Hyping the Hype Curve

There is a certain delicious irony in an article by Sarah Lacy, on TechCrunch*, calling for bloggers to "band together to stop the hype cycle" in new technology.

The Tech Hypegrrl in the Tech Hypeblog callling for the End of Hype.... we'll follow your advice - if you go first .

However, the bigger question needs to be examined, ie is Sarah actually right when she says the hype cycle must be stopped?

I read a very interesting argument a few years back that the hype cycle's role was to counter the "Machiavelli effect" - the human tendency to give lukewarm support of the new and the strong backing of the status quo. In order to overcome this effect, the promotion of the New New Thing has to be far more than a fact based argument, and has to be almost religious in its nature - it needs faith based belief, rather than rational understanding to overcome the status quo bias.

In other words, without the hype and the faith based belief, there would be a far slower diffusion of new technologies - certainly not fast enough to underpin the Sand Road Ecosystem.

One can argue whether this is a good or a bad thing - as a rationality based strategic technology consultancy we find it hard to dispel irrational belief systems in the space (cf Freeconomics) - in fact it was given a name in the dotcom era - Techolibertarianism, but it has evolved to be a major driver of change. And, having been involved in 2 decades worth of trying to create change in large enterprises, the alternative is stultifying stagnation.

* Or TwitterCrunch, as it is better called these days - 74 mentions in 12 days!