4 ms·

And it’s not even big tech. It’s like 4 companies with great pr and monopoly-like market power, being judged mostly on the basis of Naive public perception and

And it’s not even big tech. It’s like 4 companies with great pr and monopoly-like market power, being judged mostly on the basis of Naive public perception and brand awareness. Oracle and SAP and Infosys are big tech companies by any reasonable definition of big. You’ll be hard pressed to find technologists who would decscribe those companies as competent. And there are some amazing teams within those orgs that do stuff which is genuinely more impressive than hacking out protobufs from 1030am to 415pm with an hour long lunch, which is just to say that even within tech there’s a lot of PR/brand sentiment shaping opinions of people who should know better. Uber is big tech, but still loses money hand over fist. And even if we limit ourselves to the few companies with the most competent PR — the faangs — are they really so competent? Or are they just extracting value from near-monopoly market power?

duxup 6y ago
>Or are they just extracting value from near-monopoly market power/ Yeah I do wonder, if you somehow could, could those companies as they stand now just up and "do it again", could they? Granted that's a complex question, but I suspect the answer isn't automatically yes... and likely very much a hard no.
- throwawaygh 6y ago
  Facebook has already bought its replacements a few times over, right?
icedistilled 6y ago
Using a lot of oracle software is like going to the worst california dmv.
- throwawaygh 6y ago
  But that can't be true! Big tech is super competent and government is broken! /s
AnthonyMouse 6y ago
> Uber is big tech, but still loses money hand over fist. But whose money are they losing? Nobody holds a gun to your head and requires you to buy shares in Uber.
- throwawaygh 6y ago
  That's somehow beside the point, since the topic is organizational competence.
  - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
    But it isn't, because the competition still works. Incompetent private organizations fail and go away and lose only the money of their investors and not unwilling third parties.
    - throwawaygh 6y ago
      > Incompetent private organizations fail and go away I'll keep that in mind next time I read a thread about tech consulting shops or ISPs... > and lose only the money of their investors and not unwilling third parties. Well, there's also the employees, anyone invested in massively managed funds that include the private organization, etc. Who are all willing participants. But really only in the same sense that you, too, could get a graduate degree in a STEM field and immediately emigrate to another country.
      - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
        > I'll keep that in mind next time I read a thread about tech consulting shops or ISPs... ISPs are as they are as a result of government regulations. I don't know what the problems with "tech consulting shops" are supposed to be, but they sound like something people should stop doing business with until they go away. > But really only in the same sense that you, too, could get a graduate degree in a STEM field and immediately emigrate to another country. Except not in that sense at all, because emigrating to another country -- which may not be any better -- is a dramatic high-cost change to your entire life, whereas not investing in or working for a particular company is the default state that happens if you do nothing.

duxup 6y ago

>Or are they just extracting value from near-monopoly market power/ Yeah I do wonder, if you somehow could, could those companies as they stand now just up and "do it again", could they? Granted that's a complex question, but I suspect the answer isn't automatically yes... and likely very much a hard no.

throwawaygh 6y ago
Facebook has already bought its replacements a few times over, right?

icedistilled 6y ago

Using a lot of oracle software is like going to the worst california dmv.

throwawaygh 6y ago
But that can't be true! Big tech is super competent and government is broken! /s

AnthonyMouse 6y ago

> Uber is big tech, but still loses money hand over fist. But whose money are they losing? Nobody holds a gun to your head and requires you to buy shares in Uber.

throwawaygh 6y ago
That's somehow beside the point, since the topic is organizational competence.
- AnthonyMouse 6y ago
  But it isn't, because the competition still works. Incompetent private organizations fail and go away and lose only the money of their investors and not unwilling third parties.
  - throwawaygh 6y ago
    > Incompetent private organizations fail and go away I'll keep that in mind next time I read a thread about tech consulting shops or ISPs... > and lose only the money of their investors and not unwilling third parties. Well, there's also the employees, anyone invested in massively managed funds that include the private organization, etc. Who are all willing participants. But really only in the same sense that you, too, could get a graduate degree in a STEM field and immediately emigrate to another country.
    - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
      > I'll keep that in mind next time I read a thread about tech consulting shops or ISPs... ISPs are as they are as a result of government regulations. I don't know what the problems with "tech consulting shops" are supposed to be, but they sound like something people should stop doing business with until they go away. > But really only in the same sense that you, too, could get a graduate degree in a STEM field and immediately emigrate to another country. Except not in that sense at all, because emigrating to another country -- which may not be any better -- is a dramatic high-cost change to your entire life, whereas not investing in or working for a particular company is the default state that happens if you do nothing.