Scientia Potentia Est

“Knowledge is power” is commonly attributed to Sir Francis Bacon.

I think we all heard this a few times in our lives. We all know what it means. But we don’t really apply it to everything, at least not by default. Or it’s just me. Anyways.

Of course espionage, government secret agencies, Jason Bourne and such come to mind first.

But what about when tech companies acquire each other? Hmmm. Yup.

Sure, a few times there is a genius idea – maybe even a patent was filed to protect it – but that’s not really holding back big players from just copying it and then push the envelope to have a settlement outside of court.

With AI the indie SaaS market also went nuts. Now everyone has the power to “do their own version”. Everybody shipping, everybody building and immediately slapping a fat subscription model on it to milk the customers.

But they are missing the point: with AI just as it was super easy to build your product, the neighbors, the mailman and your own cousins can do it. Just as easy if not easier. So by the time you read the first comment on Product Hunt you already have 10 competitors, technically killing each other.

So what is the point then?

Ego? Perhaps. Unfulfilled dreams? Can be.

But I have a better candidate.

It’s the data. The knowledge. The intel. Always been the data.

Data is time, time is money so my assumption is that data is money, and big data is big money.

Buying up an already decently filled and very specific data pool is much easier than building the tool, spending on marketing, scaling, potentially failing. You know, the whole circus.

Especially with the pattern when the acquired company is just simply shut down after the deal. We’ve seen this many times.

Same thing for investment. Sharks of course look at the return, but they don’t calculate it from how amazing your model is. But how much can it be worth, what it knows about people. Simple as that.

No wonder money is pouring into companies with AI boosted engines under the hood. The perfect harvesting machine.

“but hey, talk about how ethical it is to harvest data from your “innocent” users!”

Honestly? These days I find it a rather pointless topic to argue.

We got gigantic data giants where we voluntarily give away everything, we got fake job ads just collecting your CV and personal data. I won’t continue the list. You know.

So you can just follow the industry standard and sell it to advertisers then take a seat in the “Big Tech Hall of Fame”.

Or a more ethical route can be taken with handpicking what data you actually collect and how, but most importantly what to do with it.

Like for instance use it to shine some light on underrepresented research areas. Or just write a book. Or a study. Or just make your product better.

It’s up to you. Just saying.

P.s.: Ohh, and don’t forget to self-host your analytics and shit.