Limited by the giant we stand on
When we talk about our great innovations and things we’ve reached, we shamelessly admit that we were only able to get there because of the heritage and everything that was created before us to be able to build upon. We refer to this by standing on the shoulders of giants. But what if we are so high up on our giant that we are actually unable to see the ground. And that way limit ourself - even in this entrepreneurship-bubble we are in - to only solve rather small problems, which only appear big in our world.
This thought obviously refers to the fact, that many problems startup in silicon valley and the entire developed world focus on so called first world problems and how to solve them. Yes, in our world, on this big giant with electricity, internet and a working water infrastructure, it might seem like a big deal to save 3 seconds on ordering a cab and not having to speak to a real person. Solving a problem, which many people on earth wished they had in the first place, as they are missing this huge giant to sit on.
But still, as it is putting the the cab-industry upside-down, we think of that as a ground-breaking disruptive technology and want to implement it all over the world for the benefit of humanity. And in order to do so, looking down from this giant, we want everyone to have this kind of giant to disrupt. Though, if you were actually on the ground, in the mud - we can barely see from up there - not only does that problem not matter at all, the whole giant might look like something very silly to have been build in the first place.
Looking from the ground up, having that knowledge of newest technologies, maybe it doesn’t make sense to even get started building a cab infrastructure to disrupt in the first place. Because that is actually destroying a natural resource and exploiting earth in a way that having your fingers in the mud, does matter more to one. And what if the solution you come up instead, is actually way more disruptive because it gets rid of the industry entirely? Would we be able to look down our giant and admit, that this third arm, which constantly hits the body is useless? Would we cut it off? No. We are not.
Anything that destroy jobs is evil and our current system is unable to do. But if that job didn’t exist in the first place, you can’t destroy it by implementing it better right away. And that is why the imagination of first world entrepreneurs is so limited and the next thing of huge impact will actually come from a developing country and not from us. We are unable to come down from this giant and start climbing a bigger one.