Seth Godin: The Future Is Here. Deal With It.
An interesting debate is percolating about the new book, “Free,” by Chris Anderson.
I haven’t read it (yet), but apparently Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell have. Anderson’s book says that as computing power increases and its cost decreases, information products are essentially going to be free.
In a New Yorker article, Gladwell disagrees with the theory. He, pretty adroitly, brings up reasons why Anderson’s theory will flop: from the inability for YouTube to turn a profit to the failure for nuclear energy to produce super cheap power.
In response, Godin declares a mighty, “So what?” Whatever the price of nuclear power in China is, Godin points out, the digital world is getting cheaper, faster, and more powerful. Whether or not there’s a business model to support it, the info-Singularity approacheth. Godin counters:
The first argument that makes no sense is, “should we want free to be the future?”
Who cares if we want it? It is.
The second argument that makes no sense is, “how will this new business model support the world as we know it today?”
Who cares if it does? It is. It’s happening. The world will change around it, because the world has no choice. I’m sorry if that’s inconvenient, but it’s true.
There’s a similar debate on Automated Trading.
We have a lot of good, well-meaning readers who give us reasons why Automated Trading is impossible, or at least unfeasible. Some of the reasons are valid–machines can’t understand emotion, computers can’t win a zero-sum game, not everyone will trust a machine to do their trading, etc.
To which, emboldened by Godin, I now respond: Who cares? It will happen. It IS happening!
Computers are now involved in trading. The point of this business is to get that exceptional power in the hands of as many people as possible. Will everyone want in? Not sure. Will it matter? Nope.
We can’t sit around and philosophize about each ramification no more than the Wright brothers would wonder whether there would be a business mode to support transcontinental passenger flights. Hell, I don’t think they even worried about landing gear.
The future of investing is here. It’s time to deal with it.
Related posts:
- Seth Godin Should Discover The Singularity
- AlgoDeal Could be a Big Deal in the Financial Revolution
- The Future of Automated Trading
- Automated Trading and the Singularity
- Future Currencies And The Future Of Trading
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I'm George Ulmer. Matt and I started this blog and launched the Online Investing AI business. Our goal is to develop the technology to allow anyone to retire after working for 10 years.
is one of my favorite financial books of all time. It's an allegory about a guy who has a terrible job, and how he overcomes challenges to achieve his dreams.
Thanks for this post. I’ve been reading through the arguments on Godin’s Squidoo lens and you’re one of the few bloggers who seems to understand what he meant. I’m not sure that Anderson is spot-on-target with his specific examples and the evidence he uses, but the point he is trying to illustrate is no less awesome.
Hi Steven–
Thanks for your comment.
I don’t always agree with Seth, but I always pay attention to what he says!