The power of ecosystems is the open endedness.

· Bits and Bobs 9/15/26
  • The power of ecosystems is the open endedness.
    • That property is hard to make concrete.
      • Any given thing they can create someone could say "Yeah, but you could have built that yourself."
      • But the point is not whether it was possible, but whether it was viable.
      • If the close-ended system didn't build it, then it doesn't matter if it technically could have.
    • Most people use "ecosystem" to make things like "brand family".
    • Open ecosystems have decentralized power and that also allows open-endedness.
    • For most people, openness is not the primary value, it's only a bonus.
      • There's a small set of principled, values-driven people who will take openness as a primary value but that's a small group.
    • It's not the main reason most users are there, but it's the main reason most stay.
      • Its open-endedness means it's possible to make it do what you want.