One of the things about big shifts in the tides is that it exposes all sorts of weaknesses. One of the most recent (and dramatic) instance of this is Fukushima, where a a rather big one exposed TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) for what it has been legendary: arrogance. The ancient Greeks used to call this ὕβρις (or hubris), which apparently derives from an original meaning of “arrogance, or sexual outrage.” Aha.
We at Tootcorp have had our share of “arrogance, or sexual outrage.” This evening we were discussing the mistakes we made over the years and certain themes come up recurrently: lack of focus, not listening enough to the users, ignoring the early adopters, too focused on the technology, bias for cloning, too tough with investors, too purist and craftsman-like, etc… But ultimately, it all essentially comes down to hubris. Hubris that itoot.net at one point hosted possibly a third of the elite Arab blogosphere, that ikbis.com was feted by international media and even covered by American TV (back when flickr was as big a phenomenon as YouTube), and within a few days of zoofs’s launch no less than a google director blogged about it thus “this version nails it.” In other words, validation may not just be a good thing.
Which is why we should have had a professional investor to back us up early on. Not just because of the money, but because we needed more tough love in the earlier years of each of our sites. As you may know (though surely not remember, as this has not happened in the lifetime of any Arab you or I know…), when generals win wars they come back to gigantic martial processions. The Romans called these marches “triumphs.” Lest the triumphal cries of “hail caesars” got to their head, a Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa coming back after defeating Mark Anthony made sure that a slave constantly whispered into his ears something along the lines “remember, you are merely a mortal.” Or so it is said…
I take all this too far. We didn’t have Roman triumphs or processions, and certainly didn’t need slaves. But it feels good to come clean on our “sexual outrage” as we prepare for the next battle…
