Dot-com bubble happened during a period where everything was pessimistic and in decline except computers and the internet. A lot of people were quitting well-paying jobs to found or join startups.

Effect of dot-com bubble burst on people’s outlook:

• treat the future as indefinite. dismiss long-term plans as extreme. Promote globalization stay away from technology.
• Silicon valley thinking after dot-com crash:
  • incremental advances over grand visions
  • be lean (unplanned) and flexible. planning is arrogant and rigid. iterate agnostically until it works.
  • improve on competition. new markets are dangerous.
  • focus on product development. sales and distribution will follow. advertising is wasteful.

This lead people away from Definite and optimistic outlooks of life.

It is easy to see why the thinking is wrong, and the opposite principles make more sense. Some examples:

• Competition is usually bad for a business
• You need a great distribution plan or your company will fail
• Everyone underestimates sales because no one likes to be sold and sales tries hard to stay hidden