Late in 1984, Irish rock group U2 released its experimental album The Unforgettable Fire and started a world tour to promote it.
The first show was at the Christchurch Town Hall in August, so some mates and I bunked school and hitch-hiked up from Timaru to catch what was then considered an “alternative” rock act.
Frontman and vocalist Bono Vox absolutely owned the stage, building the crowd into a frenzy, then gently calming them down. Bono ended the encore with 40, U2’s own interpretation of the 40th Psalm – a chantingly melodic song, guaranteed to soothe the most savage breast.
I remember thinking that the mullet-topped Irishman was a pretty canny individual, carefully planning his set list to discharge a chilled and well-behaved crowd of 5000 out onto Kilmore and Colombo streets.
Twenty-eight years later it appears he’s still canny. As a result of Facebook’s forthcoming Initial Public Offer (IPO), Bono will become a billionaire, owning 1.5 per cent of the social network.
In 2009 Bono, though his private capital vehicle Elevation Partners, bought his share for US$90 million ($108m), a decision that will make him the world’s richest rock star. He’ll be joined by Facebook backers and senior managers who will also become instant billionaires.
The list also includes Peter Thiel, the man who is quoted as describing New Zealand as an investment “utopia”, and supporting that belief with his chequebook, buying solid whacks of online accounting provider Xero and internet cable provider Pacific Fibre. Assuming the float proceeds, Thiel’s 2.5 per cent will value up at around $2.8b, and join returns he made from PayPal, the company he co-founded and sold to eBay.
As part of Facebook’s IPO announcement, founder Mark Zuckerberg tabled a letter to potential shareholders. Some of the letter contains PR baloney like “we don’t build services to make money” and “Facebook was built to achieve a social mission”: these sentiments seem so much at odds with public attitudes to the social media giant and they fail to resonate.
However, within this self-aggrandisement there is some good oil, particularly a section called The Hacker Way.
Rather than anything to do with breaking into computers, hacking according to Zuckerberg just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries. It’s a belief that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete.
Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing in increments rather than trying to get everything right, all at once.
Ad Feedback Zuckerberg also references two in-house philosophies: “Done is better than perfect” and “Code wins”. The first is a reference to the import of learning through small iterations rather than big rollouts. The second refers to the value given to live computer code, rather than days of debating about theoretical programmes. In other words, the value of software and actual experience, rather than air-ware and endless meetings. It’s meritocracy at its simplest.
If you look at some of the good stuff that New Zealand business has delivered over the last year, you’ll find The Hacker Way has been used to good effect. Rod Drury used it at Aftermail, the company he founded in 2003 which took everyday email content and morphed it into a relational database, unlocking considerable value along the way. Rather than focus on reasons you might not be able to do something, Rod worked out what his team could do, all on the smell of an oily rag.
Jeremy Moon embraced The Hacker Way in lugging his first generation Icebreakers around North America, literally sticking his foot in the door of stores, then focusing on any product disconnects and quickly turning around Icebreaker versions 2.0 and 3.0 in double quick time.
The guys at Wellington-based Set QR also displayed The Hacker Way in taking something generic and kissing it with brand. QR codes are the small square digital boxes which a smartphone will scan and then send you to a website. Set QR hijacked these generic boxes and overlaid a designer brand that makes them instantly recognisable, even without a scan.
Standing against this growing number of entrepreneurs and start-ups employing The Hacker Way, are the majority of large organisations – both public and private – who don’t or can’t. The New Zealand Government invests $2b a year in technology, while private sector investment is probably several times this. And to date, The Hacker Way isn’t that common among these heavyweights of Kiwi technology spend.
Perhaps one unlikely but useful outcome of the Facebook share bonanza is that more local companies will be motivated to understand the principles of The Hacker Way rather than seeking to boil the ocean with their technology projects.
The question is whether our tech spenders accept the challenge that Bono sang about in the Christchurch Town Hall and “Sing, sing a new song”.
The MOD Blog 