With all due respect to Mr. Lyons this paragraph insulted me - as a hacker/entrepreneur:
Can anyone create an enduring business on the Web, where it’s easy to build new companies, and when survival depends on the whims of fickle users? The big lesson of Digg may be simply this: if someone offers you a ridiculous amount of money for a company that wasn’t that hard to build, don’t think twice. Take the money and run.
where it's easy to build new companies?
A company that wasn't that hard to build?
How does he know that? Has he ever built a company?
I think that's quite contemptuous. This sentiment is exactly what Steve Jobs was referring to when he told that Gizmodo/Engadget blogger (can't remember which it was) that they should stop criticizing other people's work and create something of their own.
Consider the possibility that business writers might have some insight into the operation of telecoms, financial companies, manufacturing companies, accounting companies, law firms, consumer product companies, restaurants, etc, etc, and not just tech companies, which is where the expertise around here lies.
I could make a passable Digg clone in a weeknend. A weekend. I couldn't run a single McDonalds franchise if you put a revolver to my head. That's what he's talking about.
You could run a McDonald's franchise. You would attend the classes where they teach you how. You would find it remarkably simple. They would give you a big handbook that explains how to do everything. You could not fail except through a lack of effort.
Now if someone had said to you in 2004: "Create a new fantastically popular way to consume news" you would likely not have an idea as good as Digg. Even if you did you would likely fail to market it effectively.
And by that same token, you lack the insight of what's really behind Digg. I doubt with the years of work they've put into it, tweaking algorithms, etc, that you'd be able to duplicate it in one weekend.
That's the same mindset that AOL/Netscape & Jason Calacanis had...so much so that they even tried buying Digg's top users.
Look how that turned out.
Seeing something built, or being built and building something are two completely different things.
It's the same thing with games. Watching someone playing a game and seeing how effortlessly they make it look, is completely different than playing it.
You could make a passable Digg clone, but it would not be successful. Hence my point. It's NOT easy to build a web company, otherwise everybody would be doing it.
If it were that easy, and assuming that Mr. Lyons is a rational individual, why does he not build one himself? He could easily make a few million dollars by listening to his own advice.
if you've ever launched a website...you know building is a very insignificant portion of the equation...the value of digg isn't the website or the technology, it's the users...and getting those is a lot harder than most people think
Can anyone create an enduring business on the Web, where it’s easy to build new companies, and when survival depends on the whims of fickle users? The big lesson of Digg may be simply this: if someone offers you a ridiculous amount of money for a company that wasn’t that hard to build, don’t think twice. Take the money and run.
where it's easy to build new companies?
A company that wasn't that hard to build?
How does he know that? Has he ever built a company?
I think that's quite contemptuous. This sentiment is exactly what Steve Jobs was referring to when he told that Gizmodo/Engadget blogger (can't remember which it was) that they should stop criticizing other people's work and create something of their own.
Goddammit this pissed me off.