In praise of age: October 18, 1999 issue of New Thinking

October 18, 1999 New Thinking:
In praise of age

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October 18, 1999

In praise of age

By Gerry McGovern

Some weeks ago the youth wings of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Unionist and Sinn Fein parties held their annual conventions. The young people of the Ulster Unionist Party demanded that no talks at all should be held with Sinn Fein, which was contrary to the official party line of engagement.

The young people of Sinn Fein dismissed out-of-hand the Patten Report on policing for Northern Ireland, contrary to the official Sinn Fein view, which focused on getting feedback from party members on the report.

It is a myth and it has always been a myth that young people are by their very youthfulness the keepers of the liberal, open-minded and progressive flame. As was illustrated so sharply by the Ulster Unionist and Sinn Fein youth, the young have a great capacity for extremism, narrow-mindedness and conservatism.

Recently, Nicholas Negroponte was asked why he felt Europe had not grasped the Internet opportunity in the same way as America had. His basic answer, if I remember correctly, was that Europe stifled youth and creativity and took too long to make decisions.

Nicholas Negroponte is right. Europe is very poor at tapping the energy and creativity of youth. There is no question but that the Internet is driven mainly by young people, hungry to explore, hungry to create, hungry to get things done. It sure is exciting. It sure is changing our world in a radical way.

I do not question for one moment the need to tap into this youthful energy and creativity. We are indeed building a new world. However, that does not mean we can’t have some old ingredients in the mix.

Age brings with it experience, maturity and wisdom. As we get older we have hopefully learned from our mistakes and are able to judge things better. We have a better understanding of the implications of our actions and can take a longer-term view of things. Yes, that can sometimes lead to caution, but caution is sometimes the right response.

Everyone I talk to about the Internet sings the mantra that you cannot predict three months ahead, let alone three years. Personally, I think that’s a cop-out. It is possible to think ahead and the most successful companies on the Internet today (America Online, Yahoo, Amazon) reflect a basic business vision of what they do.

Has the browser fundamentally changed in the last three years? Has email fundamentally changed? Has bandwidth fundamentally changed? Has the basic infrastructure of the Internet changed? Do you remember Yahoo in 1996? How fundamentally different is Yahoo today?

There are a lot of things changing at breakneck speed but if your basic business case and strategic vision is changing every three months there is something fundamentally wrong with the way you do business.

Speed is all well and good but the greater the speed the more crashes you should expect. While the young are tuning the engines so as to drive faster, it’s no harm to have a wiser head checking the seat belt and air bag. Perhaps even more importantly someone needs to check that this turbo-charged machine is pointed in the right direction.

Gerry McGovern

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While the young are tuning the engines so as to drive faster, it’s no harm to have a wiser head checking the seat belt and air bag.