> It's like the authority to create goes from the individual first-principles (by necessity) maker, to the control over development being in the hands of an ext

> It's like the authority to create goes from the individual first-principles (by necessity) maker, to the control over development being in the hands of an external group, and then all your time is spent keeping up with what they're doing. This is a fundamental economic question: buy or build? Buying involves search costs ("all your time is spent keeping up"), building involves the cost of ... building. Often the line shifts because of gains from trade/specialisation and the deepening structure of production. As products become more featuresome, it becomes more economical for producers to specialise in part of the problem. They become better at that part than others are. It quickly becomes impossible for any single producer to out-produce the combined output of specialists. As a side note, the tension between the cost of searching and the cost of doing it yourself is believed to be why firms can emerge out of "pure" markets. It also suggests an economic reason for why software projects grow at their margin and another reason for why NIH is so attractive.