4 ms·

That's not a moat, that's a red queen? A moat allows the owner a degree of passivity. Eg, you own the desktop OS. You are already using this moat to get office

That's not a moat, that's a red queen? A moat allows the owner a degree of passivity. Eg, you own the desktop OS. You are already using this moat to get office software on every machine, while competitors either have to dance to your tune when publishing a program, or think of a way to get their own OS out there. You can see how the internet develops, knowing that you can get your own browser on every machine for free. You can watch for a bit before you move. Relying on continuous inspiration is a treadmill that goes faster and faster. That's what's described here. Come up with something new and clever, someone copies it, come up with another thing. You can't be passive, you have to be moving constantly.

vanjajaja1 21d ago
the followers acurred willing to jump into your new thing would be the moat then, as would be your "software factory" that enables the fast fashion fast software creativity
- daveguy 21d ago
  The coming shitstorm of crappy software is going to suck.
  - mitxela 21d ago
    aren't we already in the eye of it, without a paddle?
deleted 21d ago
[deleted]
avaer 21d ago
It's social media and money that ruined it. Inspiration and creativity used to be something society rewarded you for, since you could capture the value and build on top of it. That was the moat. Now most people are punished for publishing because your work will usually get taken over by whoever has the biggest mouthpiece or compute, and there is no protection against that. I expect people to realize this sooner or later and take their work underground. It's already happening.
ivebeenwaiting 21d ago
> someone copies it, come up with another thing Whenever I create something cool - especially here - people copy it. If I do something really cool, companies do it. I always feel like I gave people things who didn't even do it right. However... a moat can also be just working on something that takes ~2 years to create. That gives you 2 years of moat at a time if you can repeat it, so it's a bigger treadmill that you can leisurely stroll along. Because you want to stay moving a little anyway, to stay relevant. Think about what it takes to crawl the entire web and rank pages. Nobody can do it overnight. Find the things that nobody can do overnight, and spend 2 years on it, building up that value. No matter what, nobody can do it unless they spend those 2 years. Nobody will, except the ultra dedicated (hire them). It takes that time... I think of this as like digging the moat where it doesn't naturally exist. You have a regular website that anybody could make, but you dug a moat by aggregating some value, or building it up, or connecting it to some external source of value that you have privileged access to.
- mitxela 21d ago
  If you patented it, they couldn't copy it (a lot of patents are secretly invalid, but they'd still need to hire lawyers to find out), but you'd be out $300

vanjajaja1 21d ago

the followers acurred willing to jump into your new thing would be the moat then, as would be your "software factory" that enables the fast fashion fast software creativity

daveguy 21d ago
The coming shitstorm of crappy software is going to suck.
- mitxela 21d ago
  aren't we already in the eye of it, without a paddle?

deleted 21d ago

[deleted]

avaer 21d ago

It's social media and money that ruined it. Inspiration and creativity used to be something society rewarded you for, since you could capture the value and build on top of it. That was the moat. Now most people are punished for publishing because your work will usually get taken over by whoever has the biggest mouthpiece or compute, and there is no protection against that. I expect people to realize this sooner or later and take their work underground. It's already happening.

ivebeenwaiting 21d ago

> someone copies it, come up with another thing Whenever I create something cool - especially here - people copy it. If I do something really cool, companies do it. I always feel like I gave people things who didn't even do it right. However... a moat can also be just working on something that takes ~2 years to create. That gives you 2 years of moat at a time if you can repeat it, so it's a bigger treadmill that you can leisurely stroll along. Because you want to stay moving a little anyway, to stay relevant. Think about what it takes to crawl the entire web and rank pages. Nobody can do it overnight. Find the things that nobody can do overnight, and spend 2 years on it, building up that value. No matter what, nobody can do it unless they spend those 2 years. Nobody will, except the ultra dedicated (hire them). It takes that time... I think of this as like digging the moat where it doesn't naturally exist. You have a regular website that anybody could make, but you dug a moat by aggregating some value, or building it up, or connecting it to some external source of value that you have privileged access to.

mitxela 21d ago
If you patented it, they couldn't copy it (a lot of patents are secretly invalid, but they'd still need to hire lawyers to find out), but you'd be out $300