In my opinion, right now there's way too much hype on the technologies and not enough attention to the real businesses behind them.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of focusing on real businesses rather than getting lost in the excitement of new technologies.
Mark Cuban highlights a common pitfall in the tech industry where hype often overshadows the fundamental business principles that drive success. He advocates for a more grounded approach that prioritizes tangible business outcomes over trends in technology, suggesting that understanding and addressing real-world applications should take precedence over the allure of innovation alone.
In practice
During a business conference, this quote can be used to remind entrepreneurs to focus on sustainable practices.
If the pitch starts with a sob story, I'm out. If the pitch talks about personal issues, I'm out. If the pitch starts off with how big the market opportunity is, I'm out. If the pitch tells me what is unique about the product, how it can make a profit, and it's an area where I have expertise, I will read on.
Leaders don't look backwards to condemn what has already been done; they look forward to create a better future.
It doesn't matter how many times you fail. You only have to be right once and then everyone can tell you that you are an overnight success.
I think youβve got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. Itβs a very, very slippery slope.
Creating a close connection to those you do business with has its many risks, rewards and consequences._x000D_ _x000D_ There are few things in business I have encountered that are more difficult than firing someone, particularly if that someone has always been, or has become a friend._x000D_ _x000D_ On the flip side, I have been rewarded with many friends.
I'm always afraid of failing. It's great motivation to work harder.
Learning how to understand how technology evolves, using tools like a Technology Road Map, is what you need more than anything to ride on top of the tsunami instead of being crushed by it.
We are losing our common vocabulary, built over thousands of years to help and delight and instruct us, for the sake of what we take to be the new technology's virtues.
Humans don't 'need' math-based cryptocurrencies when dealing with other humans. We walk slowly, talk slowly, and buy big things. Credit cards, cash, wires, checks - the world seems fine.
As Irving Good realised in 1965, machines with superhuman intelligence could repeatedly improve their design even further, triggering what Vernor Vinge called a 'singularity.'
The true end users of Facebook are the marketers who want to reach and influence us. They are Facebook's paying customers; we are the product. And we are its workers. The countless hours that we - and the young, particularly - spend on our profiles are the unpaid labor on which Facebook justifies its stock valuation.
If we can put a man on the moon and sequence the human genome, we should be able to devise something close to a universal digital public library.
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