I did it anyway

Saturday, June 16, 2007 by Dave Winer.

Fred Wilson says that kids are net natives, and that people over 30 don't invent new paradigms. To say that ticks me off is an understatement. 

I've been a net native since before I was 20. Yes, I read newspapers growing up, but I also blogged before it was called blogging, and created a lot of the technology that the kids are developing now. Yet I've had arrogant idiotic asshole kids tell me I don't understand the net. Yeah sure.  

At this point in my career I'm ready to do the really big ideas, and it sucks that attitudes like the one exemplified by Wilson are in my way. Stop thinking about who can't do what, and start paying attention to who actually does it. 

I listened to an interview on public radio with one of the founders of YouTube, a young guy. The things he says were new 20 years ago. He's a good marketer, and no doubt has attracted the people he needs to build a wonderful system. But he doesn't have all the answers. Sometimes a bit of experience can help, not hinder, progress. 

In every other creative field people are active into their sixties, seventies or eighties. For some reason in tech we assume people are washed up at 30? Based on what? Marc Andreessen's experience. Hmm. 

BTW, when I was a kid, the VCs had reasons why I couldn't do it then. I did it anyway. 

Rex Hammock, who's my age, weighs in. 

One more thing, since this thread is about Facebook, why is their network so tone-deaf to the lives of adults? Maybe it's because the kiddies don't have a clue about business relationships, adult sexual relationships, or family relationships more specific than "In my family?" How long does it take to add some checkboxes to a dialog? These are the new heroes? It seems we've set the bar too low. 

Clay Shirky agrees with his friend Fred Wilson that people over 30 don't invent new stuff.  

Shirky also said a few years back that IBM would rule in web services. He was wrong then, he's wrong now. 

Steven Hodson: "To Fred -- kiss my ass."