Dexterity Software - R.I.P.

[Jim Buck]

Since many of us came from the Dexterity forums, some may find this interesting:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/dexterity.htm

More info:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/10/halloween-updates/

[Ricardo C]

Well, best of luck to Steve. He's achieved the indie dream of freedom from the machine, and so we should all wish him the best in any new endeavors he pursues. Polyphasic sleep excluded :D

[Sharpfish]

Shows what I know, I thought he had turned his back on dexterity/software ages ago. I knew it was still live but assumed he would be heading into the personal development stuff further.

Good luck to him for his future projects (though I doubt he needs it looking at his past efforts). :)

[Sillysoft]

I spent a little time looking for a buyer for the games site, but I wasn’t successful because I didn’t put much effort into it. I didn’t need the money, and building StevePavlina.com was keeping me plenty busy anyway. Most people who’d be interested in such a site simply couldn’t afford to pay what it was worth to me. Even though the traffic is totally unqualified, simply redirecting the game site’s traffic to StevePavlina.com will likely gain me enough new readers to make the domain worth keeping. If I were to sell the site, it would have to be for something in the upper five-figure range, simply based on my ability to monetize the traffic here.
Wow, that is a lot of value built-up in the dexterity.com domain, even though he hasn't been releasing new stuff for quite a while now. That's what you can grow when you focus on gaining traffic and exposure for your company, as opposed to solely counting on other distributors to bring your goods to the public.

[Escapee]

Steve has one of the best jobs/home business/work/or whatever you want to call it in the world. :) I will wish him get inspired or 'enlightened' often so that he could write more and more great articles :)

[Anthony Flack]

And the games...? What happens to them?

[soniCron]

I'm missing the articles... :(

(Archive of the articles (http://web.archive.org/web/20050331084512/www.dexterity.com/articles/).)

[Andy]

Being Russian I've never got a right to visit his website. So bravo Steve! You made all of us equal at the end! :)

[Bad Sector]

Being Russian I've never got a right to visit his website. So bravo Steve! You made all of us equal at the end! :)

Is visiting Dexterity illegal in Russie? :-P

[Ricardo C]

In Soviet Russia, website visits YOU!

(yes, the Yakov Smirnoff jokes will run out eventually)

[Jack Norton]

Is visiting Dexterity illegal in Russie? :-P

Heh isn't a joke, Steve was blocking "certain countries" IP (Russia, Vietnam, China, etc) from even only accessing his site. Maybe Andy is so successful because he never got the chance to read his articles? :D

[ggambett]

In Soviet Russia, website visits YOU!
(yes, the Yakov Smirnoff jokes will run out eventually)
I wonder how many of the people who make Yakov Smirnoff-like jokes actually understand why the original one was funny, or what it was to begin with :rolleyes:

[arcadetown]

Thought it was funny, shows you how easy I am to entertain. And yes luckily I got to the industry long before I found Dexterity's articles, otherwise I would have probably continued down the illustriuous path of making games given how I make such good games (http://www.arcadetown.com/antaris_proto/playantarisproto.asp). Ok so that was my first prototype applet, I've made much better... haven't I?!

[GBGames]

I wonder how many of the people who make Yakov Smirnoff-like jokes actually understand why the original one was funny, or what it was to begin with :rolleyes:

I found out once. I can't remember now. The jokes are still funny, though. B-)

[GBGames]

And the games...? What happens to them?

I asked, and Steve replied to say that it is more effort than it is worth to him to continue to make the articles and games available, especially since they are so dated.

[Ricardo C]

I wonder how many of the people who make Yakov Smirnoff-like jokes actually understand why the original one was funny, or what it was to begin with

Why yes, Gabriel, some of us remember the Soviet Union and the career Yakov carved out for himself by doing standup comedy based on the Cold War and the political and civil repression in the USSR.

As far as what the first was, the oldest one I remember is something like "In America you put old presidents on money. In Russia, we don't have money!".

[ggambett]

"In Los Angeles you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia the Party can always find you!". It's not the reversal, it's "party" vs "Party".

[electronicStar]

That must be a lesson. Whatever money there is in indie games business (and Pavlina was one of the succesfull ones) there is evene more money to be made in "personal devellopment" business for credulous people.

[bignobody]

I asked, and Steve replied to say that it is more effort than it is worth to him to continue to make the articles and games available, especially since they are so dated.

Seems a little silly. Just because something is dated, doesn't mean it isn't good. I still fire up my C64 emulator on a regular basis...

[GBGames]

Seems a little silly. Just because something is dated, doesn't mean it isn't good. I still fire up my C64 emulator on a regular basis...

I still play Total Annihilation and Pac-man.

Granted, some of the articles might have aspects that are dated, but there were some good parts that I think were timeless.

[luggage]

It's more than that the games are dated - it's that they require support, and there'd have to be new games at some point else the site will stagnate and dry up evetually anyhow.

I thought it was more interesting he thought dexterity had a high value -"most people who’d be interested in such a site simply couldn’t afford to pay what it was worth to me." yet didn't put any real effort in selling it and is willing to just cut it off and dry up for a short term gain in traffic to his 'personal development' site.

[DFG]

I would guess his personal development stuff is doing so well that the Dexterity income pales in comparison. Probably hard to be motivated to put any kind of work into it (including getting it ready to sell).

[Escapee]

yeah , it's priceless when someone emails you that the articles written have saved his life or changed his life for the better . I'd imagine Steve gets a lot of these in a regular basis . Steve for 2008 US president ! :D

[sphinx]

Andy : Steve was blocking Egypt too but I was able to get access to his site using Anonymizer (http://www.the-cloak.com/login.html) and the likes ;)

[Anthony Flack]

Well then, the thing to do is to put them up for adoption as abandonware.

[lakibuk]

Don't you think that Dweep still could be a solid seller this days? It's a good puzzle game.

[Repton]

Who needs games when you're making $1,000 a day in advertising.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/how-to-make-money-from-your-blog/

[oNyx]

Well, he could put some ads there, make his games freeware, totally drop support, and promote his new page at a prominent place. Should be better than the current redirect.

[Uhfgood]

I think Steve is off his nut.

[KNau]

You can spot a control-freak by how long they have a successful business with no employees. Throughout Dextertity and StevePavlina.com's history it has always been essentially a one-man operation (Erin doesn't count as delegating). He's toyed with having 1 extra employee every now and then but never committed (in either business) to building beyond that. I'm betting Steve probably isn't as emotionally ready to delegate responsibilities as he'd like to believe.

The is not a judgement of Steve. One of the hardest things for an entrepreneur to do is start handing off control. It's a big leap to bring on new employees, so much so that many businesses go down in flames because the owner would rather burn themselves out than bring on employees.

What would have probably made the most sense would be to follow the E-Myth model and extract himself from the equation - hiring 2 people (web marketer / acquisitions and a programmer) to take over the business. Anything over and above their salaries would go into the Pavlina family pockets. Then he'd have a business to hand off to the kids when they were old enough - that's a better education than college!

[KNau]

Although if the site was at the point of making < $20,000 a year or if he found that his games weren't going to work in Vista without major reworking then I can see the preference to just drop the business completely. But I still think overall Dexterity decline was a result of an unwillingness to delegate.

[Mike Boeh]

But I still think overall Dexterity decline was a result of an unwillingness to delegate.

Steve just lost interest and quit SEO'ing it and marketing it...

[DangerCode]

Sounds like Steve had a good successful run at it and he just decided to make a clean break for the next chapter of his life.

Sounds fine to me. Good luck to him.

[Mike Wiering]

He still does use the Dweep icon for his stevepavlina.com website!