Remember Apple’s 1984 commercial where IBM was personified as Big Brother and where Apple was liberator? Today I feel that Big Tech is today’s Big Brother. I love computing and I have a career devoted to it, but I don’t love Big Tech, and my opinion has soured in the last decade. I used to dream of working for Google, and I still think one of the highlights of my career was working on Spanner as an intern. But that was when Larry Page and Sergey Brin were still in charge, when Google still had “don’t be evil” as its motto.
I’m still trying to think about ways to make a living outside of academia where one can make and sell great, user-respecting tech solutions. I have a lot of ideas about what I’d like to build, but I struggle to think of ways to monetize them.
On top of which - these products just aren't that good. They may seem good enough to some at the major loss-leader costs that they're paying right now, but it's unsustainable. Either it has to collapse on its own or it will collapse when inevitably prices have to go up to at least break-even, which they aren't anywhere near.
It's hype and lies sandwiched in a neat little greed burrito.