The Pattern Nobody Learns From
Marc Andreessen has studied the history of innovation. Every single time, the pattern repeats.
Great inventions arrive. People laugh. Call them toys. Call them trivial. Then the invention eats the world.
The great innovations were often not understood as important at the time. They were often actively ridiculed.
The Telephone Was Built for Telegraph Operators
When Thomas Edison worked on the telephone, the assumed use case was letting telegraph operators talk to each other.
The idea that ordinary people would pick up a phone and call another person? That was considered implausible. Obviously impossible.
The telephone was invented with zero understanding of what it would actually become.
The New York Times vs. The Internet
From 1993 to 1998, the internet was heaped with scorn. The New York Times hired a reporter named Peter Lewis who seemed to exist solely to write negative internet stories.
Nobody would trust e-commerce. The internet would never be a consumer medium. Week after week. Then the internet destroyed the newspaper industry.
Andreessen watches the New York Times cope with the technology they mocked. He enjoys it.
JP Morgan Said No to Ford
JP Morgan himself refused to invest in Ford Motor Company. His reason: it's just a toy for rich people.
He wasn't wrong at the time. You needed a driver, a stoker, and a mechanic. The thing broke down every three miles. The UK passed laws requiring someone to walk ahead waving a red flag.
Every early technology looks like a joke. The ones that aren't jokes become the future.
Today's Jokes Are Tomorrow's Legends
Andreessen is certain: the great innovations of today are being laughed at right now. In 50 years, they'll be legendary.
And our descendants will have their own 'trivial' innovations to mock. The cycle never breaks.
If everyone thinks your technology is a toy, you might be building the next telephone.