Unless you can capture the value of something, it may have value, but the price is going to be low. In order for something to be of value to an inventor, the va

Unless you can capture the value of something, it may have value, but the price is going to be low. In order for something to be of value to an inventor, the value must be able to be captured. This is easy for, say pharmaceuticals ("you'd like to live ? That'll be $5000 please. Patents mean nobody else can save you"). Likewise, software has the problem that replicating software is too easy, hence the value can't be captured. Imagine what would immediately happen if someone made an app that people would gladly pay $5000 for (e.g. one that somehow gets them interviews for a $100k job), it would immediately be replicated and sold for $500. And then $50. Only where that is really hard can you profit. Software that for some reason can't be easily duplicated. Only Microsoft seems to have pulled that off, for very large and complex programs and even there the engine seems to be sputtering. Larger article about this: https://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-losers-1410535536 https://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-...