> It sucks that people put their faith in tech geeks like me, and they got let down.
Well, not like you since you’re genuinely trying to solve real-world problems.
I had that feeling a lot during the dotcom era because you had a similar, although less pronounced, dynamic where some companies were focused on selling their technology as some kind of magic cure for every problem (this was also the era where you’d see startup founders proudly showing off millions of dollars worth of Sun servers running Oracle to process 100 orders a day). We’d get calls from our clients who’d get these shiny presentations but couldn’t understand how something made sense for their business, and we’d walk through it with them and confirm that it didn’t.
Most of those “it’s new and shiny! Buy now!” companies either folded or were acquired at more accurate valuations when bubble money dried up. I remember a couple of sales guys asking about jobs and it was like “you didn’t care what your prospects needed when money was easy, who can afford you now?”
My advice would always be to focus on what real thing you’re making better. If you can’t find one, either leave or have a fallback plan for things suddenly grinding to a halt. Lower-level staff are usually the ones left holding the bag unless your job is very clearly linked to revenue.
>Well, not like you since you’re genuinely trying to solve real-world problems.
Clarification: I'm not actively trying to help people, I just enjoy thinking about institutions in my spare time. Here are some relevant HN comments of mine to give a sense:
Well, not like you since you’re genuinely trying to solve real-world problems.
I had that feeling a lot during the dotcom era because you had a similar, although less pronounced, dynamic where some companies were focused on selling their technology as some kind of magic cure for every problem (this was also the era where you’d see startup founders proudly showing off millions of dollars worth of Sun servers running Oracle to process 100 orders a day). We’d get calls from our clients who’d get these shiny presentations but couldn’t understand how something made sense for their business, and we’d walk through it with them and confirm that it didn’t.
Most of those “it’s new and shiny! Buy now!” companies either folded or were acquired at more accurate valuations when bubble money dried up. I remember a couple of sales guys asking about jobs and it was like “you didn’t care what your prospects needed when money was easy, who can afford you now?”
My advice would always be to focus on what real thing you’re making better. If you can’t find one, either leave or have a fallback plan for things suddenly grinding to a halt. Lower-level staff are usually the ones left holding the bag unless your job is very clearly linked to revenue.