John Battelle

Take a look at what John has to say on the NYT op-ed page.  I just found it (my last post sure fits).  I think John is right and wrong.  This is not a “bubble” like it was last time. No doubt.  But “bubbles”-that is self-reinforcing excitement among a group of people that cause them to do things they would not normally- are a naturally occurring phenomenon whenever there are lots of people doing the same thing.  It is the nature of the beast.  And whether John wants to admit it or not, there is certainly a self-reinforcing excitement out here.  That excitement is causing lots of people to try and start companies who would not normally take the risk.  And as a result of the new eco-system that John and many others have pointed out, there are going to be some amazing successes.  And as soon as the investors start noticing all the good stuff we are doing they will get excited as well.    That is going to result in a “bubble”.  Or what it really ought to be called is the normal cyclical nature of business.  We are on the way up again.  So John's right about the particulars and wrong about what it all means.