Vendor lock-in and golden handcuffs
While out for a morning run with my son, a thought popped into my mind. More of an association, really, but then what are thoughts but links between concepts?
One of the reasons I like Open Source software is that it prevents the kind of vendor lock-in you see with proprietary products.
Vendor lock-in means that organisations and individuals have to put up with sub-standard software that they can’t inspect for privacy and security flaws. Due to a lack of interoperability with other systems, users don’t have a choice.
This, in turn, means higher profits for the business making the software, but a lousy user experience. So far, so obvious.
But going one step further, if you’re making more profit through vendor lock-in, you can pay higher wages to your staff. In fact, you might have to do this, because your product isn’t well-liked by end users. People end up mainly joining your company because of the salary and perks.
This, in turn, leads to a ‘golden handcuffs’ situation, whereby an individual who is working for the business using a vendor lock-in model, now can’t afford to work elsewhere, or for a more ethical organisation. Their mortgage and family’s standard of living has come to depend on that additional money.
There’s ways out of this, of course. But that’s for a other post.
Noel De Martin 9:17 pm on August 15, 2019 Permalink |
That’s why it’s important to keep in mind not to raise one’s living standards everytime you get a raise or find a better job. I’m always keeping that in mind :D.
Also to this I would add that this also hurts “fair” companies because in order to have competitive employees, they need to pay a higher price. Unless they are able to find people who is willing to accept a salary under market rates in exchange for “ethics”. Which is unfortunately difficult to find. This actually ties neatly with the Principal-Agent problem that I’ve heard Naval Ravikant mention multiple times.