3 HN users recommended this music video2 months2009–2026score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Resurfaces in threads on startups, valuations and hype cycles as a funny, prescient bubble satire.
A cappella parody song by The Richter Scales, set to Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire', lampooning the Web 2.0 startup bubble. It won a Webby for viral video in 2007.
“in case anyone missed this gem.” (HN, 2019)
3 recommendations · 11 citations · 6 jokes · Music
I'm auditing the class as well and I like it quite a lot. Make sure to not get TLDR discouraged and at least scroll all the way down for the (very amusing) video that was played in class. Direct link: [this video] from 2007 but still semi-relevant :)
[this video] Always appropriate. On a side note, really hard to know whether this is a bubble or not. I don't want to take either side, but you cannot refute that a billion dollars for a startup that did not gain any significant revenue seems like a lot of money.
Thiel says: "Back in 2008, we heard talk of another tech bubble, because people thought Facebook was overvalued at $500 million. Flash forward to today, and it’s clearly worth a lot more than that." Did this happen? Who in 2008 was talking about Facebook at $500 million, and complaining it was overvalued? People around that time were talking about Facebook at $15 billion being overvalued (e.g. [link] , [this video] ).
Evidence that 2007-8 talk was of Facebook at $15 billion
I just listened to the Richter Scales' "Here Comes Another Bubble" last week. I would repost it as a thread, but I'm not sure how well it'll fare, so here it is on all its glory. [this video] When was the song released? December of 2007.
I find it interesting that this was made in 2007, before Lehman and before the great recession: [this video] Can there be a bubble bubble? Instead of irrational exuberance you have irrational cynicism?
Longer. This Richter Scales "Here comes another bubble" video was 2007. [this video] Obviously 2008 did see something of a drop in general so I guess they were right for the near term. But they were specifically ragging on companies that you'd have done very well with over the next decade+ even if you had bought in 2007.
2007 bubble satire, partly right for the near term
Of course it is. FTX collapses (November 2-11, 2022), crypto hustle-scam is over, the decision is made to release whatever there is at the moment at OpenAI to start the next cycle, a few weeks later (November 30, 2022) there we go. Same thing as always: some investors -- mostly white males -- get filthy rich meanwhile some others get exploited -- this time it's Kenyan workers -- and many, many people get hoodwinked and then lose their shirt. Same story, different hype. [this video] did everyone forget? I guess. At we got something out of web2.0 ... but we also got a genocide and a few warped elections / referendums out of it so the jury is still out how history will see it. Crypto was a net negative for humankind in every possible way (except a few people walked away with tons of money of course but at what cost) and now we are facing down this terrible wave of AI. Yay?
Per The Richter Scales, 17 frickin' years ago: Hire yourself an engineer, Feed him pizza, buy him beer, Give him just a fraction of a fraction of the pie. [this video] Let's face it folks, the party was doomed to only last a short while before the managerial class took over.
Song already mocked engineers' small equity in 2007
It may come back to be relevant "Here Comes Another Bubble v1.1 - The Richter Scales" but some lingo needs update (but other parts are still spot on). [this video]
They weren't wrong. We were in a tech bubble driven by social media. Digg, StumbleUpon, Kongregate, MySpace, Orkut, Slide, Meebo, Mahalo, Bebo, Justin.TV, etc. aren't exactly around anymore. Facebook and YouTube are the winners. Anyone remember this video? [this video] How many of the logos that scroll by there still exist?
Relevant: [this video] , [link] , [link] More seriously I wonder why random signals that appear to be noise but if noticed are actually quite pertinent to predicting trends have such a great effect on people. Example follows: Kennedy later claimed he knew the rampant stock speculation of the late 1920s would lead to a crash. It is said that he knew it was time to get out of the market when he received stock tips from a shoe-shine boy Source: [link] . For example if my mom came to me with an investment decision my response would be a big fat no - might even go out and look at it for a short. If my hairdresser recommended a stock to me - I'd feel immediately like selling. These are by definition low signal events that should be classified as pure noise - but they seem to be a rather useful thought model. So party like it's 1997 - get in and get out.
> Started with 15% but got diluted to 1% after several rounds of funding including down rounds. haha WOW oh my god, and the software engineers getting a fraction of a fraction of a percent and being "reassured" that its a generous offer! [this video]
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