The golden window of tech may have expired. In 2010, I came across a video of Mick Jagger being interviewed (text version here). It was for a re-release of Exile on Main Street with 10 new tracks. During the interview he says this: But I have a take on that — people only made money out of records for a very, very small time. When The Rolling Stones started out, we didn’t make any money out of records because record companies wouldn’t pay you! They didn’t pay anyone! Then, there was a small period from 1970 to 1997, where people did get paid, and they got paid very handsomely and everyone made money. But now that period has gone. So if you look at the history of recorded music from 1900 to now, there was a 25-year period where artists did very well, but the rest of the time they didn’t. In 2009, I had just started to recover or find my footing from the dot-com bust and the 2008 recession. I wondered about the tech industry’s longevity and resilience then, having experienced my first taste of startup life from 2000-2002. After which, I did my best to navigate what it meant to be a maker on the internet, before it figured out how to make money. I certainly didn’t make any for a number of years. What Jagger said has stuck with me ever since. I often come back to this when I think about any industry or vocation — how long do people really make money doing a thing? Tech feels that way now, again — that for a decade or more, coming out of 2008, people started to make money hand over fist, and tech was rosy, optimistic and all blue skies. We believed we could shape a utopian future, but eventually extracting value came calling, and has always been at the core of capitalism. And tech is a capitalist endeavor. Today, streaming has lobotomized all earnings for musical artists, which has led to heavy touring schedules and lucrative reunions capitalizing on fanbases that have only become even more endeared to the artists of their youth or formative years. Audiences are willing to dole out hundreds of dollars to see their favorite artists perform for hours in an arena or venue. We’re at an inflection point again, facing a different kind of existential threat. The younger generation will chalk this up to how tech is today, while those of us with decades in this industry and the long view of experience have either accepted it, made good money from it and retired, or are fighting the good fight. Is that period gone for tech too? And if so, what’s the equivalent of touring? → This looks better on the web → Reply via email Thanks for reading and using RSS!

it’s been going well for me.

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A guest post by Drew Housman