
A Taxonomy of Moats - pagade
http://reactionwheel.net/2019/09/a-taxonomy-of-moats.html
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phillc73
I honestly clicked that thinking (and hoping) it would be an article
discussing the different types of water filled ditches, used as a defensive
barrier.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moat)

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dilippkumar
Same here.

Moats (water filled ditches, used as a defensive barrier) are cool! Especially
the ones with Alligators in them.

Does someone have a link for taxonomy of real moats?

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tyingq
Not a taxonomy, but you might like it anyway.
[https://twistedsifter.com/2011/05/impressive-moats-around-
th...](https://twistedsifter.com/2011/05/impressive-moats-around-the-world/)

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BenoitEssiambre
This was great.

I wrote some thoughts on a subset of what is discussed in this article, the
knowledge moat:

How to Make a Good Secret Sauce:

[https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-make-a-good-secret-
sauce-8773...](https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-make-a-good-secret-
sauce-8773cd0216ce?source=friends_link&sk=0e8451d9e935ca23dc4838ecdc5148fe)

And follow up: Product Market Crossfit:
[https://medium.com/@b.essiambre/product-market-
crossfit-c09b...](https://medium.com/@b.essiambre/product-market-
crossfit-c09b019188f3?source=friends_link&sk=5a57eddd18dd948ebb512afb40a21667)

I'm not sure I do a good job of laying out my thoughts. I'm interested in
feedback.

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petra
I like the idea of complex knowledge being protected in code.

But what happens when a key employee leaves for a competitor ?

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BenoitEssiambre
Well, key employees are a weakness of knowledge moats since some of the
knowledge gets embedded in them. This might explain why people are paid well
in knowledge industries, to prevent them from leaving.

The part of the knowledge that is embedded in code usually doesn't leave with
employees. This might be an important advantage for software companies, a lot
of the expertise gets embedded in the software platforms.

