Add Netlix to the pile. Each of these services leveraged a brief window of technological advantage before the trundling entrenched industries and governments ca

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.