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"Go to Target some day and look at who your target audience is. Look at the people who are out there going to films and you realize you are totally f***ed, you don't want to do anything these people like."

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/ ... 220?page=2

Terry Zwigoff directed "Ghost World" and "Crumb".

This expresses how I feel about software too.

fschmidt wrote:
"Go to Target some day and look at who your target audience is. Look at the people who are out there going to films and you realize you are totally f***ed, you don't want to do anything these people like."

Software isn't bad because of stupid consumers. Software is bad because companies with too much venture capital and insider backing create bad products, one after another. Then a sycophantic media touts this crap and gives it free publicity. The problem is with the supply, not the demand.

MINOR EXAMPLE: I struggled all day to back up an Iphone. Couldnt do it with Itunes, so I bought another package supposedly not dependent on the cloud, turns out (after non-intuitive downloads, and entering several multi-character codes) that in order to do a complete backup it DOES need the cloud. Not what I was told when buying. Yes there IS a market for a fast simple Iphone backup. And it does not exist.

MAJOR EXAMPLE: There is STILL no decent database software for personal use. STILL. Millions of people are reduced to using EXCEL SPREADSHEETS as their database, with its tiny print, slow scrolling, linear record layout, and fragility. There is nothing you can just start typing into, rearrange the forms later, add fields to the database later, and then use the database in different viewer modes like "Bake Sale Volunteers" or "Christmas Cards" with readable, useful one-record-per-page layouts, and that prompts you to call Robert at Dana Manufacturing (or whoever) on the 15th of the month (or whenever).

Yeah there is GoldMine etc but those things are a kluge, hard to set up. I'm talking about something you just start using, like an early Mac with its mouse, or the intuitivity of Excel.

So the problem in software is not stupid demand, it is a bloody-minded supply side. (I admit that in the movie industry, it is both.)

Anyway, you're in software. Leaders gotta lead. So step up.

Jester, of course you think this because you are on the consumer side. It's like saying that movies suck because of Hollywood studios. But the truth is both side suck. Consumers really do suck. I am involved in various projects, but when I think of doing something really good, I know I will never make money from it because consumers won't want it. I am doing this now in a project to build dynamic websites. Basically I got sick of existing tools and I am developing my own and will make it available. I will use it myself for developing websites but I don't expect many others to use it because it is good and people are bad and like what is bad.

By the way, many years ago I developed a personal database aimed at business analysts who needed to crunch data themselves. It didn't sell because users like using Excel because they are used to it. It doesn't matter that Excel is poorly suited for real database type operations. So I scrapped that software and I told someone else that he should develop an Excel add-on that at least provides the key missing features. That sold well because it allows users to keep misusing Excel. Consumers are idiots.

fschmidt wrote:
...I am doing this now in a project to build dynamic websites. Basically I got sick of existing tools and I am developing my own and will make it available. I will use it myself for developing websites but I don't expect many others to use it ...

By the way, many years ago I developed a personal database .... It didn't sell

2 great ideas

I would love a better web-building tool, last time I did it the tools that GoDaddy gave me access to were awkward, and lacked some basic abilities. And someone putting up a beginning website isnt going to hire a designer and pay thousands. So there is a need.

But... AHEM... I feel it necessary to suggest that IN ADDITION to people being dumb, you don't sound like you have much of a commitment to selling.

Innovation in ideas requires a communicator.... a "Pied Piper" who can entice the children to follow... a Prometheus who can transport fire from lofty Mount Olympus and get the cold shivering villagers to start using it.

If a branch breaks from a tree, and crashes to the ground, in a deserted forest, was there a sound? Categorically, no. No sound exists until it is heard. Communication is not complete when you show the product, or explain the product. Communication has taken place when they "get it".

Jester, I am committed to selling what I think can sell. The same guy who I worked with to market the database I developed years ago failed at that but succeeded with the Excel add-in. I am not going to invest a lot of sales effort in my web-building tools because that is wasted. I will probably offer a generous affiliate program and let other suckers try to sell what I know the moronic masses don't want. Whatever sales resources I have will be directed to more promising projects that I am involved in, projects that I think have a good chance of appealing to morons.

fschmidt wrote:
Whatever sales resources I have will be directed to more promising projects that I am involved in, projects that I think have a good chance of appealing to morons.

Hard to argue with that.


(God I love HA!)