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It was a nice talk, except for this: If you think Instagram is just a collection of photo filters, you're missing the big picture. Maybe photo sharing won't le
by david927 12y ago
It was a nice talk, except for this:
If you think Instagram is just a collection of photo filters, you're missing the big picture. Maybe photo sharing won't lead directly to world peace, but helping people to see the world through the eyes of others looks like a step in the right direction to me. And they grew to over 200 million users in less than four years.
The whole talk was "building the impossible", and I think that's what Silicon Valley used to be about -- about going from 0 to 1 (in Peter Thiel's term) and letting the world go from 1 to n. That's impossible and that's what the valley did for decades.
But now the measurement is, "How many users to do you have today?" It's superficial and meaningless. Instagram is a great success for its investors (and I have nothing against that) but it won't be around in ten years, and more importantly, nothing it brought forth will be around either. Instead of 0 to 1, it's more like 1000 to 1001.
I have no problem with people making money, but you make what you measure, you make what you fund. And we're getting what we make: Flappy Birds and fucking Instagram.
- PedroCandeias 12y ago"How many users to do you have today?" is not meaningless. Each user is a person, give or take a few bots, sharing their way of life and witnessing others'. Without editorialization or censorship. The product may or may not be around in 10 years, but I bet someone somewhere is learning about what it's like on the opposite side of whatever ideological divide by watching instagram pictures. The consequences of that will last way beyond Instagram the product. There's meaning there that goes beyond advertisement dollars.
- david927 12y agoThe same can be true for drinking a Coca-Cola. I was talking about Silicon Valley, not Atlanta.