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Comment behaviour: How far is too far?
The fact that Google succeeded but existed so long without a strategy where more revenue was generated than was needed to cover costs was generated was an anomoly. It is not the rule. For every business that succeeded using that strategy there are thousands that failed. The history of tech and Silicon valley are full of the bodies.
This kind of thinking fuelled by ego and greed is exactly what caused the first technology bubble to burst and will cause another. Evenutally somebody has to pay the piper.
strawman, Brian. You're right that the Internet wasn't a corporation,
but there were all kinds of corporations and other entities involved
who could have pursued the business aspects of the technology --
patenting, licensing etc. -- and thereby prevented it from growing as
quickly or as broadly as it did. That's my point, really -- not that
every company should ignore the business aspects of what they're
doing, but that there is a lot more to it than just that.
- "The Essential Drucker", Peter Drucker
In both cases, google and the internet, they had purpose from their inception. The internet's purpose was to build a reliable, fault tolerant communication infrastructure in the event of a disaster.
As an aside, for the early internet what's really interesting are the network economics at play where the distributed system brought enough value (not necessarily monetary) to each member that it was incentive enough for them to participate. "The internet" never needed to make money, it's value derives from an economy of connection. It's a mind-bender because it's the thing itself (interconnectedness) that was the currency.
For startups like the early google, the job is frequently to pursue your main purpose while probing the value space of what you're doing. I actually see a real danger in the future of Google. They are no longer an exploration of an academic thesis or, as their vision evolved, to organize the world's information, they are becoming an advertising company. What's dangerous is that their profit motive frequently contradicts their original vision instead of complimenting it. We're seeing this transition of purpose already, especially with the growth pressure from Wall Street which will only get more powerful. We'll see if they're able to balance this force in the company against their original vision.