Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook’s new name this week and the world responded with a combination of laughter and hand wringing. The laughter is by those who don’t understand the power of Facebook and the hand wringing is by those who do.
But like it or not, Meta is the future. Maybe more than any other tech company that I can think of, Meta combines the most powerful elements of the future of technology.
It was a running joke in the TV sitcom Silicon Valley that every new tech startup wanted to “change the world”. But that satire was very much rooted in the perception that tech companies really do want to change the world.
Ultimately though, what really changes anything? People. If you are in the business of moving data, than you are in the business of disseminating ideas and connecting people. If you can change the hearts and minds of people, you truly can change the world.
Companies like Facebook, Apple, Google, or Twitter are all in the business of moving and sharing data but Facebook is probably more in the sweet spot than any of them. It’s a subject too long for today but if I had to pick one company that could influence and move humanity more than any, it would be Facebook. It’s these new tech companies that are the new movers and shakers in the world.
The makers of our current world came out of the Industrial Age. Those who specialized in the movement of raw materials and people from one point on the map to another. Moving coal, oil, and people across the continent is what built this nation. But those companies had their day in the sun. The future isn’t about transporting people, it’s about connecting people.
This is part of what makes the stock price bubble surrounding Tesla so absurd. Here is a company that belongs with all of the Industrial Age “has beens”. Tesla, and all of Musk’s other endeavors, are about transporting people or cargo. One mile at a time. This would’ve been worthy of investor excitement maybe 80 years ago.
Tesla is almost the opposite of all the new big tech companies. They may utilize tech in what they do, but they are still about transporting people or things one unit at a time. They are the poster child of the last gasps of the Industrial Age.
I’ve spent many years in logistics analysis at the Fortune 500 level. That means analyzing the cost of distribution networks and planning a distribution center footprint or the capital costs of a trucking fleet. I’ll tell you now, contrary to what other “experts” with a hidden motive are saying, Tesla’s self driving software doesn’t change the cost equation all that much. You are simply shifting your cost structure away from human labor to capital machinery.
So the world can collectively laugh at Meta or investors can continue to dump money into
Tesla, but they both do so at their own peril.
It was a running joke in the TV sitcom Silicon Valley that every new tech startup wanted to “change the world”. But that satire was very much rooted in the perception that tech companies really do want to change the world.
Ultimately though, what really changes anything? People. If you are in the business of moving data, than you are in the business of disseminating ideas and connecting people. If you can change the hearts and minds of people, you truly can change the world.
Companies like Facebook, Apple, Google, or Twitter are all in the business of moving and sharing data but Facebook is probably more in the sweet spot than any of them. It’s a subject too long for today but if I had to pick one company that could influence and move humanity more than any, it would be Facebook. It’s these new tech companies that are the new movers and shakers in the world.
The makers of our current world came out of the Industrial Age. Those who specialized in the movement of raw materials and people from one point on the map to another. Moving coal, oil, and people across the continent is what built this nation. But those companies had their day in the sun. The future isn’t about transporting people, it’s about connecting people.
This is part of what makes the stock price bubble surrounding Tesla so absurd. Here is a company that belongs with all of the Industrial Age “has beens”. Tesla, and all of Musk’s other endeavors, are about transporting people or cargo. One mile at a time. This would’ve been worthy of investor excitement maybe 80 years ago.
Tesla is almost the opposite of all the new big tech companies. They may utilize tech in what they do, but they are still about transporting people or things one unit at a time. They are the poster child of the last gasps of the Industrial Age.
I’ve spent many years in logistics analysis at the Fortune 500 level. That means analyzing the cost of distribution networks and planning a distribution center footprint or the capital costs of a trucking fleet. I’ll tell you now, contrary to what other “experts” with a hidden motive are saying, Tesla’s self driving software doesn’t change the cost equation all that much. You are simply shifting your cost structure away from human labor to capital machinery.
So the world can collectively laugh at Meta or investors can continue to dump money into
Tesla, but they both do so at their own peril.
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