Is there a tech bubble here in Palo Alto and will massive money go poof and the world implode?
(I hope the world of restaurants implodes. Alas, we now have a brunch menu with only one egg dish and it still has the egg white option on that lonely egg dish. (Note to people: Put the damn yolk back in, it has all the nutrients and isn’t the cause of the heart attack you fear.) Lure+Till at The Epiphany has an appealing, fun looking bar/restaurant with a brunch menu that looks like it was designed by the Kale Police. But it doesn’t seem to hurt business so I will be Outlier for Brunch As It Should Be and move on. A drink there looks like fun though. Or bring back Cafe Verona and their incredible, edible egg dishes. Baked eggs with cheese..yum..)
On to The Bubble Machine. The New York Times recently had an article on whether or not there was a bubble in Palo Alto. Reaction is divided. My response (posted on the Times) is clearly on the side of No Bubble.
BUBBLE BUBBLE, TROUBLE and TOIL (letter to editor in online NYT from The Silicon Valley Story)
To call this a bubble is to lack understanding. The enormous societal change going on here is that people with billions in personal monies can fast track ideas that would have taken centuries to occur in any other time. That’s one side. On the other – too many apps that will go nowhere? Yes. Too many dreamers? No such thing. The only bubble here is bubbling enthusiasm, ideas, creativity, and energy. Some is stupid – but so what? Stupid is everywhere. But to ignore the science behind what is changing the world is to think everything is a snapchat. The robotics, the AI, the cloud, big data analytics, the science of IoT, the 23andme’s, the world class researchers being hired by Calico (UCSF geneticist this week went there full time), the 200 med researchers for iWatch – you have to be delusional to think this is a bubble. This is a revolution and we are all part of it. Too many meetups? Maybe. So what. From Homebrew to the singularity, this place is many things, but a bubble it is not. Love to see things fail? Sure, many will, but Larry Page backing research that pharmaceutical companies or private labs could or would never do is akin only to someone funding someone looking for a brave new world. And if you don’t know Calico, Homebrew, singularity or who funded who to find a new world, then find out and we’ll do coffee at Coupa and talk about smart dust and IoT and what it means. I’m looking for someone to write on futurism, and I’ll buy. With bitcoin.
No Comments