Valve proved that locking down hardware user experiences is unnecessary
Dhanji R. Prasanna · How Block is becoming the most AI-native enterprise in the world | Dhanji R. Prasanna · Oct 26, 2025 · at 1:21:15
Dhanji R. Prasanna, CTO of Block, discusses his favorite hardware product, the Steam Deck OLED, during a podcast lightning round.
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“And in this era where like, we're constantly told by big tech companies that we need to lock everything down. We need to lock down the user experience and customizability in order to have things work for people. I think Valve showed that's totally unnecessary and totally wrong, and you can build, you know, the Steam Deck, you can install competing app stores, you can install Windows on it, you can treat it like a computer, write programs”
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