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This quote made me feel better: "Some of the biggest businesses of the last 10 years are all in industries that were the starkest examples of stupidity 20 years

This quote made me feel better: "Some of the biggest businesses of the last 10 years are all in industries that were the starkest examples of stupidity 20 years ago." I'm still a little bitter from VC experiences 20 years ago. In 1998 my friends and I built a browser-based (Java applet) collaborative word processor and spreadsheet called Office Wherever (o-w.com). We shopped it to a dozen VCs and all went ROFLMAOWTFBBQ. They all said the same - no company would want to put their files on the (scary) Internet (the term "cloud" was still years away). In 2001 my friend and I had built a full music & movie/tv streaming service with a full-screen interface that looks just like the modern ones, built demo hardware, had access to all the rights etc. Everyone we pitched it to went ROFLMAOWTFBBQ. They said people will NEVER get rid of their DVDs! They like having things on their shelves to show off. What a stupid idea! You need to be like Netflix and rent DVDs to people! You stupid! STUPID STUPID STUPID! I wonder what folks are pitching today to VCs who are rolling on the floor laughing when they see the "stupid" demo?

2sk21 5y ago
I feel you. When I was working in IBM research, I developed a web-based tool eerily close to Jupyter in 2007 but was simply unable to get traction within the company and abandoned the work by the end of the year. I still regret not pushing forward with it to this day.
toast0 5y ago
There was a time that Google had good sucess by launching new products that Yahoo had launched 5 years earlier and cancelled due to lack of interest. Nobody wants to be a patent troll, but being too early and filing patents can set you up for late revenue. Even if it's just watching for patent trolls and licensing your patents to the victims to double troll.
leobg 5y ago
Experiences like this seem not to have made Musk bitter, but just even more determined.[1] Comes down to the old “Would you rather be famous for a great thing you never did, or have done something great without anybody else realizing it?” You experienced the same things as Elon Musk. When he pitched Zip2, the execs from Yellow Pages laughed at him, shoved the yellow pages book over the table and said, “So you think you’re gonna replace THIS?”. What you're saying is that you have seen things and done things like Elon Musk. You didn't get the wealth and the recognition. But that you have these things "in you" - how many people can say that about themselves? You not only had really visionary ideas that were proven right within a decade. But you also built a Google Docs and a Netflix before Google and Netflix did. You're one of the Semmelweises or Lickliders of history. They didn't get rich, and most people don't know about them. But they are the ones who actually drive our world forwards. They are the ones who go "Zero to One". The others are just resellers, even if they end up getting all the credit. [1] I mean, the guy was bullied at school and still did not, as one might expect, end up being driven in life by “paying them back”, or by retreating from humanity. This trait of “taking a lot of crap without becoming dirty himself” is an underestimated quality that he has.

2sk21 5y ago

I feel you. When I was working in IBM research, I developed a web-based tool eerily close to Jupyter in 2007 but was simply unable to get traction within the company and abandoned the work by the end of the year. I still regret not pushing forward with it to this day.

toast0 5y ago

There was a time that Google had good sucess by launching new products that Yahoo had launched 5 years earlier and cancelled due to lack of interest. Nobody wants to be a patent troll, but being too early and filing patents can set you up for late revenue. Even if it's just watching for patent trolls and licensing your patents to the victims to double troll.

leobg 5y ago

Experiences like this seem not to have made Musk bitter, but just even more determined.[1] Comes down to the old “Would you rather be famous for a great thing you never did, or have done something great without anybody else realizing it?” You experienced the same things as Elon Musk. When he pitched Zip2, the execs from Yellow Pages laughed at him, shoved the yellow pages book over the table and said, “So you think you’re gonna replace THIS?”. What you're saying is that you have seen things and done things like Elon Musk. You didn't get the wealth and the recognition. But that you have these things "in you" - how many people can say that about themselves? You not only had really visionary ideas that were proven right within a decade. But you also built a Google Docs and a Netflix before Google and Netflix did. You're one of the Semmelweises or Lickliders of history. They didn't get rich, and most people don't know about them. But they are the ones who actually drive our world forwards. They are the ones who go "Zero to One". The others are just resellers, even if they end up getting all the credit. [1] I mean, the guy was bullied at school and still did not, as one might expect, end up being driven in life by “paying them back”, or by retreating from humanity. This trait of “taking a lot of crap without becoming dirty himself” is an underestimated quality that he has.