On the weekend I ordered an Uber and realised that what used to be the standard ride is now more expensive than a cab, and the new standard ride is slower and smaller than a cab.

I then went home and tried to log into Netflix but couldn’t do so because my kids were watching it in another room, and my plan no longer supports multiple sign ins, even a... See more

For a long time I felt somewhat unique in this regard, but COVID has made my longstanding reality the norm for many more people. Their physical world is defined by their family and hometown, which no longer needs to be near their work, which is entirely online; everything from friends to entertainment has followed the same path.

Bloomberg is an example of the classic Web 2.0 business maxim “come for the tool, stay for the network.” But the inverse trajectory, from which this essay takes its name, is now equally viable: “come for the network, pay for the tool.” Just as built-in social networks are a moat for information products, customized tooling is a moat for social netw... See more