Rather than start-ups, the term 'IT companies' might be more accurate. I've been thinking a lot lately - where on earth did this industry go wrong?
I first touched a computer in 1995. My father's company gave me an old Windows PC. I still remember the night I connected to the internet for the first time in the corner of my country house. The feeling of being connected to the world made me genuinely happy. It wasn't work, it was **play**.
At the time, the IT industry was not a place for smart people. If anything, it was a playground for geeks who liked computers. Everyone was a bit clumsy, but they seemed to be having fun. I liked the atmosphere and longed to be a part of this world.
But before long, the industry was well-funded, The number of people who were taking the "right" career path increased. People who were rational, good with numbers and on the fastest route to success. From there, something changed.
Rather than intuition and sensitivity, **data and efficiency became justice**. Reproducibility rather than inspiration. Scale rather than inspiration. And so the world of technology, I feel that the world of technology has gradually become a "religion" rather than a "game".
I went into numbers once too. I left university, joined a property fund and fought my way through rationality. But it was a place where people were getting worn out. So I quit and moved to a small e-commerce company. A one-man company. There, I used technology to create sales, I discovered that even a single person can move figures in the hundreds of millions. I enjoyed it. I felt that even people with no talent had a chance.
But this is no longer the case in the IT industry today. Only a few geniuses drive the market. Those who can train AI. Or those who can chase numbers like a machine. Only these two types of people survive.
In a rational world, that may be a natural evolution. But I don't see the future beyond that as approaching 'happiness'. There is no longer a **definition of happiness** in this industry.
I think it was much more human when technology was "play", I think we were much more human. Back then, we were not about numbers, We connected the world not with numbers, but with excitement.