OP here. (Well, not "original poster", but "guy who wrote this".) If anybody's interested: this is not an essay, it's my notes for a speech I delivered at Insp

OP here. (Well, not "original poster", but "guy who wrote this".) If anybody's interested: this is not an essay, it's my notes for a speech I delivered at Inspire, a monthly talk series put on by Tony Hsieh's Delivering Happiness project here in Las Vegas. The talk itself was filmed and you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moO2EfWQOTE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moO2EfWQOTE It looks like an essay because I'm a writer, and I write my talks like essays and then kind of wing it when I'm on stage. I am aware that bits of this aren't especially subtle, but I had eight minutes to do the talk in. And I apparently need to clarify what I mean by "innovation" versus "iteration". What I meant, basically, is that the Valley right now reminds me of Hollywood in the late 80s, where everybody was trying to pitch their new movie as "Die Hard in/on/with an [X]". Die Hard on a train, Die Hard on a submarine...taking some existing idea and trying to just twist it slightly enough to capitalize on it. So we do "It's like [X] for [Y]". Instagram for animated GIFs. Facebook for payroll managers. (I've actually heard that one.) Evernote for illiterates. These are jokes, but I hope you take my point. That's what I meant by "iteration" versus "innovation". Imagine if Jobs had said "The Apple is like the IBM 1620, except beiger and smaller." Or if that's how he thought of it. Personally, I think a lot of the most-hyped stuff we make in this industry is just silly, useless bullshit that doesn't solve any real problems, or problems that are worth solving unless you're a lazy, pampered, entitled asshole who genuinely has a hard time with the notion of picking up one's own dry cleaning. (That example in my speech was something featured on HN, by the way.) I guess if those are the problems you want to solve, go ahead, but I just feel as though there are more pressing issues in the world...provided you can see outside of your own circumstance. I'm fortunate enough to have lived rich and lived poor, and while rich is better, poor is far more prevalent in the world. I feel like poor people's problems are more useful to solve. But hey, I could be wrong. And I won't deny I'm being judgmental, but who really gives a shit what I think? :-)