Thanks Joey for being the voice of reason on this. Though you certainly
nailed the main point, there is an additional supporting point,
namely, the "easy factor."
The tech-centric view is now, and has always been, completely
unrealistic for everyone except skilled, tech-centric people. It can be
pushed to absurdity very easily...
"You don't know how to program well enough write your own web server?"
"You don't know enough assembly to write your own compiler?"
"You don't know enough VHDL to write your own instruction set?"
"You don't know enough about fabrication to build your own processor
(ASIC)?"
Another way to look at the same "easy factor" issue is imagine you need
to run a multi-million dollar online advertising/marketing campaign and
companies like Google and Facebook with easy advertising platforms don't
exist. Without "other" companies providing easy ways to run campaigns,
the typical advertising/marketing person is essentially stuffed. They
don't know how to do it on their own.
Even if your favorite band, Tool, had the money to finance their
operation, they would most likely be worse musicians if they were
forced to learn all the other stuff they need to know. In other words,
the thing they are good at, music, would suffer due to the need to
invest vast swaths of their time and effort in learning everything else
they would need to know.
As always, specialization has many advantages, but also, preventing the
need for specialization by making things easy can be very profitable.
Yeah, the same thing is said in music all of the time. You should be using social media, leveraging every possible distribution model, putting your music out there, giving it away for free, engaging your audience, designing your own shirts, crowdfunding this and that, and and blah blah. Who has time to do all of that and still practice their instrument, write new music, and carry on some semblance of a life?
Tool lets someone else manage their social media and they use it almost exclusively to promote other peoples' art that they like, because they couldn't care less to promote themselves with it. They're not available on nearly any streaming service. Their best form of marketing is putting out a product that is eons ahead of other bands and they're only able to do that because a label, manager, tour manager and everybody else help them stay focused on what they do best. Everybody likes to hate on labels but the truth is that they are a resource just like anything else, and when properly aligned, can provide the necessary resources and time to focus on the music itself. I far prefer that to a world with no labels and every artist tweeting their sanity away.
Take a look at this exchange, particularly the follow-up by potatolicious (along with the parent article): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3264289
The tech-centric view is now, and has always been, completely unrealistic for everyone except skilled, tech-centric people. It can be pushed to absurdity very easily...
"You don't know how to program well enough write your own web server?"
"You don't know enough assembly to write your own compiler?"
"You don't know enough VHDL to write your own instruction set?"
"You don't know enough about fabrication to build your own processor (ASIC)?"
Another way to look at the same "easy factor" issue is imagine you need to run a multi-million dollar online advertising/marketing campaign and companies like Google and Facebook with easy advertising platforms don't exist. Without "other" companies providing easy ways to run campaigns, the typical advertising/marketing person is essentially stuffed. They don't know how to do it on their own.
Even if your favorite band, Tool, had the money to finance their operation, they would most likely be worse musicians if they were forced to learn all the other stuff they need to know. In other words, the thing they are good at, music, would suffer due to the need to invest vast swaths of their time and effort in learning everything else they would need to know.
As always, specialization has many advantages, but also, preventing the need for specialization by making things easy can be very profitable.