Let me tell you something that perfectly sums up how facade capitalism works in 2025.
Samsung just announced a feature called "Now Nudge" for the Galaxy S26. Know what it does? The exact same thing as Google Pixel's "Magic Cue." Like, zero shame whatsoever. Blatant ripoff. But with one delicious catch: to use it, you're forced to switch to Samsung Keyboard.
Yeah, read that again.
They copy a competitor's feature and then force you into their walled garden just to access the knockoff. It's like someone copying their classmate's test answers and then demanding you buy their pencil to read them.
The Old "Walled Garden" Trick
If you invest in tech — and you should, because that's where the serious money lives — you need to understand this game. It's not about technology. It's about user lock-in.
Apple's been doing this for decades with iMessage. Google does it with their app ecosystem. Samsung, which was always supposed to be the "open alternative" on Android, is now playing the same dirty game. They force you to use their keyboard not because it's better (spoiler: it's not), but because that's how they harvest data, keep you in the ecosystem, and sell that to investors as "engagement."
Warren Buffett calls this a moat — a competitive moat. But there's a legitimate moat (superior product, unbeatable brand) and there's an artificial moat (locking you in a closet and throwing away the key). Samsung is increasingly in the second camp.
What Does This Have to Do With Your Money?
Everything.
When you look at Samsung Electronics' balance sheet (ticker: 005930.KS), you see a company that spends billions on R&D. Billions. And the result is... copying the Google Pixel? Seriously?
That's a signal. And it's not a good one.
In the market, there's a brutal difference between companies that innovate and companies that imitate with marketing polish. The first group creates real value — think NVIDIA with their AI chips, TSMC with semiconductor manufacturing. The second group rides the wave until the tide goes out.
Charlie Munger, Buffett's partner for decades, had a line that fits here like a glove: "Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome." Samsung's incentive isn't to make the best product. It's to keep you trapped. And when the incentive is misaligned with customer value, it's only a matter of time before the whole thing falls apart.
The "Innovation" Circus in Tech
Look, I know it sounds crazy to get this worked up about a keyboard feature. But it's the pattern that matters.
The tech industry has turned into a merry-go-round of dressed-up copies. One company launches something, another copies it six months later, slaps a different name on it, presents it at an event with fancy lights and epic music, and the YouTube "analysts" drool over it like it's the second coming of Steve Jobs.
It's the same circus as the financial markets. The same guru selling you a day trading course copied his strategy from another guru who copied a Taleb tweet he didn't even fully understand. Nobody has skin in the game. Nobody pays the price when the copy doesn't work.
What Does the Smart Investor Do?
Simple: follow the real money.
When Samsung forces you to use their keyboard to access a copied feature, they're telling you — loud and clear — that they don't trust the quality of their own product to retain you organically. They need the lock.
Companies that need artificial locks to keep users are like that relationship where the other person hides your passport. It works for a while, but it's not love — it's control.
If you've got Samsung in your portfolio, I'm not saying sell tomorrow. But I am saying keep your eyes wide open. Because between the company that creates the future and the company that copies the present with a proprietary keyboard, the long-term difference is measured in zeros on your returns.
The question is: how many more dressed-up knockoffs are you going to swallow before you realize that "innovation" died and got reassigned to the marketing department?
