The Mutant Meme

I just spent two days in San Francisco at Fortune’s new iMeme conference. A couple weeks ago, I told my partner Brad that I didn’t like the word meme. He told me that I needed to learn to like it because it was a neat concept. So I am working on it. This post is going to use the word meme a lot.

Last night’s panel with Bill Joy, Craig Venter, and Richard Dawkins was a highlight of the iMeme conference. Bill and Craig are science superstars and I enjoyed listening to them talk about science, particularly as it relates to climate change and how we might address the issues.

Richard was a great addition to the panel. His wit kept everything light enough to make it entertaining. And Richard got to talk about the word meme, which apparently he coined. Now I like the word even better because I like the guy who coined it.

Richard explained that memes are like genes. They are ideas that spread by replication. I took genetic biology in college so I get it now. Memes are idea genes.

So I was on a panel this morning at the same conference which was moderated by my friend Adam Lashinsky. Adam is good at what he does and he gets the issues right out there. So at one point he starts in, “Fred, you recently wrote a post saying you are looking to fund younger entrepreneurs”.

I looked at him, sighed, and told Adam that I didn’t say anything of the sort. I explained that we have been seeing a lot more younger entrepreneurs and I blogged about that fact and why it might be happening.

But that doesn’t matter. Because the meme is already out there. Fred Wilson likes younger entrepreneurs. He’s looking to fund them. Don’t bother to go see him if you are older than 22.

Nothing could be farther from the truth of course. All you need to do is look at the teams we’ve been backing and they are pretty balanced across the spectrum of ages from mid 20s to almost 60.

And so I learned that a meme can also mutate. And then the mutant meme replicates. And so even a top notch journalist like Adam who works hard to get his facts straight, gets them wrong.

Thank god I’ve got this blog to set the record straight and demutate the meme. Or so I hope. Maybe I should get Richard and Craig to show me how its done.

Comments

[lawrence]

All we're missing is a good nickname to really cement this (mutated) meme. How about Fred "The Cradle Robber" Wilson? Or "Fred the Younger?" Or change Union Square Ventures to Kinder Ventures?

Ah, I'm just kidding you. Have a good weekend.

[greenskeptic]

Beware the mutated meme!

[David Cowan]

Fred, you dog, you come to town and don't call?

For those who missed Dawkins, he's speaking again and signing books tomorrow at Kepler's Bookstore in downtown Menlo Park at 3pm.

[David Cowan]

Fred, you dog, you come to town and don't call?

For those who missed Dawkins, he's speaking again and signing books tomorrow at Kepler's Bookstore in downtown Menlo Park at 3pm.

[David Cowan]

Fred, you dog, you come to town and don't call?

For those who missed Dawkins, he's speaking again and signing books tomorrow at Kepler's Bookstore in downtown Menlo Park at 3pm.

[Stan James]

Memes and attention are tightly related. Sex is the act by which genes are replicated, and attention is the act by which memes are replicated. But as any parent knows, this replication isn't a perfect copy!

I poke more around this idea in
Attention is Meme Sex (And Google is a dating service).

[blink]

"... I’ve got this blog to set the record straight and demutate the meme."

That's too bad. I was going to start a business to selling older entrepreneurs fake IDs showing they were 22. A little photoshop, some makeup and a printer. You would have never been able to tell the difference. :)

[Alex Iskold]

I heard that memes could fight each other. Maybe a post that you love old entrepreneurs would create one that would chase the young one?

Alex

[Steve Kane]

there's a name for when a 'meme" changes as its passed around -- its called "the children's game of telephone" ;)

[Dick Costolo]

Fred, I totally understand what you're saying, and I think if you just didn't hate older entrepreneurs so much, this whole thing would blow over.

[dave mcclure]

fred -

you should do a video where you capture pitches from senior citizens and/or teenagers (or younger). or run a contest to discover the best idea from entrpreneurs over 40 (or under 16). something with some fun / but realness to it.

attack the meme head on by embracing it, and then explode it via making it seem ridiculous.

you need to change the conversation, not fight it.

anyway, my .02...

- dave mcclure

[Graeme Thickins]

Venture capital database companies, are you listening? Better get into the meme thing.

I see a whole new way to rate VCs: by the age of the entrepreneurs they fund...