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A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

disruptingjapan.com

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Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#391

Post by Firmwarrior »

midoridensha wrote: post #377
Firmwarrior wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we've had pretty decent luck with Utah, Florida, Texas, and other parts of the US lately when traveling. The service isn't on par with Japan, but they're nice at least. I'm hoping I can convince her to learn to drive.. Although if we move near my friends and family, I could just have one of my minions drive her around every day Hopefully I can work out a way to earn $8k a month or so doing something online. The…

>Although if we move near my friends and family, I could just have one of my minions drive her around every day Is she some kind of slave or something? Being in a place where you can't get around by yourself is not much fun, and doesn't feel very free. I can totally see why she wants to come back to Japan; you don't have to live that way here, and can easily get around almost anywhere (except the countryside) without…

Yeah, it sucks man. I tried explaining this to her, but she's still scared to drive and spending most of her time alone

At this point I'm basically a nampa weirdo, hitting on all the Japanese housewives I come across to get their LINE info and try to arrange playdates for the wife

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#392

Post by Tijdreiziger »

jonathankoren wrote: post #330
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what's this about Finland?

Yeah. Cell phones really took off after the local paper mill started making them in the 90s. :)

Well, sure, cell phones took off everywhere in the 90's, and the ones out of Finland were certainly among the more popular. GGP was specifically about smartphones, though.

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#393

Post by nottorp »

fomine3 wrote: post #386
nottorp wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Games, and especially console games targeting immutable hardware, are a different world. On a console you control the environment 100% and it simply doesn't matter what you do behind the scenes as long if it works.

And people enjoyed bugs.

Bug -> skip -> speedrun (any %) :)

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#394

Post by shreyshnaccount »

makeitdouble wrote: post #362
shreyshnaccount wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The phrasing in the previous comment makes me think that you are talking about a B2C aspect. The point in trying to make is that software industry is much larger than the specific examples you mentioned, which are also very "English speaking user facing" for lack of a better word

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#395

Post by midoridensha »

Firmwarrior wrote: post #390
midoridensha wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20M/year is a huge salary in Japan. If you're looking for American salaries, you will only find those in America. The cost-of-living outside America is generally lower and life is lower-risk (no medical bankruptcy), so you don't need as much money, plus people outside America don't demand and expect to own giant McMansions.

Well, you can make 50M or more per year in the USA, so there's no point in working if you're only taking home 20M. You're financially better off working in the US, saving some money, and then being an unemployed hikikomori in Japan for a few years (which is pretty much my plan at this point, haha)

Sure, you're financially better off in the US, if you don't mind your kids going through active-shooter drills at school, getting shot at sometimes by their classmates, yourself being shot at when you're driving to work by someone with road rage, religious and political nuttery all around, and society in general breaking down. You're also totally forgetting the extremely high cost of living in the US, the possibility of medical bankruptcy no matter how much money you make, I could go on and on.

Honestly though, if you actually like living in the US, you should stay there (this goes for anyone). If you're not unhappy there, there's no good reason to leave for a country that's so completely different and unfamiliar, where you're not likely to be happy at all. The reverse seems to be true for your wife, so I recommend divorce so she can go back to a place where she's happy. The two of you seem to be incompatible. I've seen other marriages break up over the partners being unable to agree on where to live or to retire; to me it seems to be one of the most fundamental compatibility factors there is in a relationship, though it's frequently ignored or overlooked.

Also, jobs paying over $350k are not common in America as you seem to think.

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#396

Post by dudeinjapan »

timoth3y wrote: post #364
dudeinjapan wrote: post #193

Tim 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…

The problem is the risk-reward balance is deeply baked into the culture, at least the current generation.

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#397

Post by dudeinjapan »

bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #366
hbn wrote: post #319

Earlier 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…

There was a big video game market crash in the USA in the 80's before Nintendo arrived on the scene. The issue was precisely quality (see: E.T. the game)

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#398

Post by anuraaga »

dudeinjapan wrote: post #193

Tim 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 Johnny - considering there is no one answer here, no one, including you, is missing the point right? If weighting I'd generally put the largest on time-based rather than impact-based seniority, but it's just one of many factors and there isn't really a way to pick any one.

Re: A mistake that killed Japan’s software industry?

#400

Post by fxtentacle »

cutemonster wrote: post #320
fxtentacle wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh you see A LOT of software from Germany. But we learned our lesson and resell it through US entities for less liability and higher profit margins ;) (US CTO living in Germany)

Less liability? When selling through US? How does that work (I would have guessed the opposite, thinking about patent trolls who ... live in the US?)

The US company is liable because they're the ones selling to end users.
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