Back in 2006, I was 26 years old. My long-time friend Matthew, and his friends, Vada and Joe, and I worked hard to kick-start an “Internet Startup” here in Silicon Valley.
We would come out of investor and lawyer meetings and comment on the tendency for how people over 35 “just didn’t get it”. They didn’t understand what we were trying to accomplish. Twitter, Facebook and MySpace were all the rage, and these guys couldn’t understand the whole point of status updates. Why would you want to tell strangers what you were thinking/doing?
Now, it’s 2015 and I’m 35 years old. I live and breathe the Internet and its culture, and keep an eye on all kinds of apps, services, and new businesses that are starting up all over this valley. When I see new apps — specifically Kik, Snapchat and Tinder…
…I just don’t get it.
From ages 30–34, I lived in Seattle, Washington where I spent some time getting deprogrammed from Silicon Valley thinking. I have a new perspective now about the kinds of things that are useful to real people. I spend less time reading TechCrunch posts about “valuations”, and more time thinking about how to solve real problems that real people have.
Have I become one of those crazy 35-and-older guys who just doesn’t get it? Maybe.
But I’m perfectly OK with that.
