Outside The Echo Chamber
I relish the moments when I can get outside the echo chamber and figure out what the average american thinks.
Josh and I were on our way back from a great day of golf (it's too warm to ski here in Colorado) and the guy who gave us a ride back offered to book us a dinner reservation. So we took him up on it. We stood there while he was messing around with the computer for a while getting frustrated. Then he turned to his colleague and asked him to help.
His friend said "don't use Yahoo, Google is better". And proceeded to take control of the keyboard and within 10 seconds he had the phone number.
Our driver said, "why is it that Google is so much better than Yahoo when they are both owned by the same company".
At which point Josh looked at me with his strange look and I returned his look with one that said "leave it be". But Josh wasn't going to keep quiet. So he said to the two guys, "my dad is going to invest in a company that's going to be even better than Google"
Sure hope so Josh.
The echo chamber is the single biggest reason why Silicon Valley is not the ideal place to do a mainstream consumer targeted technology startup.
Posted by: Erik Schwartz | March 27, 2007 at 11:39 PM
what? you mean Second Life really isn't going to CHANGE. EVERYTHING. ABOUT. EVERYTHING?
;)
Posted by: Grand Egress | March 28, 2007 at 11:23 AM
What, are you running for office? Answer the f'ing question! Why is Google better?
Posted by: jackson | March 28, 2007 at 03:28 PM
And what does the average american think?
Posted by: John Dodds | March 28, 2007 at 05:20 PM
what a great post
Posted by: simon | March 28, 2007 at 08:42 PM
Google needs to spin yahoo off already. It's killing them.
You are going to miss a sweet wallstrip party tomorrow
Posted by: howard Lindzon | March 30, 2007 at 12:57 AM
That's awesome!
Posted by: Anthony V | March 30, 2007 at 02:35 AM
Just an FYI, I used to drive a golf course van in Vail. I am now a developer at Yahoo, and I assure you that the people who work there hardly represent average america. As a driver there one also ends up meeting a lot of "captains of industry". I drove the CEO of Merck, the board of Pfizer, the CEO coca cola, many SVPs from Disney, etc. I overheard more conversations between VCs and top execs than I have ever overheard in Silicon Valley. The staff at wealthy resorts != outside the echo chamber.
Just my two cents.
Posted by: Stephen | March 30, 2007 at 04:36 PM
Great post! I expect the smart money is watching right now :)
Posted by: Phil Butler | April 01, 2007 at 07:04 PM