
Peter Thiel on what works at work - Libertatea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/10/10/peter-thiel-on-what-works-at-work/
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mindslight
> _There’s something about the software businesses built in the last 30, 40
> years that works incredibly well for actually capturing value_

What the fucking fuck?! This must be why RMS, Linus, and everyone else who has
fostered Free and Open standards have their own personal yachts.

My observation has been that the value provided by a piece of software is
_inversely proportional_ to how much its creator is able to extract value. A
tool that can be relied upon and built on top of is invaluable - this end of
the spectrum is Free software (in the modification sense. unfortunately this
seems to also imply the price sense). Meanwhile, inserting yourself as a
needless middleman is exactly what allows one to set arbitrary terms to
extract value from users that come to rely on you.

This is why every hot new area of development is a cesspool battleground of
proprietary shit - it's in no individual manufacturer's interest to support an
open standard if they they think they can possibly triumph through marketing
and then extract licensing fees (and these days, API access fees).

Hopefully for the benefit of society, over the long term the proprietarians
will continue to be reverse engineered and otherwise overthrown by the noble
people working to build solid foundations that can be relied upon by
everybody. I just wish the economics were lined up.

