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I think that response is natural especially for anyone who builds things, software or otherwise.

But my mindset completely changed after listening to a lot of economics stories on planet money. There was this dude who tried to make a simple toaster on his own, down to refining metal. None of us can make even the simplest consumer product, let alone an consumer electronic product economically.

https://www.npr.org/2014/09/12/342138931/how-do-you-build-a-...




This seems similar as the point made in the well known essay I, Pencil (1958)[1]. You can buy a box of pencils in Staples for something like $0.10 apiece. But no individual, and probaly no small businesses would be capable of making some pencils from raw material (skipping even the step of harvesting the raw material).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Pencil




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