Andrew Cho.NET

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There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income.

• Fox News interview (May 2004)

A good idea is a clever solution to a problem, one that I have never seen before. But if an idea is not taken up and used as a solution to a problem, it has no value. It becomes a non-idea.

-Paul Arden, author of the world’s bestselling book

I don’t care if you’re a billionaire. If you haven’t started a company, really gambled your resume and your money and maybe even your marriage to just go crazy and try something on your own, you’re no pirate and you aren’t in the club.

-Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

When you don’t lock down the hardware it’s very hard to make the UI perfect. Which is why Apple’s Macs, with locked down hardware, have always been a better experience than the hugely hardware-flexible Windows operating system.

-Michael Arrington, TechCrunch from his blog post on 6/16/10.

So Zappos.com sent me two advance reading copies of the upcoming book, Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. They suggested that I use the second copy as a prize to the readers of my blog.

So here it is. If anyone is interested, just email me here or you can just tweet me @cho_ak. It’s FREE!!!

Also, Check out the website http://deliveringhappinessbook.com

Damn. It’s been 4 years, already.
University of Southern California, Class of 2010.

Even though I vowed to make this blog not about my personal life, but something greater as Joel Spolsky once described, forgive me for just one day. Tomorrow is my college graduation.

4 years ago, one kid from a small town in Maryland arrived at USC as a pre-med concentration. After two changes in major, and one failed attempt at dropping out, the kid fell in love with technology, web, and video game production. I know it sounds as if the kid just turned into a geek over the past 4 years, but no, he found out what he wanted to do with his life.

Tomorrow marks the first day of the second phase in his life. Audentes Fortuna Iuvat. Wish me luck.

I found this quote on the first page of “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos. (just got it today, currently reading the first chapter.)

There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

-Morpheus, The Matrix

So, it’s been a week since the iPad replaced my laptop as the official gadget of choice to bring to school instead of my laptop. Amazingly, the iPad has let me do whatever that I’ve been doing on my Macbook Pro very well and I believe that it will continue to do so, unless I need my laptop for other reasons, such as heavy coding or word processing.

On my last post, I talked about how the iPad is going to repeat what the iPod has done in the music industry; it single-handedly killed the old-fashioned buy-the-entire-album-to-listen-to-just-one-good-song-that-is-worth-listening consumption pattern and allowed music listeners to pick and choose whatever song that they wanted to listen to.

So this time, I’m going to talk about what the iPad is going to do in software development industry, specifically those small independent developers who traditionally lacked the means to distribute their software, publicize their newest innovations, and make adequate amount of money to compensate for their effort. But this is about to change. In the next paragraph, I’m going to talk a little bit about economics, which may be boring but I promise it will be worth reading.

As it is very common in many developed countries, it is not very hard to find huge companies dominating one industry with their $$$ and PR power to influence the market  in whatever way they want. In economics, we call such practice oligopoly. And we all know (at least, should know if you’ve taken econ 101 back in college) that oligopolistic practice causes what is called deadweight loss through less production of goods at higher price, thereby reducing the amount of consumer surplus and producer surplus. As a result, the economy loses a significant amount of welfare that could have been produced had the market been competitive as illustrated in this graph.

Now, because the iPad gives independent software developer, who tend to be more creative and can produce innovative products faster than giant companies, a platform to compete on the same level as some of these bigger companies with more manpower and resources, it changes the entire market into nearly perfect competitive market. Consumers have the option of selecting whatever they need at a cheaper price because of the availability of numerous new applications that fit their needs. It effectively decreases the average price of software, previously dictated by some corporate giants and increases the quantity of available software by driving the number of software developers in the market, and minimizes the deadweight loss caused by oligopolistic market system in software industry.

In conclusion, the introduction of the iPad is a good news for both consumers and society because they’ll earn more from it as a whole. Yeah, some may say that this empowers Apple to become the next dictator in software industry but at least they are producing amazing user experience and share this new opportunity with everyone, unlike some companies.

Apple‘s latest and hottest product, the iPad just hit the stores yesterday. As it is the case for most Apple products, whenever Steve Jobs announces the latest innovation in Apple’s product line, so many doubtful customers (usually the ones that have no idea what they’re talking about but love to show off their ignorance)  talk so much nonsense all over the place that I’ve decided to clarify a few things and enlighten theses poor bastards.

The biggest complaint that I hear from people around me is that the iPad is just a bigger version of the iPhone. Now, I can’t even begin to tell you why such statement is absurd but let me just explain to you why the iPad is not just a blown up iPhone.

First, take the iBooks app and the Kindle app for the iPad. As most of you know, these applications let users purchase books and store them directly onto the iPad. Some may say, “I prefer to have a real book made of paper and ink”. Now, that doesn’t matter. As witnessed by the music industry, contents, whether they are music, pictures, songs, or films, are bound to become cheaper and cheaper over time. It is a basic economic principle that consumers will find their way to get their hands on the contents that they consume in the cheapest possible way without compromising quality. These two books applications mark the beginning of cheapening content in publishing industry. Yes, it is the rise of cheaper, higher quality digital content that will shake the publishing industry’s traditional business model. It will give power to numerous independent writers just as the iPhone and the App Store empowered independent programmers.

This is a good news for independent writers and publishers as they now have more opportunities to communicate and spread their ideas in effective ways by distributing their work as digital content over the Kindle app and the iBooks app. The iPad is like Guttenberg’s printing press that revolutionized the publishing industry back in 1436, and marks the end of 600-year-old paper and ink publishing. The iPad is the very epitome of the process of creative destruction preached by Joseph Schumpeter.  The market will NEVER be the same again.

The rise of independent writers that can deliver their products directly to consumers will turn the oligopolistic publishing market into competitive market, thereby maximizing consumer surplus and minimizing deadweight loss caused by oligopolistic business practice. The oligopolistic publishing industry, which have been dominated by a few mega firms, will have to adapt to the new free market perfect competition business model that will arise in the near future, thanks to the iPad. In conclusion, the iPad will be the only device that will be remembered as the gadget that single-handedly brought down the publishing industry.

This is just one effect of the iPad will have on the existing market. Now, I dare you to tell me that this product is still a giant iPhone.