The Shoulders of Giants [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

The Shoulders of Giants [pdf]

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50 pointsmvip8 comments

This is a bit of a boring analysis without much of a conclusion. As someone from the stone age would say:

We've put stones next to eachother, we've put them on top of eachother, we've thrown them at eachother. What more can we possibly do?

I agree, though we can't expect much from a venture capitalist. It's their job to inspire others to innovate so they can make money. If they actually knew how to innovate they would just do that instead.

Recognizing innovation is a competitive advantage, so good VCs compete on recognizing innovation early and often. Part of that is spotting market trends and marking their passing. It is possible to innovate in investing with better knowledge and processes leading to better portfolios and a stronger firm. Arguably innovative.

Maybe the news here is that there is nothing interesting in the pipeline. Capital is abundant and has a lot of trouble finding valuable places to work.

Maybe the news is the end of the booming period of everyone getting connected. Historical eras often get named after the fact, when we can see how they were anomalous.

I agree with others, the analysis fell flat at the end. But I DO appreciate the recognition that e-commerce companies are essentially retail companies with a website and not tech companies.

For all who would like to know before trying to read:

The 14MB pdf linked is actually titled:

"Tech in 2020: Standing on the shoulders of giants"

Benedict Evans, February 2020

In his words:

"Every year, I produce a big presentation digging into macro and strategic trends in the tech industry. This year, ‘Standing on the shoulders of giants’."

All I see on there is painting the Web as a platform for global-scale consumerism, and nothing more.

Good work everyone, let's pack it up.

That's exactly what's happening. New web time? Let's make a web where it's physically impossible to exchange money on.

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