PaulGrahamOnTheInternetBubble

ThoughtStorms Wiki

Interesting PaulGraham article : http://www.paulgraham.com/bubble.html

Discusses what the internet bubble got right. Good list.

Thoughts

The prospect of technological leverage will of course raise the specter of unemployment. I'm surprised people still worry about this. After centuries of supposedly job-killing innovations, the number of jobs is within ten percent of the number of people who want them. This can't be a coincidence. There must be some kind of balancing mechanism.

I'm pretty sure that's not true. In some places unemployment is way higher than 10%.

That 26 year olds with good ideas will increasingly have an edge over 50 year olds with powerful connections.

That's an interesting way of putting it. Will ideas be more important than connections? IdeasAreCheap vs. NetoCracy? (Maybe see also InDefenceOfIntellectualProperty)

: Paul seems to assume that the only possible danger of tech would be to completely automate away jobs. However, some argue that that its goal has been to commoditize and weaken workers, not necessarily get rid of them. AdamSmith (in Wealth of Nations) claimed that under tech and division of labor, a person "generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become."

: Also, DavidNoble in Forces of Production claims that companies push for those technologies which are "made for idiots," in preference to those which require and reward skill. Even when the skill-augmenting technologies offer higher productivity than the deskilling variety.

: – anon (Tayssir John Gabbour perhaps)?

Compare :

CapitalistColonizationOfTheInternet for my view of the bubble.

JustInTime for more on the fate of workers under capitalism.