Software is far better at most jobs than people are. I realize that statement will make a lot of people uncomfortable, but it’s true. In just about every industry I know, software-based solutions provide greater functionality, convenience and speed than their human counterparts. There’s just no way people can keep up. That’s what prompted Marc Andreessen to make his famous assertion that “software is eating the world.”

Ability to Scale Leads to a Better Outcome
The primary advantage of software is it can serve one person, or a million of them, equally well. Today, computing power is so cheap that it’s essentially free. So it doesn’t matter how complex a piece of software is; you just throw more hardware at it as needed. In fact, the more people who use a piece of software, the more useful the software becomes, because it can use the data it accumulates to discover patterns that humans couldn’t possibly spot.

To appreciate software in action, think about Amazon. You may feel nostalgic for the old-fashioned book seller, but you can’t say she was better than Amazon. A bookstore owner might have known the preferences of a few of her best customers. But there is no way she could pick the ideal book for each of them, much less give them a thorough set of reviews, both positive and negative, for a title they are thinking about buying. And no one particularly enjoys jostling in line in a crowded store, as happens on the last day of holiday shopping. At Amazon, though, there is never a wait, and lines are never a problem.
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