Well, I (for one) am happy to be alive right now. I am happy to be in the generation after people like Marc Andreessen and Elon Musk, who were 1 generation after Bill Gates & Steve Jobs.
Here is the guy that invented modern day browsers, and modern day SaaS services/companies, and is revolutionizing VC investing. It's like he can't do anything 'normally'.
I love it.
We need more people like that, in the world, willing to shake things up.
Either way, I will be one of those heeding his advice about trying to build awesome internet companies - because he is dead on the money.
Imagine, at the height of the automobile revolution if someone came to you and showed you an 'easy' way to build solid, quality cars in your garage and mass manufacture them for free/cheap and distribute them and sell them on the cheap. Effectively taking advantage of economies of scale without having to pay for the scale.
I can't think of any other industry/revolution/time in history when people could do (from a company building perspective) what we can today with the addressable market size we have access to, with such low distribution costs.
The same thing applies to creating content and media.
For example, you might have a good idea in some interesting field that doesn't happen to particularly involve the Internet.
At the moment it just seems like everyone arriving in California with a tent and a picaxe because they heard they'll get rich. Overly romantic maybe but I prefer the other way round with the chicken and egg.
Well....while I would agree that many are flocking to California, but the beauty about the internet is that you don't have to be there to make a good living.
Also, that doesn't mean that everybody needs to build the largest companies they can. But, it does mean that everybody that wants to - can.
If you have the ability to, you probably should at least try.
What's the worst that can happen? Even if you go for broke and end up being broke, given that you were the type to go for broke, it's highly likely that you will be very employable.
> the beauty about the internet is that you don't have to be there to make a good living.
I do hope you're not mistaking the incredible location-agnostic quality of the internet with the incredible location-dependent quality of human relationships.
Don't take real people for granted. IMHO you hugely multiply your chances if you surround yourself with people in the same physical space and can talk, work, play, and drink together. In my experience, the great ideas come when you are away from your computers.
There are a lot of places this can happen—SF, Boston, New York, and more. But I highly encourage you to make physical connections as well as digital ones.
Here is the guy that invented modern day browsers, and modern day SaaS services/companies, and is revolutionizing VC investing. It's like he can't do anything 'normally'.
I love it.
We need more people like that, in the world, willing to shake things up.
Either way, I will be one of those heeding his advice about trying to build awesome internet companies - because he is dead on the money.
Imagine, at the height of the automobile revolution if someone came to you and showed you an 'easy' way to build solid, quality cars in your garage and mass manufacture them for free/cheap and distribute them and sell them on the cheap. Effectively taking advantage of economies of scale without having to pay for the scale.
I can't think of any other industry/revolution/time in history when people could do (from a company building perspective) what we can today with the addressable market size we have access to, with such low distribution costs.
The same thing applies to creating content and media.
How can I not take his advice?