> Even though hindsight is 20/20, I'm still surprised that the power of network effects didn't occur to him (or whoever the "we" refers to).
To unwrap that, the “power” of great efficiencies of scale, but also “weakness” from the lack of adaptability and resilience inherent to monocultures.
The jury is still out on which way the balance swings — especially because the former manifests in “typical events” while the latter manifests in “tail events”. Post pandemic disruptions of logistical supply chains and supply-chain vulnerabilities in software, I think folks seem to (or at least ought to) be far more apprehensive of blindly submitting to network effects.
In summary, it’s surprising to me that even in hindsight people seem so enamored with network effects to be blind to the cons.
To unwrap that, the “power” of great efficiencies of scale, but also “weakness” from the lack of adaptability and resilience inherent to monocultures.
The jury is still out on which way the balance swings — especially because the former manifests in “typical events” while the latter manifests in “tail events”. Post pandemic disruptions of logistical supply chains and supply-chain vulnerabilities in software, I think folks seem to (or at least ought to) be far more apprehensive of blindly submitting to network effects.
In summary, it’s surprising to me that even in hindsight people seem so enamored with network effects to be blind to the cons.