In Praise Of Idle Technology

from the things-need-to-change dept

Over at Red Herring, they're trying to apply some of Bertrand Russell's philosphizing to the tech boom and bust. They come up with three basic lessons that need to be learned. We need more consolidation in technology, we need to understand that technology has become commonplace, and we need to understand that there was a tremendous about of "waste" that went into the technology boom. Certainly an interesting read, but I think it misses the point. This is how economies grow. Lots of people try something new, and lots of others copy them. There's always consolidation and fallout as things go from the cutting edge to the common. There are always people who did work that is wasted because someone else did it better/faster/different. However, the end result of all of this is that everyone has something much better. By allowing for a little waste, and a little overlap, in the creation stage, we end up with much stronger end results. This process is always going on. So, while there will be consolidation in one space, there will always been tons of opportunity (and waste) in another.

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