Something to Remember from Eric Schmidt of Google in answer to a question from Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine

This is a great short video of Eric Schmidt of Google at the Aspen ideas Festival.

It covers some interesting areas but I was particularly struck in his answer to a follow up question on whether the economy has fundamentally changed. His answer was ” I would like it to be true but my question to you is where is the data?”.

Now we are involved in looking to the future so to some extent data is historical but we cannot just make up things.  This is a question that everybody should keep in their mind – where is the data, where is the evidence. At the very least a view about the future needs to tell a cogent and compelling story that both points out where the narrator thinks things are going but also explains the underlying assumptions and drivers so that the person listening to the story can look to see whether the data is following the narrative as the future unfolds but also adjust their own thinking as things change from the predicted path as they most certainly will. I think there is a lot of hype around the “new economy” at the moment just as there was in stock markets five years ago and in the oil markets 2-3 years ago.. Reality has a way of settling things down and sitting you back on your heels. Things are changing but old models and systems die hard and change is commonly slower than we think, with important but rare exemptions to the rule

As Fred Wilson the New York Venture Capitalist and Blogger (http://www.avc.com/)  says says :

“Every investment I’ve ever made that has worked out fabulously is always a case that the investment played out in a way that we didn’t imagine.”

You can watch the video here:

Aspen ideas festival – Eric Schmidt answer to the Buzz Machine\’s Jeff Jarvis

One Response to “Something to Remember from Eric Schmidt of Google in answer to a question from Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine”

1. Peter Jeans Says:
   January 6th, 2010 at 1:47 pm

   What needs to be understood is that past era’s still exist (and so their economies, industries and practices) after their prime. We still have hunter gatherer societies, farming communities, industrial industries, etc. Obviously some are diminished in terms of their value and number of employees. But they still exist none-the-less.

   Obviously we cant build roads and bridges and cars without material, nor can we eat bits and bytes…

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