Triumph of the Nerds: Riding the Bear (Commentary)

Picture unrelated... kinda.

There's always the little guy, he who looks at giants with wondrous amazement and thinks to himself "Man, I could totally create a pair of huge giant arms, with those I could lift a thousand bricks and build a house in 20 minutes, something those big dumb giants haven't thought about, for sure. Wait, what if I sold those homebrewed giant arms?".

Refrain from judging my sleep deprived brain, but I think my reasoning is relatively understandable... kinda. Quoting Pablo Picasso, "Good artists copy, great artists steal.". It is not uncommon to hear stories of stolen glory in the IT industries, usually, whoever creates finds his credit swept away by a younger person who discovered an unthought use for the creation. Isn't that why Silicon Valley is constantly invaded and plagued of vague startups? Little companies stick to bigger ones like remoras to a shark, but this position under the shark's belly gives them a new perspective of what clients might want, or what clients might want to do with the shark.

This is the key to success in the wilderness that is Silicon Valley, look at what your neighbours are doing and strive to overpower them before they are done. Yes, there are many sources of inspiration, but you don't have to look too far, just think, "could this particular printer double as a toaster?", "will this new pc be able to run my socks database manager?". 

People are too critical to realize that, with the correct lawyers, and a good strategy, the whole IT industry is an open source paradise.