A short review can’t fully do justice to the book’s treatment of monopolies. Gwern’s look at commoditizing your complement almost does. But the basic economic argument goes like this: In a normal industry (eg restaurant ownership) competition should drive profit margins close to 0. Want to open an Indian restaurant in Mountain View? There will be another on the same street, and 2 more just down the way. If you automate every process that can be automated, mercilessly pursue efficiency, and work yourself and your employees to the bone – then you can just barely compete on price. You can earn enough money to live, and to not immediately give up in disgust and go into another line of business (after all, if you didn’t earn that much, your competitors would already have given up in disgust and gone into another line of business, and your task would be easier). But the average Indian restaurant is in an economic state of nature, and its life will be nasty, brutish, and short.

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