I’m So Tired of the “Next Big Thing”

Too often it’s not revolutionary — it’s predatory

Stephen Moore
7 min readJul 25, 2024

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Image: Badly edited by author

Crypto.

NFTs.

Metaverse.

Web3/Web5.

GenAI.

Technology has been moving at breakneck speed for some time now, but the last few years have seen the tech industry burn through a frankly ridiculous amount of the “next big thing.”

Those trying to cash in on the latest trend — the grifters — have been pivoting so fast they must be suffering whiplash.

I’m tired of it all. I’m tired of being told these game-changing concepts are going to transform my life, only for them to fade out with nothing more than a whimper. I’m tired of our tech overlords trying to force-feed me my future. I’m tired of the tech industry pivoting every 25 seconds to the new shiny object in the hopes of juicing their stock price. I’m tired of everything being about shareholder value at the expense of customer value.

So, I thought it would be cathartic to take a trip down memory lane at some of the more recent “next big things” and how they flattered to deceive. As you’ll see, we’ve lived through some shit.

Crypto misses the moon

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Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore

Written by Stephen Moore

Writer, editor, part-time furniture maker. Subscribe to Trend Mill for critical takes on our dystopian metaverse hellscape future - https://www.trend-mill.com