Live data from Hacker News

Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

inc.com

21–30 of 250 posts

Re: Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

#21
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody ever got rich by questioning the wisdom of "line go up".

The Big Short guys would vehemently disagree with this.

Most of us aren't in the position to make that bet.

The most I can afford to do usually is "leave this role because even though the press and investors are still on board, I don't think it's a good bet anymore." I've done it a few times, I've even been right about whether they'd make a good ROI on those new funds... and so I made modestly more in the new role than I would've by vesting more pointless options or whatever... but I couldn't really short those startups or subdivisions to make a fortune by them failing. While their founders/CEOs made a (small) fortune by failing, but in a big enough way.

Re: Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

#22
post #7

How do you achieve infinite growth on a planet with a finite population and resources? It should be obvious to most, yet the supposed "smartest guys in the room" are the first to stumble through it.

> How do you achieve infinite growth on a planet with a finite population and resources?

Wrong question. That's systems thinking.

We're dealing with capitalism. You only need to run faster than the slowest competitor to not be eaten by the bear.

Re: Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

#23
post #7

How do you achieve infinite growth on a planet with a finite population and resources? It should be obvious to most, yet the supposed "smartest guys in the room" are the first to stumble through it.

Its easy. There are finite limits but if you aren’t near the limits your growth is indeed unconstrained especially if the pool of resources is incredibly deep.

Re: Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

#24
post #7

How do you achieve infinite growth on a planet with a finite population and resources? It should be obvious to most, yet the supposed "smartest guys in the room" are the first to stumble through it.

I’ve always liked this article for a reality check.

https://www.cold-takes.com/this-cant-go-on/

Re: Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

#26
I call it the forever fallacy. It's really quite simple. The forever fallacy is the belief that the circumstances that led to extraordinary growth will continue indefinitely, even when they obviously won't. It's the idea that growth, no matter how irrational, will continue because the change in circumstances that caused it is permanent.

The financial media writes this exact same type of article every time there is a correction, like in 2020, 2022, 2012, 2016, 2009, etc. And then as always, when least expected, prices come roaring back. Meta stock is up more than 130% from the lows of 2022. Same for Netflix, also up huge. Or NVidia. It generally pays to be optimistic and stay invested. It's always the same pattern. Price fall fast but then recovers so fast too. Yeah, maybe extraordinary growth will not continue indefinitely, but so what.

Re: Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

#27

They did exactly what any company would do in their position as publicly traded companies. This finger-wagging from a free market magazine is dripping in hypocrisies. If the author didn’t like how companies over-hired and built unsustainable labor forces, then they should criticize the market that creates these incentives. Of course, the day that Inc magazine becomes socialist is the day that Hell freezes over. Don’t…

Hate them both: the game is a reason, not an excuse.

Re: Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

#28
I feel like the author here is not thinking through the opposite. What happens to the CEO if they plan for the market to stagnate and then it doesn't? Then they look like fools as their competitors take market share and then they get replaced.

The incentives just aren't designed to plan for decline.

Re: Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

#29
post #7

How do you achieve infinite growth on a planet with a finite population and resources? It should be obvious to most, yet the supposed "smartest guys in the room" are the first to stumble through it.

You squeeze people into living in conditions that make cattle in a factory farm today look good. As for convincing them? That's what propaganda is for.

Re: Tech companies keep falling for the forever fallacy

#30

The real problem that author doesn’t call out is that at the end of the day, the people in charge don’t get hurt from these irresponsible boom and bust hiring practices. These companies knew the growth wouldn’t last, nothing lasts forever. They all maintain control while the little people suffer. The dream is to become insulated from the economic storms like they are.

“Hurting” the elite has always been up to the public.

Teacher strikes and unionization efforts have been winning; the financiers know nothing about self sufficiency. They know they rely literally on someone else to grow the food, kill the steaks.

The white collar public have a credibility problem; they want to be served and not serve themselves.

There is zero reason for most tech workers to login tomorrow; the vast majority will never move the needle. Yet they’ve learned helplessness and don’t know what to do.

We carry on about ills of LLMs hallucinating while westerners hallucinate the they can just do data entry work and someone else will wear out their bodies procuring food.

Our AI is more like us than we want to admit, which is why they’re so terrible.

Post reply on HN