Ebooks

Interesting post from Megan McArdle about the future of print books:

There's a famous old joke about two people walking through the woods when they spot a bear. The first hiker drops down and prepares to play dead. The second one opens his pack and takes out a pair of running shoes.

"What are you doing?" asks the first hiker. "You can't outrun a bear."

"I don't have to," responds the second hiker. "I just have to outrun you."

New technologies are like that. They don't actually have to be faster, or better, than any conceivable product. They just have to be better in key ways than the competition.

She talks about how industries reach tipping points as technology progresses. If the printing industry loses too much ground to ebooks then printing firms lose out on their economy of scale and costs go up. If ebooks become the norm then there will be less infrastructure in place to deliver paper ones. She also mentions that it's entirely possible that the next generation will grow up with e-readers and never develop the fondness for paper that we have.
I'm don't know how far things will go that way and she hedges as well, but it's interesting to think about. Yesterday I mentioned that I'd been reading a long pair of novels by Connie Willis. After I was done I still wanted to read some more of her work so I switched from my Kindle to a paperback. I'm not enjoying the experience as much. Part of it is that it's simply easier to read the Kindle while parenting. You can read with one hand and if you set it down for a minute you don't have to find your page again.
The world is moving on. Wonder where it's going from here?