The other day I attended a talk by Peter Hinsson, author of the new book The Network Always Wins. Hinsson is a technologist and a smart, engaging sort of fellow, even if he does call himself a "thought leader". As a journalist I consider myself more of a "thought repeater". Anyway, Hinsson's talk was more or less about how businesses will go bankrupt if they insist on acting in a linear, hierarchical way in our digital, socially networked world. Yes, that talk.
Hinsson's lecture was full of amusing anecdotes, like the time his 10-year-old son asked him: "Dad, how old were you when you got your Facebook account?" But the speech could be summed up as: "All you old guys are going to be crushed because you don't understand digital." In fact, there seems to be a whole army of speakers who exist just to frighten senior executives into thinking their lives are over (unless, presumably, they hire the speaker as a consultant). Well, I don't buy it. In fact, I'm sick of people telling me some spotty Generation Y geek is going to steal my job. Oh yeah? Over my dead body. Literally. They can fill my spot when I'm in the ground. Of course, they'll have to learn how to spell first. If generation Y are so smart, how come they're all unemployed? Something to do with a lack of experience, perhaps? Frankly, they should be asking us me for advice. Even via Twitter.
