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Author: Bonnie

The Return of the Dark Lords of Social

The Return of the Dark Lords of Social

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Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

From what we’ve witnessed about the tech space to date, tech is all about invention and reinvention.

Example: it’s a communications tool. How long has the telephone been around, meaning landlines? Instead of calling, we ping or email or Zoom. Nothing new, really: only the words and devices and delivery mechanisms have changed to deceive the clueless.

Tech is also about glorification and vilification – and sometimes both, in the same person. Everyone’s (former) hero Elon Musk bought Twitter and the tech media banded against him – no matter that Twitter had been a platform for propaganda and surveillance under Jack Dorsey’s tenure. Yet, no matter what, Dorsey, for some reason, can seemingly do no wrong. Read More...

Note to the Surveillance State: We’re Watching, Too.

Note to the Surveillance State: We’re Watching, Too.

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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

It seems that Congress is worried about China spying on American citizens – particularly via the vastly popular TikTok – so they’re moving to pass the RESTRICT Act (“Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act,” or Senate Bill 686), which would “authorize the Secretary of Commerce (which is not an elected position) to review and prohibit certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries, and for other purposes.”

Pretty broad, eh?

Critics are (rightfully) calling it the Patriot Act for the Digital Age. FYI, the Patriot Act was enacted after 9/11/2001 to ‘protect’ Americans, but it was basically a ploy to grant the federal government wide-reaching surveillance powers to spy on US citizens and not long afterwards, enter the Age of Social, which made it oh, so much easier for the government to spy – and censor. And even propagandize. Read More...

Fake It Till You… Meh – Scratch That

Fake It Till You… Meh – Scratch That

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Image by Elisa from Pixabay

Fake it till you make it has been the credo of the tech industry since the very earliest days of the industry. Make big promises and bold statements and no matter that the product may end up as shovelware of vaporware, founders were inventing the future and no matter that investors who bought into the hype were expecting big payoffs that often didn’t happen. You pay your money, you take your chances. So it goes.

Erin Griffin wrote an excellent piece in The New York Times recently entitled The End of Faking It in Silicon Valley and it’s must-read. “Faking it is over. That’s the feeling in Silicon Valley…Not only has funding dried up for cash-burning startups over the past year, but now, fraud is also in the air, as investors scrutinize startup claims more closely and a tech downturn reveals who has been taking the industry’s “fake it till you make it” ethos too far… the chorus of charges, convictions and sentences have created a feeling that the startup world’s fast and loose fakery actually has consequences.”

Gee, who’d have thought? Considering that California was basically founded on the Gold Rush, and the tech space was essentially the state’s second Gold Rush, didn’t investors realize that during that first Gold Rush, many were taken in by Fool’s Gold? History does have a way of repeating itself, and if it worked the first time… Read More...

How to Fail Spectacularly

How to Fail Spectacularly

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Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash

There is a place called The Museum of Failure and as the Failure Report noted, “The Museum of Failure is a collection of failed products from the United States and worldwide. They have exhibited everywhere from Sweden to Shanghai. Most products and startups fail, unfortunately, and the museum showcases these failures to provide “a fascinating learning experience.” Every item gives a unique insight into the risky business of innovation. The goal of this kitschy museum is to stimulate productive discussion about failure and consider the possibility of risk.”

The exhibit is making the rounds globally and is in New York until May.

Crystal Pepsi, anyone? Pass. Read More...

The Long Tale of the Shortcut

The Long Tale of the Shortcut

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Image by Roland Schwerdhöfer from Pixabay

Bill Gates was a college dropout. Steve Jobs quit after one semester. Mark Zuckerberg didn’t finish, either.  So it was no wonder that, when the tech sector rose to prominence, kids believed that dropping out of college and starting a company was de rigueur for success in life. And to be wealthy and lionized.

The Age of Social loved tech ‘luminaries’ such as Zuck and Jack Dorsey and how convenient that their genius could be amplified on the very platforms they created. Tech founders were the rockstars of the computer age.

We know things move faster in the online world, but how did these guys get so rich and powerful in so short an amount of time? Read More...

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love ChatGPT

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love ChatGPT

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The reference is to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

We were a bit under the weather this past week, and unable to do our usual research due to the raging headache associated with this flu. So, it was suggested that why didn’t we use some iteration of ChatGPT to compose this week’s editorial?

Well, we did keep up with some articles, and here are just a few re Generative AIs: Read More...

Lessons from the Silicon Valley Bank Demise

Lessons from the Silicon Valley Bank Demise

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Photo by Mariia Shalabaieva on Unsplash

This begins with a tale of one of our readers who had customer support problems with three different platforms:

A payments platform – wrong bank account#, contact email, plus phone# attached to a different account.

A hosting service – the reader had a new phone and was setting up the email account. Read More...

How to Prioritizing in the New Normal

How to Prioritizing in the New Normal

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Image by Piyapong Saydaung from Pixabay

Haven’t heard that term in a while, eh, and not like we all have it all figured out.

We had a conversation with a successful serial entrepreneur recently, who began by filling us in on his history:

Started and built his first business: sold it. Started and built another business: acquired. Was about to undertake his next startup when his wife told him that he was going to be a dad for the first time – and not to a singleton. Read More...

Charge!

Charge!

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Image by mohamed_hassan from Pixabay

We recall back in the day when Facebook hit the zeitgeist in a huge way, it was suggested that the company charge a nominal fee for the service, and we believe it was a dollar a month. Easily affordable in most countries, and why not to bring family and friends closer. Of course, there are countries where a dollar a month is quite steep, and the company opted for eyeballs uber payment and they’d make their money via tracking you and offering up adverts.

As a note to self and a cautionary tale to founders: best to bake in the revenue model/premium services early in the game, as did, say, LinkedIn, who, when they hit a tipping point long ago – a year or two after funding – the company did maintain a free version, but also introduced a premium model and people were willing to ante up. It seems to have worked. We do believe that the company is still around. And with multiple revenue spokes. Also a good idea.

Re Facebook. Well, times change, as has Apple’s advertising policies: the company’s anti-tracking protections cost Facebook, now Meta, some $10B in ad revenue last year. Read More...