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Comment by michaelteter | Hacker News Reader

I like the dry cleaner example. How many dry cleaners are there? Do you go to the best one, or do you go to the one you know exists and is convenient.

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The problem with this analogy is that in the case of software, you basically have teleportation so you can go to any dry cleaner you want instantaneously.

Except that you often don’t know the alternative. You might suspect it must exist, but finding things on the internet is increasingly difficult.

Same is actually true with the dry cleaners. Maybe there’s one on the back of your block that’s the same distance from your door as the one you go to, but you never walked around to that side before. As far as you know, you are already using the closest one.

Any time I buy software I start by reviewing the top ~5 vendors that are easy to find. So I know the alternatives and just need to decide which one I think will work best for my needs. It's extremely rare that I encounter something novel and incorporate it into my life be it personal/business. Once I use something, I might be more aware of what friction I am encountering and I might review the available solutions again to see if one of them solves it more elegantly. In any case, I compare alternatives that are readily available. Sometimes I ask around or stumble on conversation that surfaces a new product that has a different approach to the same old problems and I feel like "they get me". Those products tend to catch fire.

Agreed, so maybe there is some value in being a ‘local’ software provider.

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