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[return to "Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms"]
1. jnwats+xf[view] [source] 2021-11-04 16:58:17
>>riidom+(OP)
This is the libertarian fantasy: just build the entire platform yourself and you don’t have to deal with the pesky decisions of other companies.

Yes, you have to choose your dependencies carefully, but where does it end? Steam could go away tomorrow. The game engine you license could go out of business. Your hosting provider, your DNS provider could kick you off.

If you don’t entertain new platforms, you are leaving money on the table. I’d wager that Japanese game manufacturers missed hundreds of millions of dollars by being late to embrace Steam.

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2. eldavi+Ny[view] [source] 2021-11-04 18:29:26
>>jnwats+xf
Nailed it. This article is a textbook example of why STEM people shouldn't be so quick to dismiss things like political science.

What we're talking about here is governance -- laws, norms, and fairness. Nobody lives on an island. Even on land that's "yours", you're still reliant on things like roads, water pipes, and other shared public infrastructure. You don't like how someone's running things, vote them out or leave, but don't pretend you're better off doing everything yourself. "Self-sufficiency is the road to poverty" as a famous economist said.

Incidentally I've been watching the walking dead again (season 8) and a lot of this stuff is the subject of the show. It's definitely had some rough patches but at its core, it's a show about how to build communities and large-scale civilizations, and what effects various leadership styles have on each society's long-term prospects. Very relevant.

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