Dancing with the Four — Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google
Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google aren’t just companies—they’re systems that rewired culture. Scott Galloway’s The Four breaks down how they tap primal drives, scale with precision, and shape identity—offering both a warning and a playbook for builders chasing lasting impact.
It starts with four companies, each one bigger than belief.
Apple. Amazon. Facebook. Google.
Not brands. Not platforms. Systems. Gods of the digital age. What Scott Galloway calls The Four—entities that have reshaped culture, rewired habits, and left governments scrambling to catch up.
This isn’t a business book. It’s a blueprint and a warning. A teardown of how desire becomes product, product becomes empire.
Because these giants didn’t grow by luck. They grew by going primal.
Amazon taps hunger. The drive to acquire, hoard, consume. The thrill of speed. The dopamine of “delivered.”
Apple speaks to status. It’s identity wrapped in aluminum and glass. You don’t just use it—you wear it. Signal over specs.
Facebook is tribal. A digital campfire. Friends. Likes. Memories. A scrolling habit that trades validation for time.
Google? It whispers answers. Curiosity. Insecurity. Wonder. It’s not just search—it’s the front door to your brain.
And behind those instincts? Tactics so sharp you feel them cut:
Scale through safe aggression: Amazon doesn’t compete—it swallows. PillPack threatened pharmacy retail, so Amazon bought it. Billions burned to build moats no founder can cross.
Build velvet prisons: Apple’s ecosystem isn’t just integrated—it’s irresistible. Hardware, software, support. A loop so elegant you forget it’s a cage. Their stores make Tiffany’s look like thrift.
Engineer loyalty at scale: Facebook isn’t just sticky—it’s ritual. The News Feed is engineered for return. But also for belonging. It’s habit and identity rolled into one addictive loop.
Own the front door: Google captures intent. Every itch, idea, or fear starts in a search box. And that search feeds an ad machine, a data empire, a model for every digital gatekeeper that followed.
But Galloway doesn’t stop at admiration. He lifts the curtain.
He shows how these giants dodge regulation, rewrite markets, and set rules no startup can play by. They innovate—but they also isolate. Acquire or crush. Influence not just what we buy, but what we believe.
And yet—for indie hackers and builders—there’s gold here too.
Lessons sharp enough to act on:
Own something deep. Don’t ship features. Ship feelings. Find a primal drive—comfort, love, identity—and go all in. That’s where moats begin.
Build network effects early. The product that improves as more use it is the one that can’t be touched. Build loops. Let growth feed itself.
Play long. Bezos ignored Wall Street for a decade. Patience is a superpower. Ignore the chase. Obsess over the compounding.
Sell story, not just software. Apple’s not in tech. They’re in belief. Every unboxing is a ritual. Code is the backend. Desire is the driver.
Even their failures teach.
They’ve shown how power warps. How unchecked scale creates fragile ecosystems. How regulation sleeps while giants sprint. But also how clarity, speed, and conviction can build category killers in less than a generation.
So the question isn’t just “How did they win?”
It’s “What comes next?”
The next Four may not be visible yet. They might be sketches in a Discord chat. A repo in some half-forgotten folder. A thread ignored at launch—but felt at scale.
What matters is how you build.
Focus sharper than your competitors. Network effects baked into your roadmap. Brand that hits like identity. And patience—a kind most don’t have.
Because if you want to build something that lasts, something that shapes not just usage but culture, you won’t just compete.
You’ll have to dance—with or against the Four.
And in digital business, the future doesn’t belong to the many.
It belongs to the few who dare to shape it.