Open Source and Open Recipe

When I was in a cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, the master chef completely showed off his amazing skills, tricks and secrets by demonstrating sample dishes. Students were encouraged to ask any questions, but classroom policies included - no recording, and no printed recipe handouts.

Of course, students take notes. Those who write fast probably have handwritten Cordon Bleu recipes, on the printed ingredient lists.

I understand it was a tradition at Le Cordon Bleu, but I doubt if it was necessary.

Not because students can always take quick notes, not because they can sneak in micro voice recorders in their pockets. Simply because, having the detailed recipe doesn't automatically make you a good chef.

Cooking is more than a skill. Cooking is an art. As with every other form of art, mastering the skills is far from enough. You will need to put in your heart to be an artist.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying cooking cannot be learned. Indeed it can be. Practice on techniques is the first step, but to be successful, you need to stand out. What differentiates a line cook and a chef is the emotion and soul that scream to jump out of the dishes on every bite. This is the secret sauce of becoming a good chef.

Similarly, open source software doesn't hurt the software company either.

Of course, the ideas in each software product are protected by patents. But put intellectual property rights aside, there are secret sauces why successful software companies are successful.

There will always be people who pirate-copy softwares, but they won't enjoy the proper support if they run into problems. They might not even get software upgrades as in Microsoft case.

There will also be people who prefer downloading the source code of an open source project and spend time compile it by themselves. But that's not for the majority of us. We want a friendly and guided installation experience. We want the driver for a particular device to be automatically identified and installed, rather than research by ourselves.

There are more and more software vendors who give out licenses at ridiculously low price, but charge for professional services and support. Customers are willing to pay for service because instead of having to figure out how to make the best of the software, why not asking the expert to provide help? They know the best practices of using it, they provide timely solutions, they make guarantees.

Think about Neiman Marcus and Macy's. There is an overlap of the brands and lines they carry. Why would someone shop the exact same items with a marked up premium at Neiman (not to mention they have to use American Express)? Neiman has unparalleled excellent service. The brand sales are knowledgeable about their products, what's hot and what's coming. They are friendly. In addition to selling things to you, they are also interested in making you proud of making an investment in buying their brands. Shopping there is an experience.