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There’s no such thing as a tech expert anymore

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Re: There’s no such thing as a tech expert anymore

#4
Yes there is. It's everyone on Hacker News!

Just post about about some Unicorn here and at least half a dozen people are pretty confident they know more about the company in question than the founders or the people running it.

In the future Congress can just post questions here.

Re: There’s no such thing as a tech expert anymore

#7
post #4

Yes there is. It's everyone on Hacker News! Just post about about some Unicorn here and at least half a dozen people are pretty confident they know more about the company in question than the founders or the people running it. In the future Congress can just post questions here.

I recognize this is sarcastic...

but I must point out, I'm an idiot who doesn't know much about anything.

Re: There’s no such thing as a tech expert anymore

#8
Is it too much to expect that a representative knows that Zuckerberg runs Facebook and not Twitter?

https://reason.com/2020/07/29/mark-zuckerberg-twitter-donald...

Or to know enough to know which tech CEO to subpoena in the first place?

https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/27/media/att-time-warner-senat...

But let’s look at the last two major tech anti trust cases and what came of them.

Microsoft was the most valuable company in the US in 2000 and had a monopoly on computer operating systems, productivity apps, and web browsers. In 2020, Microsoft still has the same share in operating systems, office productivity and no one cares about browser market share but Google. MS is now the 3rd most valuable company in the US.

Before that the government sued IBM for being a monopoly in 1969. The suit was dropped in 1982 and nothing came of it.

Most recently, the CEO’s of the four biggest tech companies came before Congress and people everywhere are saying that they (at least FB and Google) are threats to Democracy. Then the government goes after TikTok and WhatsApp.

Edit: WeChat.

Re: There’s no such thing as a tech expert anymore

#9
This seems to imply that “tech expert” is someone all-knowing regarding tech. In my mind “tech expert” is about literacy. You may not know the specifics of all technologies but you have the mental toolkit for understanding them conceptually. But it is also about context. If you are the person who people ask for help with tech stuff, well, then you’re an expert, at least in their minds.

Re: There’s no such thing as a tech expert anymore

#10

Is it too much to expect that a representative knows that Zuckerberg runs Facebook and not Twitter? https://reason.com/2020/07/29/mark-zuckerberg-twitter-donald... Or to know enough to know which tech CEO to subpoena in the first place? https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/27/media/att-time-warner-senat... But let’s look at the last two major tech anti trust cases and what came of them. Microsoft was the most valuable compa…

Is it too much to expect that a commenter knows that the government went against WeChat and not WhatsApp?
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