
Capital Into Code - bootload
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000074.html
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herdrick
Joel is wrong here. At the least, his goal, "software that works" is way off.
"Software that people want" is way more important than how well it works.

This is a good example of how Joel is still mostly a big-company kind of guy.

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staunch
I think it's fair to interpret "software that works" to include "software that
users want".

In the sense of "Gmail is great software, because it just works!"

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bootload
I often think about the idea behind this article, "build a better mouse-trap",
then compete with "37 others offering exactly the same service for free" OR
use capital to hire smart hackers and build superior products.

This also relates to the Ben & Jerry OR Amazon model [0] because if you hire
smart hackers you can grow organically [1] creating good products faster? Or
so the article assumes.

This article was written in 2000. Does it still hold true? Can you make money
using the Ben & Jerry model through hiring smart hackers? using the web based
model? Not all companies are going to be bought out and selling desktop
software is no longer as desirable as when this article was written.

Reference

[0] Joel Spolsky, 'Strategy Letter I, Ben and Jerry's vs. Amazon, May 12,
2000'

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000056.html>

[1] That is don't sell out and create a company using profit from sales
instead of looking for a flip.

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Mistone
i really liked the article, the show business and restaurant analogies were
pretty interesting. Web2.0 has churned out so many "me-to" companies, so I
think this is very sound advice for any software/web app that is thinking
beyond the flip.

