Fast Company takes a reality check: “The New Economy isn’t dead. It just didn’t happen in the way we all imagined. And now it’s been long enough that we can think more analytically about which of the shiny and alluring ideas of the New Economy were lasting and real, and which were just the iridescent glint of a bubble.”
Boom-Time Buzz: The Internet changes absolutely everything.
Cold Reality: Absolutist statements are absolutely a bad idea.Boom-Time Buzz: Free Agent Nation is a utopia. The Brand Called You makes you more marketable than ever.
Cold Reality: Free Agent Nation is a jungle. The Brand Called You is the only way to survive.Boom-Time Buzz: IT spending has fueled an unstoppable productivity boom that has ended the business cycle.
Cold Reality: Productivity is still strong–and so is the business cycle.Boom-Time Buzz: Move first–or die.
Cold Reality: Move first without a real business–and die.Boom-Time Buzz: The Internet gives the customer new, limitless power.
Cold Reality: New power, yes. Limitless, no.Boom-Time Buzz: Destroy your business, or someone else will.
Cold Reality: Incumbent businesses aren’t so easily destroyed.
