“It Definitely Makes More Sense Than Wikipedia”: Quick and Dirty Technical Explanations
Technicians briefly explained the technical and business concepts yesterday in a Twitter thread launched by Prince ‘s software chief and evangelist Anil Dash:
The explanations are sometimes oversimplified or biased, but they are useful when you just need some initial orientation and Google has made things worse. Here are the best of the discussion so far, as well as some of our own comments.
Startup funding rounds
Startups hoping to grow into big companies raise money in exchange for shares. They often start with a round of friends and family or a round of angels from individual investors, then move on to larger rounds from venture capital firms that pool funds from multiple investors. Each funding round is marked with letters. Getting multiple rounds of funding can be good or bad, depending on the size and direction of the company.
Web developer Laurie Voss gives a qualitative breakdown:
Open office plans
There are pros and cons to working in an open office instead of booths or private offices, but don’t feel like the workers themselves make the choice. And remember that the situation can get worse – some offices do not even provide their employees with one specific seat at the table. Capitalism will find a way to make even the most privileged workers feel like itinerant workers.
Augmented reality and virtual reality
It’s hard to say which technologies are a perennial hobby and which will really change the world. Internet commerce was a bubble before it became reality; The PDA was a failure before it became a smartphone. And big tech players like Facebook and Google definitely believe that AR and VR are important enough to invest billions in research and marketing.
Market disruption
In the tech industry, “disruption” means reversing the existing market by rewriting the rules. Disruptions often reduce the amount of money passing through the market, making the market much more efficient. A disruptive company is not just a new competitor. This is changing the way all other players in the surrounding industry operate. It always has a downside, and anyone who says otherwise is selling you something.
Amazon, for example, disrupted the book industry by skipping regular bookstores and directing consumers to one store. This is fantastic for customers, at least in the short term, as Amazon has virtually eradicated scarcity. But it was hell for an industry that was not built to handle one Wal-Mart-sized distributor that could help or break everyone else.
Likewise, Uber has eliminated huge inefficiencies in the taxi market by introducing a mobile passenger call service. This brought cheap car service to cities that could not support it before, revolutionizing not only the taxi industry, but also the car rental, manufacturing and leasing industries. Even the local mechanic does business differently thanks to Uber. Of course, this is just the tip; Uber also violates customer privacy and government sovereignty . Some companies seem to exist only to get in the way and only make money as a side effect.
Github
Software engineer Chris Kerami has surpassed Wikipedia in explaining this nerd site:
Synergy
Software developer Ash Furrow shares a fun backstory on the classic buzzword:
You can learn more about Fuller ‘s concept of “synergy” at the Buckminster Fuller Institute .
Bitcoin and blockchain
To be honest, it’s not your job to understand how blockchain technology works. You can use a car, TV, or smartphone without understanding how they work. And blockchain is more abstract and complex than all of them. But here’s the basic concept:
What else is confusing you in the tech world? Maybe Lifehacker readers will be able to explain everything to each other and disable this site.