Before the dot-com crash of 2000, I had been immersed in the tech industry for years. The burst of that bubble was fueled by unrealistic optimism about the internet’s transformative power. Countless tech jobs were casualties of that era.
Fast forward to today, and the hype is all about genAI, poised to revolutionize everything. Companies are already letting go of employees under the belief that bots can outperform humans. The “smart” money has been both right and wrong in the past and present.
In the early 2000s, tech visionaries foresaw the internet’s impact on the economy, but their timing was off. Investments poured into e-commerce ventures like Pets.com, Webvan, and eToys, only to crumble into oblivion, taking jobs with them.
While giants like Amazon emerged from the wreckage to dominate, many others faded into obscurity. Last year witnessed the tech industry’s most significant layoff wave since 2001, with over 100,000 job losses in January 2023 alone.
Despite the layoffs, tech stocks are soaring, and markets are hitting record highs. Companies like NVIDIA are thriving, raking in profits and amassing wealth. The landscape is tumultuous, with cuts persisting, but the industry remains resilient.
2024-04-09 06:00:02
Post from www.computerworld.com
