

Drug dealers shouldn't make iPhone apps - maxklein
http://maxkle.in/drug-dealers-shouldnt-make-iphone-apps/

======
jexe
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
ridiculously good showman and businessman, and being able to get shit done.

I'd figure a good gigolo might be good at understanding how to give people
what they want.. which translates pretty well to anything.

~~~
MJR
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.

------
retube
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 it's sub-optimal to discard or under-utilise what knowledge
or experience you currently have, it's probably even worse to not keep
learning new things. And more often than not, business experiences are
transferable. OK you may not know the technicalities of a new field, but these
can be learnt.

Basically: a gigolo for tourists is probably not the best source for business
wisdom.

~~~
philwelch
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 different fields--but the
basic idea of the OP, which is to expand your business ventures along the
lines of what you know how to do, still applies to Branson a lot more than
he's a counterexample of it.

~~~
retube
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.

------
jedbrown
> 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.nytimes.com/1993/09/09/business/soros-real-estate-fund-
in-634-million-purchase.html)

[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/british-land-
in-j...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/british-land-in-joint-
venture-with-soros-deal-seen-as-confirming-upturn-pounds-500m-to-be-spent-on-
british-property--shares-are-given-a-boost-1489381.html)

~~~
tansey
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.

------
sperry
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,
cultivating relationships, "hiring" personnel, and the economics of supply and
demand) and gave me much of my entrepreneurial spirit.

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

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

~~~
jonpaul
Please do, as your story would truly be fascinating.

------
pdx
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 maxima and local minima. Your life can have
these as well. You sense that you're at a maxima, and if you proceed in any
other direction, you will go down. Some people refuse to take any step that
feels like a step down, even if the path can take them to a higher local
maxima than they were at before.

I was a bad waiter before I was a good one. I was a bad engineer before I was
a good one. I'm not a great web developer yet. If your ego can handle going
from good to bad, I think you shouldn't stay on your little local maxima,
trembling that you'll get knocked off it by events you can't control. Jump off
of it of your own free will.

~~~
maxklein
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?

~~~
hristov
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.

~~~
maxklein
But it's likely that ranch owners were once ranch hands.

------
marcus
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

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

~~~
mahmud
They call them junkies, like programmers call them "lusers".

------
edkennedy
His view is pretty conservative. Sometimes the interesting thing about apps
written from another, outsider perspective is that they approach it in
creative ways most people in that niche have not yet thought of. I think the
author is parroting the figure of speech "Jack of all trades, master of none"
or perhaps the french "Qui trop embrasse, mal etreint"
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades,_master_of_n...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades,_master_of_none)

~~~
Confusion
I think 'Let the cobbler stick to his last' is more appropriate. He's not
suggesting the dealer or webapp creator wasn't excellent at what he did: just
that he shouldn't expect to be any good at what he does now (or intends to
do).

------
exit
> _And a person successful in selling web apps or in selling drugs is not a
> successful mobile developer._

is webapps -> mobile apps as big a leap as drug dealing -> real estate?

isn't it likely that, within 5 years, many mobile apps will actually be
webapps?

------
stevenwei
The biggest flaw I see is his argument is that five years ago, there were
basically no mobile app developers. So these folks (even the very successful
ones) all had to start somewhere, likely with little to no mobile experience,
and they learned along the way. When you're working in new markets with new
tech which requires new skillets, sometimes that's what you need to do.

------
phreeza
Two counterpoints:

a) Your experience from a previous career might translate well to the new one.

b) The cost of developing an iPhone app is now low enough, that you can give
it a shot and see if your idea is any good, for example by virtue of a)

~~~
maxklein
The point of the article is that when your experience translates well, you
should do that. When it does not, you should not.

~~~
phreeza
That I would agree with. The article states _Success in an area is not
transferable. You need concrete domain knowledge._ That just seemed a bit too
restrictive. Transferable skills can be very non-specific. A drug dealer might
now more about word-of-mouth marketing than a CS whiz kid who writes very
smooth iPhone apps.

------
juicebox
Drug dealers make some of the best apps.

Heard of Farmville or World of Warcraft?

WoW even borrows the first-hit-is-free, by encouraging each purchaser to share
the software with their friends. The entire universe of WoW is a streamlined
treadmill, for keeping players addicted. From depreciating gear, inflation,
achievements, status symbols... it has it all.

Tongue-in-cheek, I know. But I can see how combining the drug dealing
experience with video games could lead to insights such as Blizzard and WoW.

------
petervandijck
His story shows that they kind of should, though. Domain knowledge is great
and all, but there's no need to be stuck in something for an entire lifetime,
you can learn new things.

------
rameshnid
Great post. There is research done at the MiT that also supports the fact that
intelligent people (ppl with high iqs) find it difficult to make choices and
stick to them even after having known which choice is most likely to benefit
them the most.

Stability is hugely under rated these days.

~~~
petervandijck
His examples are wrong though, it's much better to move from being a
drugdealer into other legal businesses, even with the cost of learning, than
to stay where you are. So yes, drug dealers _should_ make iPhone apps (or buy
realestate etc...)

~~~
jamesbritt

        it's much better to move from being a drugdealer 
        into other legal businesses, even with the cost of
       learning ...
    
    

Exactly. The question to ask is whether what you know now is what you should
know tomorrow (or, is what you knew yesterday still appropriate for today).

And then decide if the cost of transferring is worth it.

A problem with sticking with what you know and what has brought you success in
the past is that times and markets change.

The gigolo probably _should_ open a bike shop. But hire someone to run it.
Running a bordello is likely to get his ass in jail. Which also suggests that
not every move to a related field makes sense. Going form one dubious activity
to another dubious activity might not be the best business choice.

One issues I've seen with developers who want to have a business is that they
tend to stick to what they know, while not checking to see if what they know
lends itself to a sustainable business.

------
mjgoins
The site's down :(

I wanted to hear about why Pfizer shouldn't make iphone apps...

~~~
stcredzero
Pfizer does a lot of marketing to physicians. Perhaps iPad apps could be
leveraged for this purpopse?

------
mitko
Success in an area is not transferable.

Counter-example: Arnold Schwarzenegger

------
GrandMasterBirt
* Success at Web Apps != Success at Mobile Apps.

While true, more important is

Good all-round knowledge in solving problems that users have every-day by
using techology is 100% transferable between all computer and non-computer
solutions. If you are good at finding niches in the market where users need
help, how the hell is that no transferable?

Now maybe writing webapps does not mean I can write great mobile apps, need
some training.

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dailo10
Voted up for referencing The Wire.

