In the 1980s up until the late 2010s, the ICT world was a large universe of optimism, innovation and progress. IT people are also generally friendly and welcoming and extremely lazy which basically means we do not like doing the same thing over and over and over again. That is why we copy each other.
In the same period, Kenya has seen periods of boom and bust in many popular businesses, from those pyramid schemes to the quail business to the unlucky investors who put their (and banks') money into Airbnb right before corona did that thing.
The common denominator between these two is the fact that someone comes up with (or reinvents) an idea, identifies a niche and goes on to make large amounts of money, then maybe get one or two competitors and then all of a sudden, as the costs of entry go down, "Quail ziko na pesa mtu yangu!" Everyone jumps in. Supply exceeds demand, costs remain the same or escalate, businesses fail and the entire industry is at risk of something or other, or collapses in a torrent of shame, embarassment, abuse and derision.
I am not saying the shame, embarassment, abuse and derision thing is happening here, but as Google has grown and become a planet-eating behemoth, its advertising business model has become so powerful that, to make money in IT, you have to have a hand in the advertising pot.
You know what happens when too many people put their hands in stew? It becomes dirty and somebody gets diarrhoea.
Everybody has put their hands in the stew now. Even Apple, the so-called security-conscious, privacy-respecting company is entering the scramble as is Microsoft which is finding it so hard to sell Windows that it is now choosing to open them and let people enter inside.
I was almost shocked to learn that Canonical has joined the fray, but I do not really give a shit any more. Plus, I do not use Ubuntu any longer for certain reasons.
The feast is at its peak and everybody is chewing the meat, sucking the marrow out the bone and licking their fingers as the soup runs slowly down to their elbows.
The diarrhoea is also starting. Soon, it will be an epidemic. A wise person will have eaten at home because, soon, all the latrines will be full and everyone else will have to use the bushes.
A recession is coming, and this one will be nasty. Already, most people in the UK cannot afford food yet they have jobs. The tech industry has reached its peak because now the market is not growing - white people refused to give birth. Europe is confused, highly-skilled and experienced people are getting fired from big companies, Africa depends on Ukraine and Russia for food and the US and China are fighting the War Of The Committee Of Dirty Hearts. If you have stock that is rising in value, sell it now and buy a rural plot somewhere where things will be cheaper. Otherwise, wait for the markets to crash and buy cheap stocks and wait for it to be revived again.