undefined | Better HN

0 pointsconfluence13y ago0 comments

You have to be careful with that list.

You need to look not just at the direct products produced (which may not be disruptive in the classical sense), but also at the positive externalities that they effect.

Apple made the computer personal when it was founded (or at least that is my impression). That didn't disrupt too many people, but think of all the secondary effects. People could learn to program, people could automate things, they could reduce their reliance on word typesetters, photocopiers, radios, television, encyclopedias - the list goes on.

Oracle did kill a lot of big government/company paper waste (not that there isn't any left :), and stuck it into databases, effectively wiping out an industry and creating the new data warehousing/analysts that we know of today.

Google makes research/discovery democratic - instead of editorial. It allows people to directly connect with what they want (information/news/stuff), disintermediating a lot of advertisting channels at a lower cost (TV/Radio/Newspapers especially).

Microsoft got "a PC on every desk", think of all the secondary effects of that (networking/internet/app development/programming tool etc.)

You see my point?

0 comments

jcampbell113y ago

I don't see your point. Your reference to "positive externalities" is the same as what I meant by "new value".

confluenceOP13y ago

> If we list tech companies that massively disrupted non-tech industries, you come up with a list like:

It should be Fair to say that the popularization of software, hardware and search has disrupted quite a few industries via secondary effects - which is what companies on the second list have done (the ones you list as non-disruptive).

Google has destroyed the newspaper advertising model. Oracle has destroyed the big corporate/government back offices (not all). Apple destroyed a great many jobs (via popularization of PCs -> Lotus Notes/App development).

My point is that they are disruptive companies :).

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse