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I’m honestly looking forward to a new economy served by large corporations. Large companies are more consistent in their user experience across multiple locatio

I’m honestly looking forward to a new economy served by large corporations. Large companies are more consistent in their user experience across multiple locations, and are better buyers of tech. They are always looking for new ways to automate their operations and frequently turn to tech companies to solve their problems at scale. So in a way, it’s good for the valley if more of the economy becomes more corporate.

chance_state 7y ago
/s ?
- mywittyname 7y ago
  Doubtful. People often romanticize the "mom & pop" places, but there's a reason that most consumer-facing companies are very large, and those reasons were enumerated by the OP. Also, there's a good deal of selection bias going on. If you had a successful business, why wouldn't you look to expand it to multiple locations? Running a single store makes your business vulnerable and usually requires a lot of time.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
    Not everyone is driven to become the CEO of a mega-corporation. Some people are content with what they have, or find running one location stressful enough, or whatever reason.
  - miketery 7y ago
    While there are advantages to having large / homogeneous / monolithic / centralized entities. There are also weaknesses in the face of some threat because there is no diversity to survive it.
    - iamleppert 7y ago
      I’m not sure I agree with the diversity argument. That argument is based on the biological principle of natural selection. However, an economy isn’t a biological system: its a man-made system that is designed and run by an intelligence, actually many intelligent agents working together. Biology is not designed or run by any intelligent agent that we know of. When people apply the diversity argument to non-biological systems, it makes me think they are actually and really arguing for intelligent design of biology.
      - miketery 7y ago
        My argument is a nature centric one, indifferent of biology. Biology is nature through carbon based life forms. My argument still holds, if you over centralize or lack diversity (not in the social science race or sex based sense) then you’ll run into issues. Examples include Russian central governance, as opposed to more independent localized governance and sustainability. Another is non diverse economic production, for example many middle eastern countries.
whichquestion 7y ago
A lot of people won’t like this. I personally really enjoy some of the local restaurants in my area. The uniqueness of their food and aesthetic is something you can’t get anywhere else. Even close approximations aren’t the same. So, with loss of small business, we lose access to certain unique perspectives of how those kinds of businesses should be run. We lose the character that those businesses add to our cities and towns. Furthermore, there is an economic cost to the loss of those businesses for our cities and towns. If it’s better for tech, it doesn’t mean that it’s better for humanity.
jdbernard 7y ago
Right, great consistency in customer experience from companies like Comcast, Google, United Airlines, Bank of America, Walmart, Best Buy, etc.

chance_state 7y ago

/s ?

mywittyname 7y ago
Doubtful. People often romanticize the "mom & pop" places, but there's a reason that most consumer-facing companies are very large, and those reasons were enumerated by the OP. Also, there's a good deal of selection bias going on. If you had a successful business, why wouldn't you look to expand it to multiple locations? Running a single store makes your business vulnerable and usually requires a lot of time.
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
  Not everyone is driven to become the CEO of a mega-corporation. Some people are content with what they have, or find running one location stressful enough, or whatever reason.
- miketery 7y ago
  While there are advantages to having large / homogeneous / monolithic / centralized entities. There are also weaknesses in the face of some threat because there is no diversity to survive it.
  - iamleppert 7y ago
    I’m not sure I agree with the diversity argument. That argument is based on the biological principle of natural selection. However, an economy isn’t a biological system: its a man-made system that is designed and run by an intelligence, actually many intelligent agents working together. Biology is not designed or run by any intelligent agent that we know of. When people apply the diversity argument to non-biological systems, it makes me think they are actually and really arguing for intelligent design of biology.
    - miketery 7y ago
      My argument is a nature centric one, indifferent of biology. Biology is nature through carbon based life forms. My argument still holds, if you over centralize or lack diversity (not in the social science race or sex based sense) then you’ll run into issues. Examples include Russian central governance, as opposed to more independent localized governance and sustainability. Another is non diverse economic production, for example many middle eastern countries.

whichquestion 7y ago

A lot of people won’t like this. I personally really enjoy some of the local restaurants in my area. The uniqueness of their food and aesthetic is something you can’t get anywhere else. Even close approximations aren’t the same. So, with loss of small business, we lose access to certain unique perspectives of how those kinds of businesses should be run. We lose the character that those businesses add to our cities and towns. Furthermore, there is an economic cost to the loss of those businesses for our cities and towns. If it’s better for tech, it doesn’t mean that it’s better for humanity.

jdbernard 7y ago

Right, great consistency in customer experience from companies like Comcast, Google, United Airlines, Bank of America, Walmart, Best Buy, etc.