Sunday, October 27, 2019
Need a word for it
Most of the tech-bubble 'unicorns' are not exactly frauds, but there isn't a proper word for them. A lot of strawman arguments result from this mismatch.
There's a common factor in several of them.
1. Tesla is a very fast car that you can't use for a long trip, and a self-driving car that doesn't drive itself.
2. WeWork is an "office" space that you can't use as an office.
3. Uber/Lyft is a taxi that you can't call from a landline.
4. Bitcoin is "money" that you can't spend.
5. Beyond Meat is a fake meat product meant to be sold in regular meat counters, where real vegetarians will never buy it.
= = = = =
These are not strictly frauds, because the product or service exists. But they are fraudulently described as Superior Disruptive Innovations, when in fact each is a LIMITED OR RESTRICTED VERSION of the old technology. Each of them is LESS USEFUL than the original.
Some related products are simply frauds. Theranos was pretending to develop a machine that couldn't possibly work, and its engineers knew it couldn't work. Elon's tunnels are prototypes for a system that can't possibly work.
Labels: Language update
¶ 2:56 PM
