I was listening to a podcast by Marc Andreessen (Co-Founder of Netscape) in which he discusses the history of programming.

It’s a bit of a geek out, but he makes some interesting points :

1. Programming tools are no longer made for machines, they’re made for programmers. this makes them really easy to learn how to use.
2. Servers are now a commodity, and the number of servers sold has increased incredibly over the last five years
3. Bandwidth prices are still plummeting
4. Open source tools mean that the barriers to entry have disappeared (from a cost point of view) when it comes to building web applications

What does this mean?

In a world where many businesses are now becoming digitalised to some extent, and almost everyone is trying to interact in a cheaper and smarter way with their customers (usually online in some shape or form), the next disruption to your business might not be from your competitor.

It might come from a self-taught kid in Brazil who has unintentionally designed something which is going to kill your business.

Think of the barriers which were around when Andreessen formed Netscape. Or when Shawn Fanning wrote the code for Naptser.

Now think of how many of those barriers has gone. And then think about your business.