Dot.com to Dot.bomb

It was interesting the way this class on the boom and bust was formatted because we did it in a timeline, and I never really learned much about the history behind some of these companies before. One of the things I was most surprised about, though it's something I should have probably known long ago, was that Amazon had been around for quite a while and been mocked for its ideas since the very beginning. It was funny being reminded of how big Yahoo was when I was so young, and how powerful our AOL spam disk overlords were. It's interesting hearing from somebody that was actually involved in all of that, because as a kid it just seemed like something that was happening on some other planet but we'd keep getting those free coasters anyways. The way websites popped up like IPO.com, or FuckCompany.com, seems so capitalistic and free market it's entertaining. Between Luminant Worldwide's 8 company roll-up, Wolfe writing his own check, and the fights going on during Andrew's talk, it all seems so wild west and new frontier. I imagine it must have been a fascinating thing to live through (as an adult of course). The correlations made between the Dot.com Boom and the housing Boom were interesting, and I can't help but wonder what the next bubble to pop will be. I hear a lot about how another housing crash is on its way any day now, and if that turns out to be true, I wonder how different it will feel when it's an experience that could actually affect me directly as an adult. I definitely plan on buying my own property as soon as it is financially feasible, but stories like these certainly make it tough to trust the systems we have in place. Like every previous generation i'm sure, it's difficult at times to even fathom an innovation that could still happen that would be as foundation shaking as the internet was, but like every one of those generations it will probably seem inevitable when it's all over. VR, singularity, genetic reprogramming, these don't seem like breakthroughs that could exist in an environment like the Boom without serious consequences. I'm excited to find out either way!

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