A moat allows the owner a degree of passivity. Eg, you own the desktop OS. You are already using this moat to get office software on every machine, while competitors either have to dance to your tune when publishing a program, or think of a way to get their own OS out there. You can see how the internet develops, knowing that you can get your own browser on every machine for free. You can watch for a bit before you move.
Relying on continuous inspiration is a treadmill that goes faster and faster. That's what's described here. Come up with something new and clever, someone copies it, come up with another thing. You can't be passive, you have to be moving constantly.
Inspiration and creativity used to be something society rewarded you for, since you could capture the value and build on top of it. That was the moat.
Now most people are punished for publishing because your work will usually get taken over by whoever has the biggest mouthpiece or compute, and there is no protection against that. I expect people to realize this sooner or later and take their work underground. It's already happening.
the followers acurred willing to jump into your new thing would be the moat then, as would be your "software factory" that enables the fast fashion fast software creativity
If you patented it, they couldn't copy it (a lot of patents are secretly invalid, but they'd still need to hire lawyers to find out), but you'd be out $300
A moat allows the owner a degree of passivity. Eg, you own the desktop OS. You are already using this moat to get office software on every machine, while competitors either have to dance to your tune when publishing a program, or think of a way to get their own OS out there. You can see how the internet develops, knowing that you can get your own browser on every machine for free. You can watch for a bit before you move.
Relying on continuous inspiration is a treadmill that goes faster and faster. That's what's described here. Come up with something new and clever, someone copies it, come up with another thing. You can't be passive, you have to be moving constantly.