This Industry Is Still Completely Ridiculous

I think the author misses how weird the world already is. The broad point, that software is becoming more important culturally, and software can become culturally important faster and for less justification, is I think probably true. But I am not convinced that software is more weird than most people.<p>Long before software people drew lines in the sand that formed pictures only visible from airplanes which did not exist. Stuff is weird, get used to it.

When I started reading this article I found myself a bit annoyed. The author was complaining and pointing out the fact that some tech companies do some crazy&#x2F;inane stuff, while ignoring all of the positive things that comes out of tech. Plus, even the crazy&#x2F;inane stuff can end up having positive impact or side effects!<p>At the end of the article, however, I was pleased to find that the author came to the same conclusion. Yes, tech can be weird, and it seems especially so to those outside of tech, but I strongly believe that in the long run all of this experimentation will be a good thing.

I remember hearing similar ridiculous things before the last software bubble burst. Huge valuations, investments in websites that do nothing, the success of gimmicky zany stuff like &quot;sell 1 million single pixel ads!&quot;.<p>The author seems to take at face value that the ridiculousness is somehow grounded on something. When valuations for things like an app that does nothing except send &#x27;Yo&#x27; compares favorably with a company like SpaceX, I have to wonder whether, really, we&#x27;re in another bubble and in for another burst.

Pot. kettle. black - &#x27;Tech Crunch&#x27; (stupid name) is the poster child for boosting sketchy tech that has more to do with financial shell games to pump and dump products and services than advancing tech for the good of mankind.<p>This was a good, funny article but there are thousands going bust or running their credit cards to the max trying to create new firms which is the darker side of all this...<p>The Valley tech funding circus is beyond bizarre...

Interesting times and all that. I have to wonder at what industries centuries ago were viewed in the same way.<p>On a side not, that page&#x2F;article&#x2F;site is a work of art in* demonstrating painful mobile design.

When the author ran off the names of those NSA projects (horsewrap, iceblock, micefur...) for some reason the REM song &quot;it&#x27;s the end of the world as we know it&quot; popped into my head.