The purpose of small talk is having a "harmless" way to get to know each other, to put out your feelers if you will. It's also great when stuck in an elevator, and so on. But that does not mean you have to be shallow or even dishonest, even when engaging in small talk, it just means you go slow, and err on the side of politeness.

However, this might elude people who don't care much about honesty (See what I did there? Two can play the ad-hominem game ^^).

That blog post restored a good deal of my faith in smart people in the tech sector... it's looking kinda bleak lately, not a whole lot of actual thought or even reflection going on. Thanks, and all the best.

But that's not "making sure" at all - you're still at the mercy of others. Just because you pay them doesn't mean they can't discontinue the product, for example.

Also, PayPal seems to have a horrid history of freezing accounts nilly-willy.. sure, their API might not go anywhere (as long as PayPal doesn't ;).. but what's the use when your access to it might go away any moment?

"Making sure" may have been too strong of a phrase; what I'm talking about is minimizing risk. Sometimes you can form relationships or partnerships with the 3rd party, sometimes you can shovel them money, and at all times you should do your best to make sure you're not using a 3rd party to compete with itself.