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Comment by bavell | Hacker News Reader

What a weird time for our industry. On one hand, small teams have never been able to move faster than right now.

On the other, the economy and market conditions are brutal for the little guys. Incumbent behemoths hoovering up value, talent and financing.

Instead of shaking things up as usual when a major paradigm shift hits, AI has mostly been a centralizing, consolidating force. Not that I was expecting it to be otherwise, but it's certainly dismaying to witness.

Or am I being too pessimistic / glorifying the past?

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This is not just the tech industry.

It's easier than ever to make your own furniture. IKEA is bigger than ever.

It's easier than ever to publish a video game. Steam is bigger than ever.

It's easier than ever to 3D-print tractor parts. John Deere is bigger than ever.

It's easier than ever to switch to solar power. The petroleum industry is bigger than ever.

One person reverse-engineered Coca Cola, made an exact taste-alike and published the formula. You can make some at home. Coca Cola is bigger than ever.

Something fundamental is wrong with the economy.

The hidden cost to competing in these industries is insane. Its so hard to build a physical product that can compete against a giant like IKEA. You need to make some with less r&d, less automation, less infrastructure and you're going to sell less units and all that needs to be price competitive against something that is made on an production line with a team of experienced engineers and sold to millions at fine margins.

> It's easier than ever to publish a video game. Steam is bigger than ever.

In this case: these statements aren't contradictory, they're complementary. It's easy to publish a game on Steam, where the audience are and the money is. It's also easy to publish on itch.io where no money is.

It's not "you publish a game on Steam" - it's "Steam publishes a game that you made." But it's easier than ever to publish it yourself too.

> Something fundamental is wrong with the economy.

Economies of scale make it so that your home made furniture will still be more expensive than ikea. Same for the Coca Cola example.

For tractor parts, you would still need to make sure they don't break and work within small tolerances.

That depends, doesn't it? If I make it, it costs time instead of money. (Costs of tools are amortized over all the things I might make.) If I get it from IKEA, it costs money instead of time.

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