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Comments on Friends without Benefits
Daniel Lyons wrote an interesting article on the impact of young Silicon Valley start-ups. In the article, he compares young Facebook, Twitter and Zynga with titan HP, Intel and Cisco. Because young companies are so focused on making a quick profit and not on solving hard science problems, Lyons believes that they are walking down a wrong path -- not focusing on hard science limits their ability to create value for the humanity.
I disagree with Lyons. On the surface, web sites like Facebook and Twitter seem insignificant -- how much does a "like" button really matter when comparing to the invention of semi-conductors. But, we can't discredit these young companies' innovation solely based on their business model. Technologies like cloud computing and virtualization didn't really exist a decade ago. While some academics had speculated about these ideas back the days, but there was no real market for such kind of technology deployment. Because of a growing popularity of social networks, there is a paradigm shift in the fundamental design of computing infrastructure. Cloud computing and virtualization are elements of this evolution. New technologies like these generated billions of revenues for businesses and created thousands of jobs.
Lyons also complained about too few start-ups care to invest in the alternative energy market. He worried that if this trend continues, it will hinder the economic growth of this country. I completely agree. But, this is a problem for the lawmakers and not the entrepreneurs. It's politicians' job to set the right policy so that the economy can grow in the right direction. I'm confident that if the government provides sufficient support to encourage alternative energy development, young people will come to Silicon Valley to build the business.
I disagree with Lyons. On the surface, web sites like Facebook and Twitter seem insignificant -- how much does a "like" button really matter when comparing to the invention of semi-conductors. But, we can't discredit these young companies' innovation solely based on their business model. Technologies like cloud computing and virtualization didn't really exist a decade ago. While some academics had speculated about these ideas back the days, but there was no real market for such kind of technology deployment. Because of a growing popularity of social networks, there is a paradigm shift in the fundamental design of computing infrastructure. Cloud computing and virtualization are elements of this evolution. New technologies like these generated billions of revenues for businesses and created thousands of jobs.
Lyons also complained about too few start-ups care to invest in the alternative energy market. He worried that if this trend continues, it will hinder the economic growth of this country. I completely agree. But, this is a problem for the lawmakers and not the entrepreneurs. It's politicians' job to set the right policy so that the economy can grow in the right direction. I'm confident that if the government provides sufficient support to encourage alternative energy development, young people will come to Silicon Valley to build the business.
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