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Welcome back, readers! At the risk of sounding like both a doomsayer and an amateur philosopher, this month's note of caution touches on a subject I've been seeing a lot of recently, hubris in the technology industry. As someone who spends a significant amount of time in the heart of Silicon Valley, yet lives in the "real world" where technology is a tool and not the end game in and of itself, I'm continually
amazed by those who massively overstate the value, the importance and the criticality of what they do. This month saw me attend Dreamforce, Salesforce.com's annual conference which this year attracted over 150,000 attendees. Before the event, I
wrote an article sounding a note of caution about the event. It seemed to me that the size of the gathering had more to do with the CEO, Marc Benioff, and his desire to preside over the biggest event in the world, than it did with actually putting on a valuable event for all concerned. But Salesforce is an executional beast and can get away with a fair amount of ego. After all, there was billions of dollars worth of business being transacted at Dreamforce, enough to support this kind of PT Barnum event. That doesn't mean that Salesforce and its ilk are bulletproof, though. At Dreamforce, there was a model of Salesforce's new headquarters, a building currently in construction in downtown San Francisco. When complete, the
Salesforce tower will be the tallest building in San Francisco by far. Many a somewhat cynical Dreamforce attendee was heard to mutter comments around the biblical Tower of Babel. One wonders whether, in 20 years, we'll be calling Salesforce tower the Tower of Babel of out time. But this hubris and over-confidence extends to the little companies as well. As someone who invests fairly widely in technology startups I am, of course, keen for this rapid cycle of mega-growth to continue. But as someone who also realizes that there is a world outside The Valley, and who has read about the end of previous epochs, I'm also a little concerned. In the past few months I have heard comments such as "we're totally better at doing
this than anyone out there, we have six months experience already." Other examples of this world gone wild include a pre-revenue (and pre-product company) who closed a funding round one week so they could open one the next week at double the valuation. Now I'm not suggesting that the sky is falling or that Silicon Valley will descend into a state of decrepitude anytime soon. What I am suggesting is that individuals, companies, and the industry as a whole develop a little more humility. It will be good for us as individuals, it will make our companies more able to withstand the various trials and tribulations of business-life and it will, by extension, make the world a better place.
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