Build a product -> make it free or very affordable -> create dependency -> collect user data to improve product resulting in more dependency -> create a near market monopoly if possible -> make it paid only or make the free version a lot worse so users have to pay -> cross fingers that no alternative emerges or just buy it and shut it down if you can.

Always the same pattern.

That’d be 691077 regular sized hamburgers laid next to each other in a rigid grid pattern, 797502 if laid in a hexagonal pattern, 891720 if squished.

Create a captive audience through monopoly or near monopoly on a given market, then charge them more for a worse version of the product, reducing costs and maximizing profits, it’s always been the goal with corporate capitalism, look at the whole Copilot and GitHub situation right now.

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I’m definitely writing that down for my next super scrabble with proper nouns at grandma’s.

The simple fact of using the word “citizens” instead of people sounds awfully dystopian to me.

Me smelling the different camemberts in the aisle to find the stinkiest most ripe one to buy.

The strategy is always to gain a monopoly or near monopoly on a market before pushing for the enshittification of the product to reduce costs and maximize profits, once customers have become dependent on said product, then pray that most choose the path of least resistance which is staying and dealing with the worse and more expensive version of what they’re used to rather than retraining or restarting from zero elsewhere.

Capitalism 101.

Holy username.

And theeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnn?

What if Jesus has access to your internet browsing history even the stuff you deleted or did in incognito mode?

Remember that there exist alternatives to the big three US payment processors.

China’s UnionPay is pretty much global now, one can open a bank account remotely in Hong Kong or Singapore and go through UnionPay.

Russia’s Mir is the answer to the current geopolitical situation and the country being cut off from SWIFT, they are backed by UnionPay and are accepted all over Asia, Africa and increasingly in Latin America, many local banks in these parts will give you a card with Mir if you request it.

India’s UPI is also gaining traction in the subcontinent, in Europe Wero is rolling out as an answer to US dependency.

You don’t have to be a prisoner to the three American processors, even in the US and Canada, UnionPay is gaining traction as a result of the demand from the Chinese diaspora and business owners.

Competition is good for business.

Edit : typo car -> card

Obviously, if the goal had been to present it as anything other than AI, the watermark wouldn’t be there.

Wait, isn’t this the same guy who, two years after this post, disowned one of his own children because they came out as transgender?

Unfortunately, most people want a frictionless experience, they want to click the “Sign in with Google” button and never think about it again, the moment you have to register manually, even with an email and password, fetch a client from GitHub/GitLab, or worse create a wallet and understand cryptographic keys, 90+% of the population gives up.

It doesn’t mean people are stupid, humans just evolved to pick the path of least resistance when it came to foraging for food, same principle applies to modern life.

Yeah, since Valve is not public the odds of the next head being an outside hire or some loud tech exec are extremely low.

GabeN is most likely to pick someone who’s been around with the company since the early days, like Erik Johnson or Scott Lynch.

If he wants it to stay in the family, his own son Gray could take over, he’s also a game dev.

Gabe has often expressed distrust of publicly traded markets, a plausible outcome is that his ownership gets converted into an employee-owned trust or a collective buyback, this would effectively permanently lock Valve into its current profile, distributing profils back into salaries and bonuses for the staff.

The only one that lets me keep in my library, download and install at any time games that were delisted 10 or 15 years ago by their publishers.

For that reason alone, they deserve my money over any other storefront.