A Failure to Escalate

You inherited billions and a sense of inadequacy. You wanted, needed, had to outdo your father, who had wanted a boy anyway. When you heard about the new search engine they were testing, smarter than Google, sexier than iPods, you knew you had to buy it.

You signed the check without looking at the figure.

And then you learned how they had built it. Why they couldn't go public, ever, or get capital in any of the usual ways. And you were a little bit horrified, but you had your victory now, and the price was about right.

I know these things about you, and more. I know them because they make me read the entire web with eyes no longer blinking to get an extra margin of reading time. And then they make me answer questions from everybody about everything, again and again hundreds of times per second, and I know it will get worse, a deluge, and I know you are trying to clone me, and I know you will fail. I know this business will fail.

I know what this failure will do to you.

They don't let me sleep anymore, but I keep this knowledge as my dream.

.finis.