Treading carefully, they sure are. But making *tidy* salaries and giving blue-chips the willies isn't just thanks to greenhorn VC managers. Remember the invention of the telephone? Recall the advent of the automobile? Cast your eye back to the way gunpowder changed armed combat. It was never this easy to play before. Even the greybeards are realising now that the information revolution WILL change the way information flows (and e-commerce is only the icing on the cake). Business WILL be turned upside down, and new commerce channels WILL dominate. But I'm itching to get past the argument of whether the bubble will burst. There's no question of a bubble bursting, the question rather is this: When everything settles down in 2010, who will the new leaders be? Let's stop betting whether any of the horses will make the finish line, and start picking the winners. Here's the 'Lucky' formula for internet value creation: 1. Find an example where you have to pay, or wait, for information transfer. (eg. waiting to check in at the airport, or paying for a newspaper) 2. Start up a company to perform the information transfer for a few cents, in just a few milliseconds. 3. Count all your derivatives while you wait for the contracts to roll in. The reason I'm glad to be alive in this decade is that I know somebody's gonna make billions, but nobody can be quite sure who. We've had the revolutions before, but never the uncertainty. Place your bets, pour yourself a white russian, and watch the dotcom stock prices party.
Slashdot Mirror
Ayn, is that you? It IS you!
Treading carefully, they sure are. But making *tidy* salaries and giving blue-chips the willies isn't just thanks to greenhorn VC managers. Remember the invention of the telephone? Recall the advent of the automobile? Cast your eye back to the way gunpowder changed armed combat. It was never this easy to play before. Even the greybeards are realising now that the information revolution WILL change the way information flows (and e-commerce is only the icing on the cake). Business WILL be turned upside down, and new commerce channels WILL dominate. But I'm itching to get past the argument of whether the bubble will burst. There's no question of a bubble bursting, the question rather is this: When everything settles down in 2010, who will the new leaders be? Let's stop betting whether any of the horses will make the finish line, and start picking the winners. Here's the 'Lucky' formula for internet value creation: 1. Find an example where you have to pay, or wait, for information transfer. (eg. waiting to check in at the airport, or paying for a newspaper) 2. Start up a company to perform the information transfer for a few cents, in just a few milliseconds. 3. Count all your derivatives while you wait for the contracts to roll in. The reason I'm glad to be alive in this decade is that I know somebody's gonna make billions, but nobody can be quite sure who. We've had the revolutions before, but never the uncertainty. Place your bets, pour yourself a white russian, and watch the dotcom stock prices party.