

In times of change, make tires - dennybritz
https://medium.com/new-media/c8adfdd884cf

======
garysweaver
This is at once a brilliant and useless post. The brilliance is that of course
you should provide something that people need that is risk averse, and using
the analogy of making tires during the transitional period of wagon to
automobile works well. The uselessness is both that everyone cannot make
tires, literally or figuratively, and it is very difficult to know what the
modern day "tire" is. Is it long lasting, high output energy source? Is it an
internet-independent lifestyle-enhancer? Does it make me more energetic
without unwanted side-effects or risk to my long-term health?

~~~
keithpeter
_"...and it is very difficult to know what the modern day "tire" is."_

And this difficulty resolves your first point about not everyone being able to
make tires!

My guess at a couple of tires: bags/cases and notebooks. Every new shiny
device needs a case and people seem to be carrying more than ever around with
them. Paper notebooks of various types have _really_ taken off recently.

~~~
navan
Another guess: batteries

------
mtkd
Nokia started out as a tyre manufacturer:

[http://www.nokiantyres.com/history-in-
brief](http://www.nokiantyres.com/history-in-brief)

1898 The Finnish Rubber Works is founded

1904 Factory set up in the town of Nokia

1967 Nokia Corporation established - Rubber, Cable and Paper Divisions

2003 Nokia's ownership in Nokian Tyres ended; Bridgestone Europe NV/SA became
the largest shareholder

------
gaadd33
The article is incorrect in stating that "But actually, of all the automotive
entrepreneurs of the turn of the century, only Ford and Mercedes survived"

Off the top of my head automotive companies that were around at the turn of
the century and are still around: Peugeot, Renault, Fiat, MAN and Opel (the
latter two are owned by other companies now)

~~~
fr0sty
Out of your list only Opel really qualifies as an "autmotive entrepreneur". It
may have been left off the list because it has been owned by General Motors
since the 20's.

Companies like Peugeot, Renault, and Fiat produce a very wide array of non-
automotive products. MAN Group was founded in the 1700s and while "truck
building activities" commenced in 1903 it was hardly the lion's share of their
business.

------
dennybritz
I think today's entrepreneurs are chasing hot trends too much. So the article
was pretty refreshing.

~~~
soup10
The article didn't do anything for me. What's the takeaway?

Good freelance journalism work will probably always be in demand? Certain
industries are more stable than others? Amidst all the encouragement to think
outside the box, sometimes thinking inside the box is thinking outside the box
in it's own way? Someone has to make the tires of the world and someone has to
make the cars? Making the tires is less exciting but more of a sure thing?
Hacker news will up-vote bad articles that insinuate some kind of profundity?
lol.

I think the actual "lesson" is to seek stability and safe bets in times of
change and upheaval. That's advice for the unambitious though. I would say, in
times of change, make your move. When the car industry was being born, i'd
like to be on the forefront figuring out how to make cars. Old media is dying,
new media is rising? How about figuring out how to capture the power of new
media to democratize and inform(and monetize) the public.

~~~
warp
When you're trying to work in an industry going through change, look for the
smaller aspects of that industry which remain stable even during the big
changes.

------
lowmagnet
Correction: Levi Strauss was one person, not two.

I do like orthogonal thinking, and a lot of businesses don't "get" the
concept.

My former employer flailed about trying to adapt to Amazon's competitiveness
(and anti-competitiveness in some cases) in both the print on demand and eBook
market. They kept trying to do with Amazon does (deep discounts, free
shipping) and failing to show an improvement on the bottom line.

They could have made a common eBook format that publishes to every platform
and done well with it. eBooks tend to be nearly pure profit as opposed to the
overhead of dealing with printing and shipping physical product.

------
imgabe
Reminds me of the saying - "When there's a gold rush, sell pickaxes and
shovels."

------
beshrkayali
I blame VCs for making entrepreneurship an easy way to money, fame, and/or
success.

