[eldavido]

I think about this a lot. And I don't think it transfers at all.

Software is a design business. You win by building the thing people want and selling a lot of it. The hard problem is identifying a real need and getting whatever it is to market ahead of your competition. If you're doing it right, cost control isn't that important.

By way of contrast, any business that touches inventory, you're dealing with suppliers, margins, shipping, waste and spoilage, credit lines, labor management (unions!) and a whole bunch of other stuff with zero analog in software. Most people aren't that good at this stuff or can't be bothered with it so industries just sort of go on and on without much change.

The thing most people outside of software aren't used to, is that software is INTENSELY competitive. People in older industries talk about "going global" like it's something they have to do. Software people should rightfully laugh at that. When you make bits, you're competing with the entire world from day 1. Most other companies just don't have nearly this level of competition and would get crushed by it, except that "local" is usually somewhat of a barrier to competition.

[newfoundglory]

I’d say most software isn’t global because it works with the real world - uber, Amazon, Facebook, all of them started local.