Crazy Stupid Tech

A new website/newsletter from Om Malik and Fred Vogelstein:

Both of us together have followed Silicon Valley’s innovation engine for more than 50 years. We’ve seen a lot. But one observation stands out: The best ideas — the ones that launch meaningful companies — need to seem crazy and stupid at first.

Amazon, Google and Facebook are among the most powerful companies in the world today, but each of them seemed absolutely preposterous when launched. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon as an online bookstore 30 years ago, most didn’t even know what the internet was. Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998 when most believed search was going nowhere. In the 2000s, Mark Zuckerberg bet Facebook could fundamentally change the way billions of people used the internet — to share everything back when most were terrified about sharing anything.

It’s this messianic belief in a vision that makes many entrepreneurs so quirky — and so interesting. It takes a unique personality to spend years saying “I’m right” when most around you say “That’s wrong.”

Love this statement of purpose.

★ Wednesday, 9 October 2024