I look at the IT technical book market
Writing / transparent
Needless, IT Technology Books, this market has been made in these two years. A large number of foreign amenities are introduced, and the work of Taiwan's technical writers is popular across the country, and the mainland technology writers thrive. Any reader will recognize that the current reading environment has been greatly than two years. In this article, I would like to make my own understanding of the current technical book market. Or have a deficiency, please advise.
Due to well known reasons, this paper refers to the "IT Technology Book Market" will not include the textbook market. According to Ms. Zhou Wei, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the current textbook market has also been greatly progressing, but because I don't know much about it, I still don't plan to take this water.
Liangxiao, Xinxin
These two words should be possible to be aika evaluation of the current IT technology book market. On the one hand, there is a lot of good written markets, making the reader to be faster; on the other hand, it is more so-called "bad book" to flood the market, and the readers will suffer. However, I want to do some more in-depth analysis through the surface phenomenon.
Recall the market before two years, all books are priced (commonly known as "paper pricing"), all books, all kinds of books purely fight the price war. This is a typical market market, because readers generally lack the ability to identify the quality within the book. However, in such a harsh market environment, a group of readers have cultivated higher grades by browsing foreign websites. In 2000, the IT technical book market has a basis for the changing.
It is the entry of Mr. Houjie in the final induced this quality. Mr. Houjie brought to the mainland, not just a "deep-in-depth MFC", but also his "no responsibility". Many people (including I am) is because Mr. Hou's book is beginning to understand: Reading must read a book. It is this need for this kind of book, as well as the screening ability of book quality, which has prompted the book market to change the earth.
From this to observe today's IT technology book market, we can see that in addition to the real good book, those less good books are also trying to pack themselves into "good books". In addition to the real outstanding publishers, those who are not so good publishers are also trying to improve their books. The publisher even in the event of a true excellent product, even if it is still refused to enter the truly excellent product, at least the propaganda effort on the surface is done. This phenomenon also reflects that the reader's screening capacity has indeed significantly improved, at least not to buy a book like it.
Fundamentally, bring this prosperity, a free market; bring so many buddies, it is equally free to market. Therefore, if you want to get this prosperity, you must be able to tolerate these crude abuse; if you want to be simple and rudely banned, the prosperity will no longer be. "Liangxiao, Xinxin" These two words are actually two sides of the same coin.
"Rotten book" reasonable?
So, is I saying: Is it reasonable for crude abuse? Yes, nor. However, before the next payment, we first consider a question: Why is "bad book" will flood the market.
(Please pay attention to a point: "bad book", "bad book", refers to the inner quality and poor book. I noticed that many people just "don't like" or "useless" for yourself. The book evaluation is "bad", this is an extremely irresponsible attitude. Wild book, usually there will be no many people like it; however, even if it is not a book, it is not seen. This truth is simple, I hope you can remember when you evaluate a book.)
There is a "fully competitive market" in economics. In such a market, all economic entities (including buying and sellers) cannot independently affect prices, all economic entities have complete information, and all economic behavior does not have externalities. In such a market, all transactions are reasonable, which makes everyone satisfied with the highest efficiency. In such a market, the quality of goods will directly reflect the difference in prices, and the crude goods will be unattended. Obviously our book market is not a completely competitive ideal market, otherwise there will be no one will go to "bad books" - because someone will not buy. So, what is the factor so that these crude goods can be abused? Samuelson has been summed up, and there are three factors that lead to market failures:
Ø Not fully competitive. When a company can independently affect prices in a market, the company can get excess profit by means of this monopoly and lead to low efficiency of the market.
Ø Externality. Extracornes occur when certain external effects of production or consumption are not included in the market price. For example: a factory may emissively emissively emissions of exhaust gases and affect the health of surrounding residents. If companies do not compensate this impact, this externality will damage consumer's benefits.
Ø incomplete information. Usually, consumers' information about the goods is not as good as producers (as the saying "," buying is not as good as selling "), the producer may be able to blind consumers with such information, thus gaining excess profit, and leads to consumers The welfare is damaged. [1]
Obviously, the manufacturer of "rotten book" is using the unsatisfaction of information to blind consumers, allowing them to buy poor quality books that do not value their prices. After knowing the "bad book", it is easy after the cause of the disease. If you want to let the "bad book" no longer deceive consumers, you should try to exclude inequality on the information, allowing consumers to get as completely as possible.
However, as a scarce resource, the information is impossible to fall from the sky. Consumers should not want the producer "conscience" to provide full information to yourself - you can think about it: Is there any publisher saying "Does our book are not good?" Since information is a scarce resource, consumers must pay the corresponding cost for information: You can choose to buy a professional magazine, read the book review above; you can also go to the website, listen to others on the website; You can also stand in the bookstore to see the steps to make a decision (please pay attention to the three ways I have chosen: these three ways, the cost of money is arranged less, and the time consuming is less than multi-arrangement - time is also one cost). However, if consumers refuse to pay a certain cost to get more information, then "it is deceived" does not have their own responsibility? After all, in our society, it is not a difficult thing to get this information.
Unfortunately, I did see (and listened) a speech like this: "The buddhism should be banned." Behind this sentence, it is actually implying that consumers don't want to pay a certain cost. Get more perfect product information, and it is desirable to provide consumers to provide merchandise quality information for consumers, or even directly supervise the quality of goods. Whenever I heard such a speech, I will feel cold and chestnut: Isn't we give up my little freedom I just got? By the situation, I am not convenient to discuss the topic of "Collecting and Freedom". What is the textbook market under the collecting power? I believe everyone still remembers.
All in all, the existence of "rotten book" is a market phenomenon. We can only disappear through the market, but we can't go to rough interference. There are some problems in the free market, but this should be the driving force for us to develop in the direction of complete competition, and it is absolutely should not be an excuse to abandon free return.
Is the book price too expensive? Perhaps some friends have guessed: At this time, Gigix wrote such an article, will not mention the book price. Yes, in this section, I just want to explain my views on the book price.
For a few more time, I was surprised to see a netizen to appreciate the "printing price" of several books. I am surprised, but this netizen is extremely lacking in economic common sense. Here, I don't plan to help the public, because there is no meaning: China Telecom gives the employee's high welfare treatment, then declares that he "loss", will you think that China Telecom's charging standard is reasonable? ?
In fact, it is very simple to do business: how much is the buyer is willing, and the seller should open more high prices. The price does not have any relationship with the cost, and consumers do not need to care about the cost of producers, just care about their utility. In a completely competitive ideal market, everyone has pursued their own interests to maximize their own interests, and the market "I can't see the hand" will naturally form the resource to the most efficient location. Please remember Adam Smith's name:
Our dinner is not from the grace of slaughter, winemakers and bakers, but is from their interests to their own interests.
Read here, some friends may not sit still: No matter what you gigix is talking about the sky, JJhou has a book to sell more than 100 pieces, is it still not expensive? For these friends, I firmly said: Not expensive! why? And listen to me slowly.
I think that a book "expensive" and "not expensive", there are two levels of meaning: one, for individuals; second, it is for society. When you want to evaluate a book "expensive" or "not expensive", you should distinguish these two floors. Here we analyze the two levels of meaning separately.
First of all, what is "expensive" in personal sense? That is to say, the purchase of this item does not bring me the cost of I pay. For books, the cost is approximately equal to the price [2], and the utility varies from person to person. For example, Mr. Houjie's "C Standard Library", the price is 108 RMB, and we think that the cost of purchasing this book is 108 RMB. Therefore, as long as we can obtain more than 108 RMB utilities from this book, we think that this book is "not expensive". Then, for those comrades who believe that the price "too expensive" from the perspective, I have to worry about them: I have not 100 RMB from a technical book. Why do you want to buy it? it? You know, reading is to spend time. Even if you have a monthly salary only 1000 RMB, if you spend two days to read a book, then you use the time worth 100 RMB. For these comrades, I am probably only those categories that they will be in "information incomplete". Therefore, my advice to them is: It is better to complain, it is better to have more flowers to get more information, otherwise the next time I will buy "too expensive" book.
Then, what is "expensive" in the sense of social sense? As a netizen said: There is a rich man in the society, and there is also a poor man in the wall of the family. How do you evaluate a product "expensive" or "not expensive" from the perspective of the whole society? In fact, the answer is also very simple: completely competing in the market, its price is rational. This truth, I believe that I don't have to go.
The problem is that the market is not completely competitive, and Mr. Houjie has a large piece more than others. So, where is Mr. Houjie?
First, Mr. Houjie offers quality commodities. For this, I don't want to say more. Perhaps someone is going to oppose my view. For opponents, I only take a question: Can you find any of the competitors of Mr. Houjie, and the reply to readers is more responsible than Mr. Hhou, more guiding? Buying a book can also buy after-sales service, this concept is probably from Hou Shou's start here? I got a good teacher, and I might suddenly realized that the value of this guidelines did? It is possible to get such a good after-sales service, is it worth paying? Second, Mr. Houjie uses the asymmetry of information. For example, Mr. Hou will listed his own "deep-in-depth MFC" as one of the "MFC's four big kings"; Another example, Mr. Hou will grate on the reader of the speech to write on his homepage. This is also the "self-blowing" of some people. In my opinion, such a slam is like a childish and laughing of the attack on TV advertising in the early 1980s. I also don't intend to evaluate or prove the true and false of these propaganda - when you watch TV ads, will you be interested in prove that an advertisement is true? In fact, for this publicity is not adapted, as we are in the end of the 1980s, the end of the market economy is not adapted to the market economy. Mr. Hou is different, that is because his competitors have not learned how to promote. Is it the weakness of the opponent, is it possible to use the reason?
We can see that the IT technology book market is a market with no monopoly, just have some incomplete phenomenon. In addition to using this kind of information in whole, Mr. Hou has been providing more, more complete information for readers. The most recent example is that the Machinery Industry Press is because Mr. Hou's "no responsibility" I was forced to hand over the book of Effective Java to Pan Aimin. Re-translation. In this case, criticize Mr. Hou's book "too expensive", I always feel a bit unlike marginal.
There is also a kind of remark that, although you tell these very much, Hou Jie's book is priced, the translation book has exclusive, these "famous" or let others translate as good. This kind of expression is: Houjie's translation work has a negative externality, so it should be restricted.
At first glance, it seems that it seems to be full, think of thinking, thinking is a bit wrong: saying that this kind of words is purely in reverse black and white. Take the "C Standard Library" as an example: In October 2001, I saw Mr. Hou first time, and I heard that Meng Yan was translation with Mr. Hou. At that time, I only had a little more understanding of this book, and I didn't pay too special attention. Even the Kingofark, which didn't know the life, I didn't know the book, and I certainly didn't know anything. Therefore, it should be said that "C Standard Library" is because Mr. Hou (and Mengyan) is famous, not like some people say it is "Mr. Hou translated famous". " Mr. Hou's translation does have externalities, but it is positive externality: he promotes an unknown breeze to Chinese readers. The same situation also happens in other books: (more) Effective C , GP & STL, C Primer, Inside C Object Model ... Which one is not because Mr. Hou's translation or recommendation is a mainland programmer competition masterpiece"? It is said that if it is too big, he is not forgotten, it is the ass.
Finally, I found a strange phenomenon: friends around me or friends in Email, I always said that Mr. Hou's book "is very worth"; "I am old in the forum, I saw a lot of people criticizing Hou's book" too expensive ". I don't know if it is because of the forum?
Written in the last
A few days ago, Mr. Houjie, Mengyan and others chatted. Meng Yan said "Gigix believes that 'rotten book' is also reasonable", Mr. Hou immediately questioned: "Why?" The eyes are quite blamed, so that I have a slut in the back. Mr.'s integrity, in this kind of society, the society, is actually rare. I will explain the reason, Mr. Hou also said that it is called. There have been speech on both sides, publishing unfair to freedom, so the desire for freedom and tolerant environments is also common. If the reader can learn to cherish the right to choose freely, learn more information to maintain their own interests, want to come to the book market more satisfactory.
[1] Paul Samuelson, "Micro Economics" (16th Edition), Huaxia Publishing House 1999, page 223.
[2] Although collecting information before buying information, it takes a certain cost, but the bookstore can discounted, probably can disappear.
