Why big tech stopped building useful stuff

Cal Newport’s question is why major technology companies seem less interested in building useful products than they once were. The contrast is between the iPhone’s 2007 launch, which changed what people could do in the present, and a widely shared image of a flying car that is not a real product. Newport suggests three causes: mature companies chase the growth and valuations expected of “growth companies”; engagement rewards attention-grabbing ideas even when they cannot be bought or used; and making products that genuinely improve people’s lives is difficult, as Steve Jobs’s achievements at Apple demonstrate. These incentives reinforce one another, favoring spectacle over practical innovation.

The writer agrees and adds that big tech has lost its imagination. Its visions are either dystopian, using fear to sell technology, or so uninspiring that they offer no compelling future. The current concentration of vast sums of capital, time, and attention on AI intensifies this frustration, especially when companies portray systems as acting independently in ways that evade responsibility. Rather than feeling angry, the writer feels bored, and argues that worthwhile technology is already being made elsewhere: particularly in Asia and by independent designers and engineers in the West. Many of the products that have brought the writer joy or improved daily life did not come from major US tech firms - or were used in ways their makers did not anticipate. This work offers grounds for optimism, provided people look beyond Silicon Valley.