Martin Casado: specialized approaches grow toward generality, not just get eaten by it
timigod · x · 2026-11-08
a16z partner Martin Casado recommends Ivan Sutherland's 'Wheels of Incarnation' and offers a reframing of industry history: tech evolution isn't just specialized approaches being gobbled up by general ones — specialized approaches also grow toward generality themselves.
Key points:
- The tech frontier will always have areas requiring specialized solutions to make the numbers work; generality has a cost.
- This AI cycle is no different: some specialization will be eaten by growing frontier models, while new model modalities will in turn become more general and more powerful.
The thread pushes back on the popular 'end-to-end general models replace everything vertical' narrative, framing specialization and generality as alternating growth rather than one-way replacement.
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