Twilight of the Media Lab

The lack of product from things like the Media Lab, or AOL’s “digital prophet Shingy”, or whatever the fuck happened to billions of dollars at Yahoo! (see Peanut Butter Manifesto ), or any other singing, dancing, cargo cult imitation of an actual technology lab, should not be surprising to anyone. These are not how you make new technical products; there’s no customer, there’s no use case, just a slideshow or demo at most. Real artists ship, as Steve Jobs said.

I told him that it’s merely a matter of understanding our sponsor’s needs. Our sponsors are represented by middle-aged middle-managers who need three things: Booze, good hotels, and hookers. Keep ’em busy with free trips and the slick dog and pony shows, provide them with pre-written notes for their upper-managment, and the money will keep rolling in.

Oh, hmn. Eerily prescient.