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I heard in a hospital recently that the high-tech world is now entering the next phase. This doctor started explaining to a patient of his the wonders of this new phase, including the “new” and much favored XM radio. The patient, suffering from his pain of something internal [no visible injuries], kept nodding like a student who has to nod at everything the dictator teacher has to day.
It is interesting to see how that doctor and other people think that we are entering the next phase of things. We keep entering a new phase, according to many people and of course the media, every once in a while in almost every field imaginable. While technology is maturing at a faster rate than before, I think that we have never left the original cycle of technological advancement that was started in the late 70’s and hyped up a lot in the late 90’s. The world is changing, but we are still in the same cycle. The phases have changed, but we are still in the same cycle. Something cannot be big until it is big. We cannot give a medal to someone for doing something heroic in the future; it has to happen now, or should have happened already. Every idea should come with hopes of good results for the originator of the idea, or at least the results they expect. Whether or not such ideas give the results intended are the deciding factors. Efforts are honorable; efforts in the name of sales aren’t. Similarly, trying something in life just to get recognition in order for something to happen which is only in our self interest isn’t going to get the label of honor. It’s simply selfishness. Being secretive or completely open about something isn’t an issue; the thing that is being kept secret or being hyped up should be the focus. If it isn’t interesting or worthwhile, then it’s time to think again.
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Every time we hear of a new processor coming out, people deem it to be the next big thing. Every time a new actor comes in a movie, people say he is the next “Pitt.” Here’s a lesson for all the Aliens and all the Angels in Elmo disguises; there is never the next big thing until the big thing has done something big already. You can follow the footsteps if you wish, and set your own example, but you will create your own legacy. In addition to that, the rule of anything that�s big is that it will not be based on something before it. Therefore, there will never ever be another Mifune [for English fans]. There will never be another Leone. There will never be another Diana. There will never be another Eastwood. Similarly, there will never be another big IBM, or another BMW, or another big Intel or another big Amazon until such a company or entity or service has done the big thing, affected everything, and moved into the next phase. eBay isn’t the next Amazon; it is the big thing on its own. Calling someone or something the next big thing without any actual visible evidence is just a theory; a theory to feast upon. Only after we are in the next phase of moving on into considering those big things “normal and the standard” can we consider such things to be big. But reality will never consider and understand them as “see, I told you it was the next Macarena.” CBS went on to proudly declare Las Ketchup the next big craze, telling us that the days of The Macarena [and The Electric Slide, for that matter] were over as being dominant in our global culture and our dancing souls. What happened? Nothing happened. We got hyped up for a few months, bought every cd out there with Las Ketchup words on them, and then we stopped. Now no one says that Las Ketchup made us hyper the way Macarena did. Anything that is felt for the first time can appear to be extra-ordinary. However, that’s not how reality works. That is how hype works. That is what hype depends on. If there was no hype, who would be investing and trying new technologies?
There is no next big phase in life until you are already in it. We don’t let our kids go out to play after they bring in a big score of 100 out of a 100 and say “Hey kid, you can play forever whenever you want since you have proven yourself!” No, we don’t. Why not? Because the real test is graduating and getting a job, or at least getting into a college/university. Only then can most of the parents hand over the entire life and responsibilities [which includes things other than playtime, if you already didn't know] that come with to onto the kid who can then hopefully take care of themselves. I don’t have kids, so please don’t hold me on that example.
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To take a practical example of this, let’s look at Apple. The company is famous for keeping a tight lid on its products until the products are released in the market. I personally prefer a company to do that, than to come out announcing products for over 2 years and then release it and it is full of headaches [you know who]. Apple works on the products, and releases them when it knows that it’s a winner. Products like iPod, iBook and iMac all demonstrate this. All of them follow this “philosophy”, if you want to call it that, and it works. I don’t want to know how the current cell phone I use will change the way I check emails and access the internet. Either give me a solution right now, or let me use the cell phone to make phone calls; the reason I bought the thing. Reading a long email on a 2 inch screen is not technological improvement; its marketing twisted to make a sales gimmick.
Many things in the current tech world are based on hype. Only a few companies, that target the consumer directly, demonstrate a product and tell you “This is what we have come up with. You can use it right now, right away, to do this and this. It works, it’s all here. It costs this much. It is expensive compared to others because of what it does. You decide now.” That is being brave. That is what a few companies do. Apple gets criticized a lot for keeping a seal on its work. Gaming companies such as Blizzard are sometimes criticized by fans for not talking about upcoming games. Maybe it is wrong in trying to force others to keep quiet too, maybe not. I do not know much about that issue, so I cannot comment on it yet. My focus in this article is on the strategy, not on the ethics of the strategy. If we talked about ethics, I find no ethics in releasing hype like the much “polished” Passport.net service and then telling everyone that the world will revolve around it, making everyone sign and have a “Passport.” What happened to it? It has faded and retreated back to its own MSN kingdom. Now with the last major supporter, eBay, switching from it to its own system recently, it seems that it was a hype that was supposedly the next big thing for a long time. Compared to such things, being quiet is better. What could be more ethical than that in a business world where everyone including Toby the Rabbit’s owner wants to make money off something? Let’s take Save Toby into consideration. It’s yet another hype to save a rabbit. Let us wait and see what he does without paying him a cent. If he eats Toby, let’s get him arrested. But at the moment, let us not play into a game of hype, and letting out emotion for the small cuddly friend take over the control of our wallets and purses [ Toby's owner has been paid over $19,000 to date in order to make him now eat his rabbit, as explained on the site]. I wouldn’t be surprised if rabbits held him captive and asked humans to pay up or else they will eat him. I wonder how many humans will pay then.
Taking more things from real life into consideration, the recent Tsunami disaster made us think of the next big disaster and humanitarian effort. That was the next “big” event in history for many, to come out and help humans. Did we stop to think that every single day more people die in Africa and other countries because of thirst than the number of people who died and are still missing because of the recent Tsunami disaster, combined? No, we don’t. We only focus on what media wants to hype in order to make a story. Tsunami disaster was huge, and we should help even now. Where is the media now? Why isn’t it covering the Tsunami efforts now? It’s not there in the ocean, the media is right here on land, focusing on Jackson’s trial because that’s the “big thing” right now.
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Right now, we are focusing on the next big thing. We don’t know what it is. We feasted on RSS as the way to free us [and still do]. It did free us, but it is not going to revolutionize the way we do things online, not yet. It did what it was supposed to, and it is a savior for many of us, yes. Should it be adopted on a wider scale and incorporated into more things, it could be bigger, yes. Same thing can be applied to other things. Blogs are the current trend. They are a type of hype; I say “type”, since they are different from other trends in that they are actually being utilized now, and are happening now. People are updating their blogs faster and before they can think of washing their face in the morning when they get up.
The next time I talk about this topic, I will shed a little light as to how the concept of blogging isn’t the next big thing, but that it will in fact define the next big thing. Along with that, I will discuss a few other things from the online and the offline [real] world, including hybrid cars. Until then, all humans, Aliens and Elmo can have a good long lunch, and sleep well. Maybe Toby the rabbit can panic a bit.
