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I believe many of these of 2010s startup unicorns/companies (in the contractor/gigging space) will go down in history the same way as modern day robber barons.

I believe many of these of 2010s startup unicorns/companies (in the contractor/gigging space) will go down in history the same way as modern day robber barons. The ideas were good - use your leftover time/space/goods, and earn some money. We'll cover the tech, just pay us x% of the cut. But then it became obvious that these types of ventures were in direct conflict with various labor laws across the globe. So they begin to skirt the laws, pitting their laborers against governments, all while exacerbating the sectors. And turns out it's hard to subsidies certain businesses with VC money forever. Where did things go wrong? Maybe when people starting treating gigging economy as a full-time thing. Maybe they thought they could offer cheap and awesome service forever. Maybe they thought they could remain in the grey area of the law forever, or at least until they gained enough power to change the laws. I used to use airbnb, now it sucks. I'm back to hotels. I used to use uber, now it sucks. I'm back to using taxis. I used to use delivery services, now they suck. I just pick up my own food at a fraction of the cost. I - the consumer - obviously enabled all these things. Ok, enough rambling...

bdefore 4y ago
Add Netlix to the pile. Each of these services leveraged a brief window of technological advantage before the trundling entrenched industries and governments caught up. Now that they have, they must compete on a dramatically different front. The initial technical challenges are now dwarfed by the challenge of fighting multinational Suarons. This strange arc of the last decade has shown me that a sizable chunk of information technology has matured to the point of being a commodity. For those that have worked in the field reaching back further than a decade, this begets an ennui, as our labors redirect less towards the question of what is possible and increasingly more towards the petty struggles of bureaucracy and maximization of profit and labor exploitation. We had (have?) a moment that was more fleeting than we realized.

bdefore 4y ago

Add Netlix to the pile. Each of these services leveraged a brief window of technological advantage before the trundling entrenched industries and governments caught up. Now that they have, they must compete on a dramatically different front. The initial technical challenges are now dwarfed by the challenge of fighting multinational Suarons. This strange arc of the last decade has shown me that a sizable chunk of information technology has matured to the point of being a commodity. For those that have worked in the field reaching back further than a decade, this begets an ennui, as our labors redirect less towards the question of what is possible and increasingly more towards the petty struggles of bureaucracy and maximization of profit and labor exploitation. We had (have?) a moment that was more fleeting than we realized.