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So, I’ve thought a lot about centralization in technology, the web, media “ownership”, and related issues. The media part doesn’t bother me that much honestly. Media is... and always has been kind of bad. It’s enjoyable for sure, but every media has been prone to problems. Records get scratched, tapes get mangled, cds get scratched, etc. so, loss is always a fear. It really hasn’t changed. The best media I ever experienced was MiniDisc, which didn’t do well in the States. The true horror for me has been SaaS, subscription software, and hardware as a service... add in the non-repairable nature of modern hardware. Even some new cars are like this. The increasing dependence on companies that can and do fail, the inability to truly own things... this is a problem. The solutions to me all require mass consumer action which is difficult now with the economic downturn, so... I feel a little powerless. The upside is, these models will all fail.
Despite Amazon’s amazing valuation, they’ve consistently shown themselves to not be too profitable through most of their history. This is also true of streaming companies. This is also true of many cloud companies. As a result, it’s easy to see many of these companies failing through this economic cycle. Old school media, software development, and publishing worked the way it did because it worked, because it was profitable, because people liked that model.
So, I’ve thought a lot about centralization in technology, the web, media “ownership”, and related issues. The media part doesn’t bother me that much honestly. Media is... and always has been kind of bad. It’s enjoyable for sure, but every media has been prone to problems. Records get scratched, tapes get mangled, cds get scratched, etc. so, loss is always a fear. It really hasn’t changed. The best media I ever experienced was MiniDisc, which didn’t do well in the States. The true horror for me has been SaaS, subscription software, and hardware as a service... add in the non-repairable nature of modern hardware. Even some new cars are like this. The increasing dependence on companies that can and do fail, the inability to truly own things... this is a problem. The solutions to me all require mass consumer action which is difficult now with the economic downturn, so... I feel a little powerless. The upside is, these models will all fail.
Despite Amazon’s amazing valuation, they’ve consistently shown themselves to not be too profitable through most of their history. This is also true of streaming companies. This is also true of many cloud companies. As a result, it’s easy to see many of these companies failing through this economic cycle. Old school media, software development, and publishing worked the way it did because it worked, because it was profitable, because people liked that model.