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Silicon Valley Has Officially Run Out of Ideas

38 points by peterkchen 12y ago

mindcrime 12y ago
I'm tempted to not upvote this just due to the snarky nature, but there is the kernel of an interesting discussion here, so... Has "Silicon Valley run out of ideas" in any literal sense? Of course not. All this article really points out is that one particular conference (TechCrunch Disrupt) chose a "winner" that seems, at first blush, a somewhat frivolous and non-disruptive app. Whether or not that is the case is a question I'll leave to the philosophers. OTOH, you could argue that this is just one more echo of the kind of argument Peter Thiel was making when he talked about being "promised flying cars and getting 140 characters" or whatever. And it remains an interesting question whether or not the boom in SoLoMoGeoCatPicGroupMsgDailyDealRideSharing apps actually means anything in terms of the emergence (or lack thereof) of new companies based on more fundamental innovations. My own feeling is that there are plenty of companies doing "really interesting stuff" and the frothy wake around the silly apps is just a superficial aspect of the way things are reported on, and a reflection of what's trendy. The negative to this, if it exists, would be if the cat-picture startups are actually drawing away investment and resources that could otherwise be going to fund fusion research or something. I don't actually know if that's the case or not, but something analyzing that aspect is a story I would find interesting.
- johan_larson 12y ago
  Most ideas, like most anything, are derivative and mediocre. We tend to get a bit too excited about the prospect of game-changing ideas. It leads us to over-praise the merely interesting in embarrassing ways. Personally, I think we would do well to lower our sights a bit. No golfer specializes in holes-in-one; no baseball player only trains to hit home runs. Similarly, we might do well to focus less on the disruptive big ideas (which too often turn out to be merely over-hyped mediocre ideas), and more on building useful, elegant, cost-effective systems. This will let us do well with merely decent opportunities, and sets us up to really deliver when by chance or talent we come upon one of the great ones.
eruditely 12y ago
Long after the contraian-chic journalists are gone, we will still be here, making a difference. They'll run out of wannabe headlines, same old, same old.
YuriNiyazov 12y ago
Techcrunch Disrupt is not "Silicon Valley", it is a small part of it.
rock57 12y ago
Firstly, luckily for everyone, Silicon Valley is not equal to TC, and best startups in SV != startups that got the most votes from TC Disrupt judges. Secondly I strongly support the POV that throughout decades of SV history the biggest successes weren't (and aren't) usually the ones with the most hype, the most money, or the most hyped TC publications behind them!
bizartist 12y ago
This sort of thing always reminds me of the description of the wright brothers and their mainstream competitor: Samuel Pierpont Langely from Simin Sinek's TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspi... . We've hit a tipping point in SV culture where we mostly just hear about the modern Langelys, but there are plenty of Wrights out there, toiling away in obscurity, driven only by the promise of solving a real problem.

38 points by peterkchen 12y ago

I'm tempted to not upvote this just due to the snarky nature, but there is the kernel of an interesting discussion here, so... Has "Silicon Valley run out of ideas" in any literal sense? Of course not. All this article really points out is that one particular conference (TechCrunch Disrupt) chose a "winner" that seems, at first blush, a somewhat frivolous and non-disruptive app. Whether or not that is the case is a question I'll leave to the philosophers. OTOH, you could argue that this is just one more echo of the kind of argument Peter Thiel was making when he talked about being "promised flying cars and getting 140 characters" or whatever. And it remains an interesting question whether or not the boom in SoLoMoGeoCatPicGroupMsgDailyDealRideSharing apps actually means anything in terms of the emergence (or lack thereof) of new companies based on more fundamental innovations. My own feeling is that there are plenty of companies doing "really interesting stuff" and the frothy wake around the silly apps is just a superficial aspect of the way things are reported on, and a reflection of what's trendy. The negative to this, if it exists, would be if the cat-picture startups are actually drawing away investment and resources that could otherwise be going to fund fusion research or something. I don't actually know if that's the case or not, but something analyzing that aspect is a story I would find interesting.

johan_larson 12y ago
Most ideas, like most anything, are derivative and mediocre. We tend to get a bit too excited about the prospect of game-changing ideas. It leads us to over-praise the merely interesting in embarrassing ways. Personally, I think we would do well to lower our sights a bit. No golfer specializes in holes-in-one; no baseball player only trains to hit home runs. Similarly, we might do well to focus less on the disruptive big ideas (which too often turn out to be merely over-hyped mediocre ideas), and more on building useful, elegant, cost-effective systems. This will let us do well with merely decent opportunities, and sets us up to really deliver when by chance or talent we come upon one of the great ones.

eruditely 12y ago

Long after the contraian-chic journalists are gone, we will still be here, making a difference. They'll run out of wannabe headlines, same old, same old.

YuriNiyazov 12y ago

Techcrunch Disrupt is not "Silicon Valley", it is a small part of it.

rock57 12y ago

Firstly, luckily for everyone, Silicon Valley is not equal to TC, and best startups in SV != startups that got the most votes from TC Disrupt judges. Secondly I strongly support the POV that throughout decades of SV history the biggest successes weren't (and aren't) usually the ones with the most hype, the most money, or the most hyped TC publications behind them!

bizartist 12y ago

This sort of thing always reminds me of the description of the wright brothers and their mainstream competitor: Samuel Pierpont Langely from Simin Sinek's TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspi... . We've hit a tipping point in SV culture where we mostly just hear about the modern Langelys, but there are plenty of Wrights out there, toiling away in obscurity, driven only by the promise of solving a real problem.