Parakhin: 1999 book dismissing $75M Google holds eerie parallels to the AI boom
MParakhin · x · 2026-09-15
Mikhail Parakhin reread Michael Lewis's The New New Thing and found eerie parallels to today's AI revolution: in 1999, with companies called Google going for $75 million, Jim Clark saw little point in 'selling air' since everyone else already was — and Lewis badly mislabeled Google at the time. His takeaway: predictions are hard, and the industry's AI judgments may be just as fallible.
More from AGI Musings
- Alpha School investigation: 17 campuses on probation, Bill Ackman as shadow lead, Holmes involved — benjaminjriley · 2026-11-02
- Google's chief economist: AI will transform more jobs than it kills — gains come from redesigning workflows — danielrock · 2026-11-02
- Daniel Lemire: AI is exploding demand for boring compute, server CPUs to double — lemire · 2026-11-02
- Alignment researcher: the word "aligned" implies consistencies that don't exist — davidmanheim · 2026-11-02
- By 2035, Indian Parents Will Ask How Many Agents You Manage, Not Your Salary — theteknosaur · 2026-11-02
- Under 5% of US consumers pay for AI, yet compute demand is already forcing usage cuts — NinaDSchick · 2026-11-02