4 ms·

Jeez, are these really the big ideas coming from SV these days? Pedestrian applications of technology to mundane problems which deserve billion dollar valuation

Jeez, are these really the big ideas coming from SV these days? Pedestrian applications of technology to mundane problems which deserve billion dollar valuations?

gumby 7y ago
No, but a lot of the people building tech ideas, or other big ideas, are too busy to be in the magazines. There are still WhatsApps, quietly building a huge customer base with nobody paying attention except the actual users. A bunch of interesting semiconductor work going on (various "AI" chips, too many to succeed; SiFive grinding away slowly but surely, invisible to all but us nerds, etc); I think what my company is working on (barely an SV company with only two in northern CA) could change the global economy, yet we barely had time to put up a static website. But since "tech" has replaced car magazines, computer magazines, and some sports writing, people show up to write about whatever looks interesting, and what looks interesting is 1> understandable to someone not steeped in it (TBF that's true of the readers as well) and 2> has people who will seek you out to tell you how amazing they are. I'm fascinated that that article mentioned more than once that their B round was a steep percentage! Oh, it didn't; it only quoted some large-sounding numbers and let the reader do the math themselves. Probably the reporter has no idea how it works either. Most of the action is in the Valley, where there are fewer deals, though more money being spent. There's much more deal flow in SF, typically for plans like this one that need less capital in the earlier stages -- giving more to write about in a nicer place to be walking around than down here in SV. So don't worry, big things are happening, but the revolutions always start out under ground.
- la_barba 7y ago
  The other thing is tech writers have become victims of click-bait too. Unfortunately, due to tech being integrated across such a wide variety of industries, they can't realistically be expected to understand how the underlying technology works, even if we assume they were super tech savvy to begin with. They might Google a few sources or just partially regurgitate manufacturers claims. They can't do any kind of in-depth research because it would exceed the time allotted, and it probably doesn't matter anyway, because more quality is very rarely rewarded with more ad-revenue unless you're an established brand like NYT/Forbes/Guardian etc.

Jeez, are these really the big ideas coming from SV these days? Pedestrian applications of technology to mundane problems which deserve billion dollar valuations?

gumby 7y ago

No, but a lot of the people building tech ideas, or other big ideas, are too busy to be in the magazines. There are still WhatsApps, quietly building a huge customer base with nobody paying attention except the actual users. A bunch of interesting semiconductor work going on (various "AI" chips, too many to succeed; SiFive grinding away slowly but surely, invisible to all but us nerds, etc); I think what my company is working on (barely an SV company with only two in northern CA) could change the global economy, yet we barely had time to put up a static website. But since "tech" has replaced car magazines, computer magazines, and some sports writing, people show up to write about whatever looks interesting, and what looks interesting is 1> understandable to someone not steeped in it (TBF that's true of the readers as well) and 2> has people who will seek you out to tell you how amazing they are. I'm fascinated that that article mentioned more than once that their B round was a steep percentage! Oh, it didn't; it only quoted some large-sounding numbers and let the reader do the math themselves. Probably the reporter has no idea how it works either. Most of the action is in the Valley, where there are fewer deals, though more money being spent. There's much more deal flow in SF, typically for plans like this one that need less capital in the earlier stages -- giving more to write about in a nicer place to be walking around than down here in SV. So don't worry, big things are happening, but the revolutions always start out under ground.

la_barba 7y ago
The other thing is tech writers have become victims of click-bait too. Unfortunately, due to tech being integrated across such a wide variety of industries, they can't realistically be expected to understand how the underlying technology works, even if we assume they were super tech savvy to begin with. They might Google a few sources or just partially regurgitate manufacturers claims. They can't do any kind of in-depth research because it would exceed the time allotted, and it probably doesn't matter anyway, because more quality is very rarely rewarded with more ad-revenue unless you're an established brand like NYT/Forbes/Guardian etc.