For the last twelve years, I’ve avoided punching a time clock, or actually any other form of organized employment other than the occasional board meeting. I’m a social animal, and really need interaction with other people. My wife is a fine and lovely companion, but we have little to argue about, and I already know most of her opinions. Social interaction is about the only thing I miss about work. During the whole Monica thing, I was dying for a water cooler to hang near and hear what people were saying, but it wasn’t happening.
Then there’s FaceBook. I’ve sort of casually drifted into it, but I realized it’s a replacement for the water cooler. Email is sort of direct and almost intrusive compared to just dropping a line on what’s up. So it’s like work, without the work, and only with people you like. Interesting.
Fifteen years ago, I was flying around the world, trying to convince people that this internet thing was worthwhile, and would change our live in huge ways; the democratization of the media, an end to TV induced “post literacy”, new social venues for oddballs and specialized interests and a whole world of advantages.
The irony is that all of it has come to be and yet I’m still just stumbling onto this stuff I was forecasting so long ago. My nephews and nieces get huge chuckles watching Uncle Jeff stumble through getting the iPhone or Mac to do what I want, never mind the Tivo or satellite, considering I was there at the birth of all this stuff.
Anyway, I’m not sure how it makes money, but FaceBook is yet another amazing example of how cool interconnectivity is. I wish I could get in touch with the thousands of dismissive skeptics who told me I was nuts and that this internet thing would never catch on. In 1993, I tried to help raise venture capital money for what is now the largest ISP in the world (currently part of Verizon) at a valuation of eight million dollars and got no takers. Eight million. Funny how thing turn out.
3 comments:
I seem to remember your younger brother was one of the nay sayers.
the problem of being ahead of your time...then slipping into behind...no room for balance!
Here's my question: did you imagine back then that it would be as huge as it is? forget the knuckleheads and nay sayers. Do you, who did see great potential, see it being this huge?
My daughter truly lives by the law that if it isn't on the web, it doesn't exist.
I absolutely, positively knew it would be this big. John Doerr famously said in 1997 that the internet was underhyped, I think he stole it from a speech I gave the year before in Mountain View. This was a religious evangelical effort and we new we were changing the world in very fundamental ways.
None of this has been a surprise.
Similarly, we're heading into the next Great Depression and the conventional wisdom is in denial. It will be HUGE and most people won't acknowledge it.
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