Lots of buzz this week on the IPOs of Door Dash and Airbnb. The reason of course is not because they do good deliveries or offer nice home rental experiences. The reason their stock prices went through the roof is because they are technology companies. Not average tech companies, but brilliant, innovative tech companies. Each is disrupting their space because they have harnessed technology to reduce friction, lower costs, increase availability and enhance the user
experience. They’re poster boy or girl demonstrations of my thesis that we’re living in the greatest time to be alive in human history.
On the surface it would appear that we are in the throes of an innovation revolution. Certainly that’s the predominant mind virus circulating the business websites, conventional wisdom, and social media today. But I’m thinking just the opposite…
I’m thinking we’re living in an era of innovative stagnation, on an almost famine scale. Because while we’re witnessing an almost continuous stream of breakthrough developments in the technology space – the rest of the world is in a coma.
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Scott Monty:
Nostalgia is something of a false prophet. It feeds us powerful visions: memories of a glorious experience of the past—something that makes us long to relive it, like a first visit to a favorite location or a first viewing of a classic film.
Yet we can never reclaim it.
Therein lies the deceptive power of nostalgia. It’s able to create a deep and meaningful feeling within us, but it’s not the same as delivering an experience.
Especially at the holidays, when our playful memories serve up visions of sugarplums, snow angels, and laughter around the fireplace.
But it isn’t quite powerful enough to inoculate us from the cold reality of recycled fruitcake, scraping ice off of windshields, and the rising voices of family squabbles.
Why do we go on believing in the romance of the past?
