A lifetime ago, I went to Bombay and reported on Bollywood, India’s movie business. I met really cool people. I met really famous people. I met beautiful people. More importantly, I met people who did one thing that I have never encountered — name drop. They talked about who they are hanging with, the project they are working on, or who was directing them in what movie. I didn’t care, so I left.
Then, a decade ago, I went to Hollywood and encountered similar behavior. At lunch, in coffee shops, or at dinner parties — people talked about “projects” and dropped names. Not for me, so I left and go to LA only when I absolutely must for family reasons.
Fast forward to today, I see the same behavior happening in San Francisco. I am sitting at a coffee shop, and people around me are just busy dropping names. I have heard – Reid Hoffman, Jack, Kevin (Systrom), Marc (Andreessen) and Matt Cohler – being mentioned in conversations around me. The conversations are almost all about “investing” and how they introduce whom to whom.
Twitter…. blah! blah! …. Facebook… blah! blah!…. mobile…. blah! blah! Investing, terms sheets, buying your company… blah! blah!
When did we stop talking about ideas, technology and instead started focusing on you know… names and investing. Anyway, it is not a rant, just musing out loud.