recommend against it. Most of the ones I own only work under specific conditions if at all. Several are literally unplayable, or require you to downgrade your video drivers to something from 3-5 years ago. The best of them often still drop frames, requiring fan patches to maintain 60fps. Sometimes you fall through floors. They are never patched
Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could you elaborate a little on why she can’t handle living in the US?
ah, she just doesn't like the way things work here, and she's scared to learn to drive The service in the SF Bay Area is really amazingly dismal. It's embarrassing every day to be an American living here. People at restaurants, stores, etc are all angry and stressed out. I'm hoping I can convince her to move somewhere else in the USA with me, since it'll be a lot easier to find some remote work in my same time zone
Somewhere else will still require driving for every little thing, because that's how America is. If you want to live a car-free lifestyle, America is simply impossible outside of Manhattan, NYC, but it's commonplace in any larger Japanese city.
And Americans are all angry and stressed out everywhere else in America too. It became a really miserable place to live in my experience during the pandemic, so I was really glad to get out and move to Japan where everything is civilized and people know how to act in public.