I think hype results in skepticism, and things can be hyped on a far larger scale now than ever before. If I think back to my early internet days, I remember e

I think hype results in skepticism, and things can be hyped on a far larger scale now than ever before. If I think back to my early internet days, I remember email (Eudora!!) being the most useful and exciting thing. After that I remember Yahoo and ICQ being really important for me. People were certainly excited in the 90s, but I think the hype was less around the internet in general and more around some of the things it would enable (e.g. Gateway PCs and PCTV or whatever it was called). I remember more hype around the CD-ROM and CD-R's than I do hype about the internet. The capacity of CD-ROMs and the ability to play video reminds me of the current talk about VR/AR. What we got out of CD-ROMs was Windows 95 being easier to install and cutscenes in video games - not what happened to Edward Furlong in the "Brainscan" movie or Lawnmower man. Compare that to blockchain or any of the current hyped technologies like Deep Learning or Big Data(3 years ago). "Thought leaders", tech and non-tech companies (small and large), journalists - everybody wants to show they are the leaders and have the answers. You then have a strong reaction of skepticism against this. I feel old writing this post. I remember Brainscan and hoping something like that was right around the corner...ouch.