Haven’t We Heard this All Before?
How do we know the New Economy is real and here to stay? Haven’t we heard this all before?
Yes, you have heard it before, and they were right back then too. The New Economy has already changed the way we shop and find information, and it has started taking down major old economy industries.
The New Economy is spreading beyond online shopping and technology-rich industries.
The difference now is that the New Economy is spreading beyond online shopping and technology-rich industries. This New Economy (or the “New New Economy” as Chris Anderson calls it) is about the power of the small business across all sectors of the economy.
The best people from the old economy are leaving it. Big business has let us down. The best and brightest are doing something about it because they know it’s now more beneficial to work for yourself than it is to work for big companies.
When the best and brightest work for themselves, their passion makes them more effective, creative and competitive than they were when carrying out someone else’s vision. Now that the tools to make those people successful are cheap and ubiquitous, the New Economy will gain the upper hand.
People weren’t meant to work is such giant groups. It’s against human nature. People want to have a wider involvement in the work they produce. They want to be recognized for and reap the benefits of their efforts. Until recently, those desires were outweighed by the risks of working for yourself.
The New Economy has reached critical mass, and there’s no stopping it now. The question is, who will be left behind?
Large organizations will start to do worse now, though, because for the first time in history they’re no longer getting the best people. An ambitious kid graduating from college now doesn’t want to work for a big company. They want to work for the hot startup that’s rapidly growing into one. If they’re really ambitious, they want to start it.
Paul Graham, The High-Res Society
