Conor Murphy | Features Editor
Elon Musk was at the Web Summit 12 months ago. After a nominal appearance before the adoring crowds, our Taoiseach Enda Kenny came out and basically did a risable impression of a 1950’s Irishman, ‘ah shure would you bring some jobs to Oireland’. In response to events like the Web Summit, this year media organisations like The Irish Times published stories about some 14 year old who “is on their third startup!”, when really they’re on their third website.
These are all indications of a trend to worship tech people far beyond what they deserve, and glorify them far beyond the limits of their skill set. This pushes these ‘tech gurus’ ever more into a state where the unquestioned privilege they have attained becomes more and more acute. The fact that a head of state would be so deferential to a guy starting up some tech companies, nearly all of which aren’t making any profit yet, is worrying. But more worrying is the fact that this attitude is applied so ignorantly to all ‘startup guys’ without a second for critical thought. Elon Musk has actually done some pretty smart stuff. Half the people successful in the tech world are quite often only semi-competent people, who actually got really lucky. Both lucky that their idea took off and lucky that their mediocre skills happen to be in an area that is so highly valued at the minute.
There is nothing more complex in building a site than making a shoe: both take a few years of practice to do well. Yet the constant bubble of this “otherness” of tech entrepeneurs only seems to be inflating, when it’s only getting ready to be popped. That’s one major crux and result of this issue though. Everyone implicitly thinks they know how a shoe is made, but people think building technology involves voodoo dolls and incantations. It is rife in our parliament that has no engineers, our journalism with it’s tech illiteracy, and our general reaction to anyone involved with building websites or apps.
A naughty ‘ah ya can’t be doin that’ sort of tone is used, when really these companies should be hounded by journalists for avoiding their most basic duty as corporate citizens. They should be hounded like an oil company is after an oil spill that costs billions, because they’re costing billions every year with their tax schemes each.
There are plenty of reasons why tech illiteracy is allowed to continue so much in the general populace, but when it permeates professional media organisations (where they almost proudly say they have no idea what a 14 year old is doing) it starts to seriously damage how we deal with issues around technology. One of thegreat strengths of Irish people, for me, has always been their ability to keep a head on their shoulders, even when insanely successful. Watch an interview with Colin Farrell and it’s more down to earth than any other actor you might see. Same with Dara O’Briain. Roy Keane, after a world dominating performance in the Champions League, dressed down a reporter for giving him too much praise, proclaiming “you don’t praise the binman”. So seeing any sign of Irish lumping on this tech celebrity worship is disheartening to say the least.
This is not to say there’s some big conspiracy that isn’t being noticed because we’re all too starry eyed for the geeks. However there are several things that get far too little attention. For one example although tech companies dodging tax is big news, it’s almost told in a rapscallion sort of way. A naughty ‘ah ya can’t be doin that’ sort of tone is used, when really these companies should be hounded by journalists for avoiding their most basic duty as corporate citizens. They should be hounded like an oil company is after an oil spill that costs billions, because they’re costing billions every year with their tax schemes each. Even in England, Starbucks is always the big target for criticism, when Google, Microsoft and Apple are doing far more damage by dodging far bigger amounts of tax.
Female-to-male wealth inequality vastly increases. The number of black people in tech in America is astonishingly small. Money also goes to less and less hands so general inequality will be even worse than ever before.
And it’s all because tech companies have a weird special status in the world of the public, and reporters in particular. It’s probably also because the idea of genius tech companies is kind of nice for us. It’s a type of religion. If someone is infinitely smarter than us, then they can fix it: they can understand the issues so we don’t have to. However as more and more giant sums go relatively untaxed to these largely white male man-children, it exasperates everything society has been railing against for years. Female-to-male wealth inequality vastly increases. The number of black people in tech in America is astonishingly small. Money also goes to less and less hands so general inequality will be even worse than ever before.
As more and more of the next great financial powers come from tech, the fact that tech is so unequal, moreso than traditionally unequal jobs like Wall Street stock brokers, has for decades gone bizarrely unreported in mainstream journalism. Economic power is the only major difference between the skill of shoemaking and building websites. If you build one perfect shoe, that will only even serve one person. If you build one perfect site, it can go to millions of users in days. That’s the only reason tech people get so much money: software has economies of a scale that are astronomical, and are only getting bigger. It’s why this is such big business for people. And that’s why it is so important to get tech literate.
You, I, and our families need to all spend a few hours building a site. Because it’s easy. And because, when you see that, we stop worshipping them. When we stop worshipping these men we critique them more. When we critique them more we normalise the profession. And when we finally normalise a pretty simple profession then, and only then, will the tech world, and the world’s next billionaires, start representing what people actually look like in all their diversity.
