The Unintended Consequences of Gambling —

You Win!

Substance. Not Sizzle.

Folks, let me put it to you this way: I watched them raise the first Apple building (I have lived pretty much my whole life in what was to become known as the “Silicon Valley”). I have watched – dumbfounded – as a couple college students became overnight billionaires (time and again).. and investors caught up in a frenzy (more money than brains) of hype wasted millions in Dot Com Bubble I and Dot Com Bubble II. I have seen countless “tech companies” be the hottest things since sliced bread, and never be heard of again 9 months later.

I was working as a drone in offices when the “super typewriters” first appeared — you might remember them as “IBM’s”.. or the later “IBM clones”. Somehow, it became part of my duties to try to make them work as advertised. (They never did, if you recall.) And trying to force incompatible systems to work together, on untested protocols, using ‘hacks’ and ‘workarounds’.. Because tech has never had anything even resembling a Master Plan, and was up and toddling around before anyone thought.. “hey, maybe we need to implement some Standards..”

Get it to market before the other guy. We’ll work the bugs out later. (Tech’s unofficial motto.)

Because I had some talent for it, being the “make-it-work-guy” became my full-time gig, and I have been a ‘tech’ for a long time now.

In short, I have seen too much to get caught up in hype, the hot new thing, and have a healthy mistrust of all these gadgets. (I have,I believe, some small understanding of the minds bringing us these gizmos: they’re my neighbors.)
I have learned to look past the “sizzle”, for “substance”. (ref: an old salesman’s person’s adage: “don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle”!)

Where is he going with this?

1) Maybe you remember today’s title.
2) Last night the SF baseball team finally rewarded their faithful fans, after five long decades of torture, with a Championship.
3) I had a small, friendly wager on the games, with “a man of ‘substance’.”
4) As a result, he had to write this – What My Years In Tech Has Taught Me
5) Who is he? Well, click here, and read his “About” page. (But click back and read the article.)

If you do, and I am hoping you will click, you will meet a man I respect and admire — and read daily.

Here’s the link again: What My Years In Tech Has Taught Me. Click it, and find out why I think you will “win”.

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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