Post AIiTo5vosS3TSlXvay by tim@society.ishygddt.xyz
(DIR) More posts by tim@society.ishygddt.xyz
(DIR) Post #AIg2R2UGQoG72cWFvM by ajroach42@retro.social
2022-04-21T14:43:36Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
I've been thinking about The Internet and The Economy over the last 50 years and I keep coming up against this idea that makes me want to scream. Our entire economic system is built around this idea that a small, sustainable, profitable business is worthless, and that only a MASSIVE INTERDEPENDENT BEHEMOTH that grows larger with each passing quarter is acceptable. Netflix can't ever lose any customers, ever, because they are operating at a scale where their debts are ridiculously high, and the only thing keeping them afloat is the fact that they show Growth quarter over quarter over quarter.
(DIR) Post #AIg2Re06xMibO6hiCW by ajroach42@retro.social
2022-04-21T14:44:09Z
2 likes, 1 repeats
A small thing that exists and sustains and pays it's workers a living wage but doesn't look to expand and consume and control the world is somehow Bad. Fuck that.
(DIR) Post #AIg2cDH6fAVDgUh280 by mdhughes@appdot.net
2022-04-21T14:44:47Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ajroach42 The "funniest" part with the Netflix situation is, they still gained 2.5M subscribers. But that's less than last year, and they had more people switching it off than usual. OH NO. END OF THE WORLD.
(DIR) Post #AIg2cDvWEupRhpbJ7Q by shadowfacts@social.shadowfacts.net
2022-04-21T14:47:44.200575Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@mdhughes @ajroach42 how long until we start seeing companies report third order effects? change in change in change in subscribers is gonna be the new hot metric
(DIR) Post #AIg691G6ewNlpsYn0C by ajroach42@retro.social
2022-04-21T14:45:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I'm watching this Silicon Valley show on HBO, and I keep getting slapped in the face by this idea that, if you're not operating at scale you might as well not bother. These companies aren't bootstrapping themselves, they're taking $100M checks at $5B valuations. No company is worth $5B unless it is inescapably large.
(DIR) Post #AIg691sOMb0VkcTMg4 by chronrevisited@mastodon.social
2022-04-21T15:26:25Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@ajroach42 I write about the tech industry in the mid-1980s. You see a recurring pattern. A small company comes up with a good product. It sells well. Then the pressure to expand--usually fueled by VC money--either leads to a premature IPO or complete collapse when a competing product comes starts to gain popularity instead.
(DIR) Post #AIg692eFUfHw92raGu by ajroach42@retro.social
2022-04-21T14:47:13Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
No company should be inescapably large. Build a small thing that works and pays it's workers well and can survive forever. Scale linearly, if at all. Anything else is garbage.
(DIR) Post #AIg693tAseozzcr1Au by ajroach42@retro.social
2022-04-21T15:00:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
The reason for this, of course, is as Pickety says "R>G" Returns on Capital are greater than Economic Growth. Having money makes money faster than making money. Marx looked at the same trends and called it the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to fall. We're about to find out what happens when that inverts. Returns on Capital are slowing, and either economic activity will stop as a result, and people will starve, or people will fight. It's going to be an interesting few years.
(DIR) Post #AIg6GAoTXE65Ul2zZo by rgegriff@hackers.town
2022-04-21T14:52:02Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@ajroach42 My goals are that company Panic. They are a small Mac shop that make a handful of very very useful tools, and they sell them at a fair price. What improvement work they do is mostly just bug fixes and keeping up with new OS and hardware changes.They generate enough money from that to pay everyone; they have enough free time left over that they get to do things like design and release the Playdate, and publish games like Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game
(DIR) Post #AIg6JRuWQIYLOIRBgW by lordbowlich@hackers.town
2022-04-21T14:59:09Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@ajroach42 How do we switch from an economic system that emphasises expontential growth to one that rewards long term stability and equalibrium is one of those hard questions that I wish we had an answer to and it feels like no one, or at least no one mainstream really seems to see is a problem. Unfortunately with how things work. I've seen and been a few places that ried to just maintain equalibrium and they were in perpetual financial distress until they just accepted the growth crap. Investors and banks were happy to shovel money into their gapping negative-profits maw when they were just going year-to-year in the black with the same revenues.
(DIR) Post #AIg6rVYDOZcgWiFC8O by TapiocaPearl@mastodon.art
2022-04-21T15:10:08Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@ajroach42 I remember reading about a small family-owned traditional snack shop in Japan that has been operating for like 1000 years and when asked how they've maintained such a long-lasting business they basically said "We make enough money for the family to live comfortably and we never tried to do more than that. People still like the snacks we make so we just keep making them."
(DIR) Post #AIg7MmaO6qTsKxAoDo by chronrevisited@mastodon.social
2022-04-21T15:39:01Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@ajroach42 I've been researching my next blog post which looks at a bunch of mid-1980s business application developers who all fielded strong products but were eventually obliterated by Microsoft in the early 1990s. Basically, Microsoft knew how to compete "at scale" and these smaller firms did not. Of course, that didn't mean Microsoft actually had better software...
(DIR) Post #AIg7ZVdWREnXX9hx9E by ajroach42@retro.social
2022-04-21T15:41:44Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
Now, what can we do about it? 1) If you're in a position, like me, where you have the choice between doing a thing that is sustainable or working for a company that is entirely built around Perpetual Growth and Debt, consider doing the sustainable thing. Perpetual growth is a myth, and the debt bubble could collapse at any moment. 2) As a consumer, consider where your money goes. Consider who is behind the thing you're purchasing. Consider who you support. 3) as a person, opt out where you can, if you can. Grow some banana peppers, record a podcast, shop at a farmers market, watch https://means.tv, whatever. 4) don't lose hope. The cycle of capitalism is boom and bust, and we've been booming for a while with nothing left in the tank. The next bust could be very large, and we need to be ready to sustain through it.
(DIR) Post #AIg9P7DsYJhupRsw88 by ajroach42@retro.social
2022-04-21T15:45:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
If you're interested in learning more about some of these ideas from an economic standpoint, I have recently been introduced to an economist named Anwar Shaikh. His work is ... dense, but he has unified lots of economic theories from the last hundred years, and brought to them an marxist//materialist analysis that synthesizes socialist theory along side the economic lessons of the last 100 years, to develop something New. His lectures are all over youtube, and I'm currently working with The Goop on a series of videos breaking down some of his theories and studies in to language that's a little less Academic and a little more consumable. If this is the kind of thing you'd be interested in, let me know so I can prioritize that work.
(DIR) Post #AIg9P7mcT9UqZC8gHQ by ajroach42@retro.social
2022-04-21T15:53:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
The thing that bugs me about economists, though, is that they focus on the Economy as if it was a discrete thing. The economy is made of people and their decisions. Our understanding of economics is really about trying to predict what large groups of people will do given certain stimuli.But these things, these Results of the Economy are really the aggregate result of the actions of individuals. My hope is that, if we can recognize these facts and understand that the way things "work" today doesn't actually Work, we may be able to accelerate change.
(DIR) Post #AIg9P8LiMfZMK2Yhyy by Korgdisso@dobbs.town
2022-04-21T16:03:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ajroach42 Not merely made of people, but made by people, who are long dead, and cannot understand our current needs. We can reset everything at any time, and distribute fairly, but we don't, because that's just what we've decided to do. So let's all be honest and just bypass the semi-religious reverence for an ad hoc cobbled together pastiche.
(DIR) Post #AIgIN6HHzhV4uFatii by RyunoKi@layer8.space
2022-04-21T17:44:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ajroach42Can I sidetrack you for a moment?https://changelog.com/podcast/428 might be well worth a listen
(DIR) Post #AIgIW2Rjbp25d4k3uq by ajroach42@retro.social
2022-04-21T17:45:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@RyunoKi Oh this looks neat. Thanks!
(DIR) Post #AIgIkDkEOn7Aiz9kHY by RyunoKi@layer8.space
2022-04-21T17:48:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ajroach42It's a niche I haven't heard of before even though it makes so much sense.You're welcome!
(DIR) Post #AIiTo5vosS3TSlXvay by tim@society.ishygddt.xyz
2022-04-22T18:54:58.993886Z
3 likes, 3 repeats
@ajroach42 @james https://longnow.org/ideas/02020/10/21/the-data-of-long-lived-institutions/> 90% of the companies that are over 200 years old have 300 employees or lessNot every company should scale. Some should last.
(DIR) Post #AIimoWQsFJ3cmbzNY0 by Korgdisso@dobbs.town
2022-04-22T22:34:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@tim @james @ajroach42 this is an inn that has been in operation since 705 ad and has been owned by 52 generations of the same family. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishiyama_Onsen_Keiunkan