What is stopping innovation in Silicon Valley?
Since then, as one of the founders of PayPal, well-known investor Peter Thiel was outraged that "instead of the promised flying machines, we got 140 characters," and to the recent complaints of the founder of TechCrunch Michael Arrington about today's innovations that put him in anguish, the number of people who are disappointed in the innovation potential Silicon Valley has grown seriously. While the main hardware, microprocessors, infrastructure and display technologies continue to master new horizons, innovations in the field of Internet products and services can rightly be called secondary and not cause delight.
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Many of the reasons for such a miserable state of innovation in the Internet space have already been discussed (overly friendly technologies, the proliferation of incubators, echo cameras, etc.), but there is one idea that, as far as I know, no one expressed. Here it is: to be able to break through to new frontiers, people must work at the forefront of innovation, or at least be fully aware of all the new products. And here is an example: what do you think - could SpaceX engineers develop a new rocket technology if they hadn’t worked at the forefront in their field before? I doubt that there will be a lot or at least one engineer in SpaceX’s engineering department without serious aerospace experience.
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Let me give you a larger analogy from the field of medicine. Almost all scientific advances in medicine, genetics, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology belong to researchers who usually have a doctoral degree and work with the support of universities or well-funded pharmaceutical companies. These are serious scientists who have studied their field for years. Agree, it would be absurd to expect the invention of a new cancer drug from people with limited medical or biological education. However, this is exactly what is happening on the Internet: people who do not work with advanced Internet technologies are trying to be innovators. In contrast to the field of medical research or microprocessor engineering, the online media today is filled by seekers of quick profits, and not by discoverers of new horizons.
Continuing the analogy with the medical field: a biologist student who has not completed his education has little chance of developing a new cure for cancer, but he may well be able to open a network of inexpensive clinics or even come up with a better medical billing system than the existing one. We observe the same in the Internet environment: people are busy not so much with the accomplishment of technological breakthroughs, as with the creation of models to increase comfort.
There is nothing wrong with entrepreneurs who do not want to miss business opportunities, but they are confused by how the whole sector has convinced itself that it is at the forefront of innovation and knows all the answers. Using the old medical analogy: today's Internet environment makes people realize that they can make more money as opening clinics for dropout biologists, and not as serious researchers in search of a cure for cancer. The Internet space lacks real technological innovations because it is overcrowded by the owners of the clinics, convinced that it is they, and not the doctors of science who study advanced genetics, that represent the avant-garde of medicine.
I understand that my accusation is very harsh, as is the fact that serious engineers with excellent education also work in the Internet space. And I apologize if you develop serious technologies. My criticism is directed at the environment as a whole and the spirit of the times in this sector of Silicon Valley. If incubators stamp companies that send men's underwear by mail and present them as technology innovators, then obviously something went wrong.
In response to Arrington's complaint about the lack of innovation, many point to important technical developments like SpaceX or advanced Google projects such as Google Glass. But in these and other examples designed to refute the accusation, the developers are serious engineers and scientists with advanced knowledge.
For the most part, Internet entrepreneurs have nothing to do with the technological vanguard. On the contrary: they resemble those students who have not studied, who have attended a course on medical billing and opened a network of clinics. They probably have a good business model and they probably provide good services, but they will not be able to push the technological boundaries, because they have not even come close to working with advanced knowledge. And until this environment changes, Thiel, Arrington and all the rest will expect impressive innovations in other sectors of Silicon Valley, but not here.
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The translation was made by Alconost localization company .
Many of the reasons for such a miserable state of innovation in the Internet space have already been discussed (overly friendly technologies, the proliferation of incubators, echo cameras, etc.), but there is one idea that, as far as I know, no one expressed. Here it is: to be able to break through to new frontiers, people must work at the forefront of innovation, or at least be fully aware of all the new products. And here is an example: what do you think - could SpaceX engineers develop a new rocket technology if they hadn’t worked at the forefront in their field before? I doubt that there will be a lot or at least one engineer in SpaceX’s engineering department without serious aerospace experience.
')
Let me give you a larger analogy from the field of medicine. Almost all scientific advances in medicine, genetics, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology belong to researchers who usually have a doctoral degree and work with the support of universities or well-funded pharmaceutical companies. These are serious scientists who have studied their field for years. Agree, it would be absurd to expect the invention of a new cancer drug from people with limited medical or biological education. However, this is exactly what is happening on the Internet: people who do not work with advanced Internet technologies are trying to be innovators. In contrast to the field of medical research or microprocessor engineering, the online media today is filled by seekers of quick profits, and not by discoverers of new horizons.
Continuing the analogy with the medical field: a biologist student who has not completed his education has little chance of developing a new cure for cancer, but he may well be able to open a network of inexpensive clinics or even come up with a better medical billing system than the existing one. We observe the same in the Internet environment: people are busy not so much with the accomplishment of technological breakthroughs, as with the creation of models to increase comfort.
There is nothing wrong with entrepreneurs who do not want to miss business opportunities, but they are confused by how the whole sector has convinced itself that it is at the forefront of innovation and knows all the answers. Using the old medical analogy: today's Internet environment makes people realize that they can make more money as opening clinics for dropout biologists, and not as serious researchers in search of a cure for cancer. The Internet space lacks real technological innovations because it is overcrowded by the owners of the clinics, convinced that it is they, and not the doctors of science who study advanced genetics, that represent the avant-garde of medicine.
I understand that my accusation is very harsh, as is the fact that serious engineers with excellent education also work in the Internet space. And I apologize if you develop serious technologies. My criticism is directed at the environment as a whole and the spirit of the times in this sector of Silicon Valley. If incubators stamp companies that send men's underwear by mail and present them as technology innovators, then obviously something went wrong.
In response to Arrington's complaint about the lack of innovation, many point to important technical developments like SpaceX or advanced Google projects such as Google Glass. But in these and other examples designed to refute the accusation, the developers are serious engineers and scientists with advanced knowledge.
For the most part, Internet entrepreneurs have nothing to do with the technological vanguard. On the contrary: they resemble those students who have not studied, who have attended a course on medical billing and opened a network of clinics. They probably have a good business model and they probably provide good services, but they will not be able to push the technological boundaries, because they have not even come close to working with advanced knowledge. And until this environment changes, Thiel, Arrington and all the rest will expect impressive innovations in other sectors of Silicon Valley, but not here.
About the translator
The article is translated in Alconost.
Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and websites in 60 languages. Language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, 24/7 project managers, any formats of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for websites selling, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliners, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/165847/
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