2 ms·

I was working at a web shop in San Francisco when the Web 1.0 bubble burst. The period leading up to that was characterized by company execs buying themselves a

I was working at a web shop in San Francisco when the Web 1.0 bubble burst. The period leading up to that was characterized by company execs buying themselves all kinds of expensive new cars and toys, and a kind of hysteria on the part of clients that their brick and mortar businesses were being left behind if they didn't spend gobs of money on websites that had all kinds of gizmos and information but were, essentially, just brochures with a contact form. The FOMO of "AI", whatever that means to individual decisionmakers, feels similar to that time. As does the grift. Every plumbing company and real estate agency back then wanted to say their business was online. Not being online was being left behind. Now they all want to say they're AI powered. Well, business owners and managers need to sound like they know what they're talking about, and brag about whatever they think they've gotten for their spending, especially when they don't have a clue whether it pencils out or not. That's why they were happier back then with a website they could say they paid $30k for than if they'd somehow gotten it done for a tenth of that.

wil421 2mo ago
A former professor went through startups to acquisition with 7 or so startups during this era. He said one VC kept funding them. The VC visited their new office and said this is why we love you guys everyone else we are funding drive brand new Mercedes.
- noduerme 2mo ago
  I had the displeasure of working for a new crop of the same kind of people for web 2.0. There's something amazing about people who never build anything but come into the world sure that they can tell other people how to do it, and happy to take 90% of the money for making the sale. Takes a lotta chutzpah, in the original derogatory sense. What I learned from this industry is that there are more of them in the world than us, and far more of them than there are positions for them, so theirs is a vicious and dark dog-eat-dog reality where concepts like "act as if" and "fake it till you make it" are genuine currency, as opposed to stuff like idk working hard and shipping something.

wil421 2mo ago

A former professor went through startups to acquisition with 7 or so startups during this era. He said one VC kept funding them. The VC visited their new office and said this is why we love you guys everyone else we are funding drive brand new Mercedes.

noduerme 2mo ago
I had the displeasure of working for a new crop of the same kind of people for web 2.0. There's something amazing about people who never build anything but come into the world sure that they can tell other people how to do it, and happy to take 90% of the money for making the sale. Takes a lotta chutzpah, in the original derogatory sense. What I learned from this industry is that there are more of them in the world than us, and far more of them than there are positions for them, so theirs is a vicious and dark dog-eat-dog reality where concepts like "act as if" and "fake it till you make it" are genuine currency, as opposed to stuff like idk working hard and shipping something.