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Seems like this list could have been written 10 years ago. Honest question: What’s changed?

I don't think many people appreciated 10 years ago how social media, and specifically the algorithms that surface content, would undermine civilization.

I know you probably meant the negative impacts but the Arab Spring was over 10 years ago. We saw and celebrated then came the countervailing forces.

I think maybe you have to go back further. 20 years ago. Companies seemed to care about building great products, stronger vision, more open web, engineering mattered etc etc. Now it seems the tech world is only about making money and increasing share price.

20 years ago we were coming out of the .com bubble so all the excitement had been pounded out of tech for a short while

I agree the financialisation of everything really sours tech though.

Once things go from product focused to profit focused, the ranks start getting filled with administrative roles. Then it's just a matter of time until the balance tips and the iron law of bureaucracy goes into full effect.

https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html

"tech" is just the most recent place this has happened but you can see it repeated through out the last century+ of industrialized corporations.

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