Re: [ox-en] Barriers to entry in writing and programming (was: Germ of a new form of society or germ of a new form of business?

• From: "Niall Douglas" <s_fsfeurope2 nedprod.com>
• Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2004 22:29:48 -0000

On 4 Feb 2004 at 1:43, Benj. Mako Hill wrote:

No, books or writing require vastly less training. Many successful
authors have no training at all.

As someone who makes their living between programming work and writing
work, I think that writing is a specialized skill, like programming.

I learned enough programming to get my first coding job in less than a
month. Learning to write well enough to get published is still
something I struggle with years after trying.

Getting published is hard for one reason only - competition is 
intense, not because you are any better or worse a writer than Steven 
King or anyone else.

You got your coding job and continue to get coding jobs for one 
reason only - it's a market with continuing high growth whereby 
average demand outpaces average supply. Your actual ability at it is 
an influence, but not as great as your contacts list and your 
reputation.

If anything, you've actually just proved my point about low entry 
barriers to writing - if the barriers were higher as they are with 
computer programming, there'd be far less supply and getting 
published would be much easier.

Cheers,
Niall

• References:
  • Re: [ox-en] Germ of a new form of society or germ of a new form of business?
    • From: Niall Douglas
  • Re: [ox-en] Germ of a new form of society or germ of a new form of business?
    • From: Benj. Mako Hill

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