

The Economist Debates: Tech Bubble: Rebuttals - bchjam
http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/711

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bchjam
Looks like a separate post of Steve Blank's rebuttal has already been linked

[http://steveblank.com/2011/06/17/are-you-you-the-fool-at-
the...](http://steveblank.com/2011/06/17/are-you-you-the-fool-at-the-table/)

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ghshephard
A couple notes - the "Dear Sir" isn't an element of the debate, but a standard
for any commentary (letters to the editor, etc..) directed to the Economist.

It's interesting - I came in believing that we're in a bubble, but Ben has
brought me around to believing that while there are anecdotal examples of
froth behavior (Linked in IPO, Color) - the technology market, in general, is
not in a Technology Bubble. Great, great debat.

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trevelyan
In the first bubble, there was a lot of enthusiasm for digital strategies
generally. There was also a lot more acquisition interest in tech start-ups by
non-technology companies which saw the potential for disruption of their
industries. So if a team managed to bootstrap a company that covered its costs
and earned revenue they could easily engineer a sale or take investment and
de-risk.

I don't think that is the case these days, when the reality is that most
entrepreneurs are working inexpensively for themselves and headed for failure.
A few are growing businesses organically and slowly displacing rather than
being acquired by their competition. If the tech economy were even close to a
bubble, entrepreneurs would be de-risking much sooner.

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podperson
Horowitz's initial argument basically ended with "OK it's a bubble, but it
didn't pay to think that way when the NetScape IPO took place" which is in
exact agreement with Blank's stated position "we're entering the mania phase".
So, I don't see a need for a rebuttal -- Horowitz effectively conceded
straight out of the gate.

It's a bubble, but there's still time to make money from bigger fools.

I rant about this at greater length here: <http://loewald.com/blog/?p=4238>

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il
The debate format feels like an anachronism but it certainly looks like
prefixing every comment with "Dear Sir" increases their civility and
thoughtfulness.

Maybe something for HN to try.

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wnoise
"This time it's different."

