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Comment by Keyframe | Hacker News Reader

The proposed idea is interesting, where interesting means stupid.

If Apple wants to dominate music industry, all it has to do is to create a baseline support for songwriters.

If Apple wants to dominate software industry, all it has to do is to create a baseline support for programmers.

If Apple wants to dominate computer industry, all it has to do is to create a baseline support for EE guys.

If Apple wants to dominate the flower industry, all it has to do is to create a baseline support for horticulturists and maybe buy some bees?

Naivety of couch analysts with no clue how certain industry works and why so is always amusing and irritating at the same time.

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I think the bigger idea is to think outside the box. Apple has stacks of cash to experiment with. This is precisely the sort of thinking it should take into consideration, spending big on wild ideas to see what works.

Perhaps the _exact_ idea he mentions isn't solid, but the spirit of it is true.

That's a valid viewpoint and a valid idea, especially considering Apple's history. I don't think that's what author meant though. He's straight-up proposing vertical integration. That's not vague direction, that's a concrete proposal of direction. Doesn't matter which segment of business.

I'm not asking this as a joke or facetious question but are you familiar with Cringely? I personally wouldn't categorize him as a couch analyst. Maybe checkout his Wikipedia entry or Youtube for "Triumph of the Nerds", he has been around the block.

Wikipedia says this guy has been around the block as a couch analyst.

Yes, I am very familiar with his work. I think he is a great interviewer, but analyst - not so very much. For example, watch his interview with Autodesk founder. I can't find it on my phone now, but it's out there (an old interview). It pretty much dissected how Autodesk became what it is. their strategy from the start was to straight out buy competition. Something that became evident over the years, but first time I've heard that was there.

I haven't seen that one thanks!

Here it is: https://archive.org/details/nerdtv007

"If Apple wants to dominate music industry, all it has to do is to create a baseline support for songwriters."

Why is this one self obviously stupid? Maybe song writers, and maybe TV and movie writers, are under valued and there really is a huge arbitrage opportunity there?

"If Apple wants to dominate software industry, all it has to do is to create a baseline support for programmers."

Like the App Store? Gave any programmer on Earth a low friction way to access consumers and take payments with very little up front effort. Not a bad baseline, given what existed before.

Platform for something isn't bad idea. Base guaranteed income within that system is. As with programmers, writers that are good find work and are appreciated. Not all, but most. It's not a world where there are a huge number of great writers who aren't getting paid well, or that there are a huge number of great writers who can't get a foot in the door where they could make money. It's not like that at all. Especially today.

Reading his "about" section was enough for me to close his page. I can't take serious anything said by someone like him.

Calling an idea "stupid" without explaining why isn't constructive.

The explanation was implicit, but I will elaborate it for you.

What he is proposing is a vertical integration within an industry that doesn't work like that. It did once (studio model) and that crumbled for various reasons (I can elaborate on that too if you want). On top of vertical integration, he is proposing a base income. Sort of like accelerators, but communist version. In a sense where selected writers would have income to fall back on, whether they work or not (whether they're motivated to work on quality or quantity or not at all).

edit: here's a bit of background on Studio system of ye olde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_system

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