Why Facebook is killing Silicon Valley
This really has little to do with Facebook and has everything to do with 'big startups' vs 'small startups'.<p>Facebook changes how you interact with the acquaintances in your life. With or without Facebook, I'd keep in touch with my best friends. But Facebook keeps me in touch with some people I probably wouldn't otherwise know anything about. For better or worse, it really changes your relationship with those 'weak tie' friends.<p>LinkedIn similarly changes how you connect with former co-workers. There is no way I could have kept up with all these people as they switch from job to job if the world still operatered on an address book I update myself.<p>Obviously the iPhone was revolutionary.<p>These three are all 'big startups/big ideas/disruptive innovation', (pick your favorite moniker).<p>But the 1,000,000th iPhone app is not a big idea. The next Facebook game is not a big idea. Obviously there are some exceptions, but by and large these are just small fishing surfing on a big wave. Yet entrepreneurs and VCs are disproportionally investing their time and money into them.<p>Is it easy money? Do they have a lack of imagination?<p>I'm not sure but it seems like we all would like to see more money and talent going to the 'hard' stuff, whether that is material science, clean tech, biotech, AI, computer hardware, space technology, self driving cars, electric cars, etc etc.<p>That said, it's not a bad thing if a lot of entrepreneurs hit singles right now on this wave, and set themselves up to hit a home run later on a bigger problem.