have you noticed how tech-bros 'predict' the future?
TLDR - They do it in three parts
- state the obvious problem - state a well-known established fact - suggest an outlandish + open-ended solutionLet me explain my insight from an interview with Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO Of Ola Cabs (India's UBER) from 2014
excerpt from the interview -
Is there a technological breakthrough you expect in the transport sector?
Let me talk about what we are building. Technology is enabling that but it's not the reason why we are doing it. We are building towards the future where people need not own their own cars. In the west, 70 per cent of the population owns cars. In India, it's just four per cent. Despite that, our streets are clogged. We will just leapfrog car ownership as a concept and get into transport as a service. That's bound to happen. There is no other way for our country. We want to be the pioneers in enabling that. I don't have a car and have decided never to own one.1
Bhavish is a typical tech-bro.
Have you noticed how all tech-bros talk about 'future'?
- state the obvious problem
- state a well-known established fact
- suggest an outlandish + open-ended solution
Their solution is so far off and so open-ended that there is no way to ever hold them accountable for what they said in the past
let's take the above excerpt as an example:
- obvious problem
- "our streets are clogged."
- spit out some numbers
- "70% of westerns own car"
- "4% of Indians own car"
- outlandish + open-ended solution
- "leapfrog car ownership"
- "transport-as-a-service"
- "future where people need not own their own cars"
Do you see what's happening here?
Its been ten years, do you see Indians (or any other country) ditching vehicle ownership to move towards Ola/Uber? heck, even public transport instead of cars?
No, Indians are buying more cars/scooters than ever before.
- In 2014, annual Indian passenger sales were 2.4 million units.
- In 2024? 4.3 million units annually. 2
- Indian streets are still clogged.
- Our public transports are still severely under-funded.
What about in the next 5 years? do you think there would be slowdown in car purchases?
Do you see the genius of his claims?
Well, he can claim that future is still far away. That car ownership percentages in India are still low.
The genius is that, even in 2035 - the "prediction" would still be "valid" because even then, car ownership percentages won't match western standards, our streets will still be clogged, our public transport would still be under-funded and the "future" would just be "around" the corner.
So what has happened to Bhavish Aggarwal?
He's moved on to next two shining things to hype up - electric vehicles and AI.
- Ola Electric - his electrical vehicles company while a market leader is infamous for its numerous quality issues. 3
- Krutim AI - his AI company while having a "billion-dollar" valuation hasn't released anything meaningful.4
As for Ola Cabs, they are last in the ride-sharing industry.5
I am just so tired of all the tech bros thinking they have it all figured out - that they are the Da-Vinci & Aristotle combined and everyone is an idiot for not being like them.