I wish the author would skip the accounting and econ 101 segments that eat half of this article. The author's writing is usually kind of fun, but it is unfortunate he feels his readership doesn't understand the difference between fixed and variable costs.
It’s always amazing to me how many developers don’t understand marginal cost and opportunity cost and therefore misunderstand the true economic power and forces behind software.
I like how Microsoft, Google, and Facebook were framed and it was essential for the author’s point on how Amazon is trying to do for reality and real stuff what others did for digital.
This is also a key piece to understanding why developer salaries can be so high. Revenues can grow much faster than costs, which makes the high salaries economically possible.
