Why big tech stopped building useful stuff

Cal Newport’s most recent episode of Deep Questions asked why big tech stopped building useful products. He contrasted the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 with a fake flying car everyone was sharing recently, and how there feels like this palpable shift away from making the present better, to “inventing the future” that almost certainly won’t happen. (His podcast site doesn’t show the most recent episode, but it definitely appears in my podcast client. This happens surprisingly often across a bunch of different shows I listen to, which makes linking to any one episode a pain. Not sure why this happens). He offers three theories as to why this might be: They want to be seen as growth companies. Mature, stable businesses don’t deliver stratospheric returns or valuations. They’re engagement pilled. Fake flying cars aren’t a device you can buy, but they drive engagement, which is seen as paramount. Cal says “it’s not a reasonable product, but it’s one hell of a meme”. Building useful…