You assholes are amazing!
- Thread starter stmadeveloper
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Dear Rebecca,
In regards to your doubts about what constitutes "a true Renaissance Man," <INSERT OBLIGATORY ANTI-FEMINIST JOKE HERE>.
Sincerely,
Luke
I didn't include women because if they have enough free time to do something they should be in the kitchen.............. (kidding)
If I include all the shit I've ever read on every forum, blog, book, magazine or even heard someone say out loud...this just might be the dumbest fucking thing of them all.
Let's review shall we. Google improved upon existing search technology to better index the web about 12 years ago and found an awesome way to monetize it for the last 8 years. However, they've already been ousted as the #1 most visited website in the world, and are close to having their world turned upside down when Facebook roles out their improved version of a content network sometime here in the next 18 months.
Ben Franklin and his "whole posse from 1776" invented the representative democracy that is used as a political model around the world today. They built the framework for an economic powerhouse that spends more money wiping their collective asses in a day than Google earns in a year. Let's not even get into how much the standard of living has raised under this "little system" they created, or how much health has improved worldwide directly as a result of the system that was put in place here in 1776. You obviously know very little about history, or have any grounding in reality when it come to historical significance.
For a little perspective, Google earned about $18 billion in revenue in 2010. A little backwards desert shit hole like Saudi Arabia spent more than that just on their defense budget alone. I won't even compare the budget of the US because that would be ridiculous. Let alone, Europe or any of the other places in the world that have modeled their entire political and economic systems off what "Ben Franklin and his boys" came up with in 1776.
I'll let up on you for now because I'm going to assume you just liked to sleep through history class and I'll also assume you're pretty young so I'll take it easy on you. But goddamn that was so ridiculously off base I had to at least point it out.
You don't read much, do you?
If you insist. I'm pretty firm in my conviction, because I know exactly what google has done for me and where I'd be today if I couldn't farm adsense and it's copycats.
This thread is about "CHANGING THE WORLD." I'm just talking about Change google has inspired, not how much money anyone is making or whose stock symbol or alexa ranking is on top.
Sorry, try again. It was called the Magna Carta, Originally penned in 1215, but which gradually put into place the house of lords and commons, that our house and senate is based upon. The separate branches with their systems of checks and balances, too.
Yes, the posse of 1776 was pretty smart, I grant you, but they were smart at taking things that other people invented and putting them together in a way that works for the locals. How much did this change the world, really? They just changed the USA, and even here it's falling apart with the invention of the internet.
At best, the US Constitution is the finest variation on an ever-changing theme.
Damn, I thought that decade working at the museum would have shown through more... Have to work on that more next time.
Totally irrelevant to this conversation.
Thanks for your civil-mindedness, I will show the same respect to your reply. For the record I'm in my late 30's and felt my answer was perfectly on base to the topic of conversation; which was changes to the world.
OK, so HOW DID google change the world in a way that matters exactly?
It has little to do with their earnings and search technology. It's mostly in a little 2006 invention called Adsense. (Although some would argue it has more to do with the lowering of the public's standards on privacy.)
In my humble opinion, throughout the entire history of the world, including all known civilizations, there has never before been a way for anyone, anywhere, to instantly be their own boss without huge investment.
Sure, you still gotta know how to turn adsense into dollars in your account, but a Free eBook can cover that nicely for anyone with half a brain. It's still free and instant, minus the time of reading an ebook and trying it out for yourself. Hundreds or perhaps thousands of people like myself have become successful enough to tell their old bosses to shove it and never worry about money again.
That's called freeing the proletariat. (!)
Lenin and Marx and likely countless other leaders have all failed at this task. But google succeeded by giving us the tools we needed and I find it sad that no one is giving them credit for it.
You know it's a major change since google started this ball many others have followed suit. -I no longer earn the largest amount of my income from Adsense; EPN, Amazon, and many affiliate networks like CJ, CB, etc. all have the ability to be that source of income for some lucky ex-proletariat.
Never again need anyone (in a civilized country, at least) work for "the man." -They just need a few simple skills and they can be the boss of all they see and do.
Fuck governments... They simply can't compare to that kind of power in the hands of an individual!
You wouldn't even have the Internet if the technology necessary for it wasn't funded by DARPA for the US Department of defense, let alone have Google or anything else we take for granted.
Most people that make money from adsense earn minimum wage or less from it - real groundbreaking. There are some big earners from adsense but those are the types of people that would have earned money doing something else anyway. You make it sound like Adsense is changing people's lives or something. Anybody can just throw up a wordpress blog, slap up some adsense and quit their day jobs huh? Shit - 90% of the people on this forum can't even support themselves from all of their Internet activities, let alone just Adsense - and this forum is the cream of the crop in my opinion. Some of us are doing very well, but very few can say it's all because of Adsense.
The Magna Carta was shit. 500 years later and England was still ruled by a King. 1776 is when the world changed, not 1215.
I'm sorry, are you saying that the founding of the United States only affected the United States? The founding of the United States changed the course of human history and every political and economic system in the world as a result.
The invention you cite as changing the world started in 2003, not 2006. And they didn't develop the technology internally, they bought a company (forgot the name) that had developed it.
You sound like a crazy person. Peasants in Vietnam are climbing out of their rice paddies as we speak to make a living from their blogs...
If you want to give credit, give it to the Internet as a whole - not Google. Google has not played as large of a role as you seem to think. You cited other alternatives to Adsense, but half the ways you mentioned were around before Google. I used to make a killing on eBay before I had ever heard of Google (late nineties). Amazon was paying affiliates long before adsense. So was CJ and others. Dude you gotta get Sergey Brin's dick out your mouth - Google has done some cool shit and they're pretty big now but comparing them to the founding of the free world is fucking nuts.
So you're saying that the posse of 1776 founded the Internet or even DARPA? Jeez, even Al Gore wouldn't claim that...
This is your best argument. I have to remind myself sometimes that I haven't always been an adsense farmer, and that it wouldn't be easy for everyone.
However please name me one thing that anyone with an internet connection COULD learn in a few minutes, start working at a normal pace on, and literally start making enough to live on within 6 months or less. Without a boss. I know of no others.
It is that super-short learning curve, the ability to go from working for someone else to being your own boss pretty much instantly, that made Adsense special. The closest thing before that were all sales positions like the Avon lady... Things that took training, usually investment, and carried TOO MUCH RISK. -Adsense offered us literally no risk at all.
That's unique. History books WILL mention that, mark my words.
It's still technically ruled by royalty today, and yet, we still copied it.
They may not have enforced their laws, but they certainly wrote them down first.
They were both changes, and many other democracies have been born since (like India, a FAR larger democracy than our own) that have also copied the Magna Carta's model. -I haven't seen it myself but I be India's document prime is modeled closer to the brits than ours because they were basically run by the Brits for so long.
Saying the whole world changed in 1776 not 1215 is like saying Boeing made the first plane that matters at all.
My point here is that humans have had some form of government for tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of years.
Let that sink in for a second. In hundreds of thousands of years we've had MILLIONS of governments. Millions of them. How many times during this same period has something come along and granted everyone capable the ability to be of the highest class?
Seriously, this is really deep shit! Weather or not we have any capable people is totally beside the point... The fact is that they are signing the checks and no one else before ever DARED to do that!
Classic... You caught my typo... I made good money with adsense in 2005.
BUT WHO SIGNED THE CHECKS?
The act of Giving Power to the little guy, weather the little guy knew how to use that power or not, is my underlying point. Who else has done this, ecspecially facilitating that transfer of power down to the lowest possible level in our society without investment or other risk?
I bet a couple have. The rest may learn in time.
Tim Berners Lee, Darpa, and Al Gore haven't signed a single such check.
Affiliate networks had a bigger learning curve. More time spent learning meant more time not working and hence more risk.
Alright I'll just dismantle your whole argument real quick then.
Bloggers making $450/year from Adsense can now live on that?
Bloggers making $450/year from adsense are now part of the highest class?
Bloggers making $450/year from Adsense are now somehow empowered?
You see, your entire argument is invalid because there are very few people making a decent living from Adsense alone, and the ones that are, don't fit your description of being these peasants without any skills. They are good content producers, skilled webmasters or coders, or just all-around good business people/marketers. These people aren't making money because of Adsense, they are making money because they have skills. All of these people you seem to think have been empowered aren't making dick with Adsense because solely earning from Adsense is probably the shittiest business model online.
How many people that otherwise would not be earning a living online do you really think have quit their jobs and are now earning a comfortable living online? By your own description, these would be people with little to no skills beyond setting up a blog and installing adsense. How many people really? A few hundred? Maybe a couple thousand? That's not quite "changing the world".
Bloggers making $450/year from Adsense can now live on that?
Bloggers making $450/year from adsense are now part of the highest class?
Bloggers making $450/year from Adsense are now somehow empowered?
You see, your entire argument is invalid because there are very few people making a decent living from Adsense alone, and the ones that are, don't fit your description of being these peasants without any skills. They are good content producers, skilled webmasters or coders, or just all-around good business people/marketers. These people aren't making money because of Adsense, they are making money because they have skills. All of these people you seem to think have been empowered aren't making dick with Adsense because solely earning from Adsense is probably the shittiest business model online.
How many people that otherwise would not be earning a living online do you really think have quit their jobs and are now earning a comfortable living online? By your own description, these would be people with little to no skills beyond setting up a blog and installing adsense. How many people really? A few hundred? Maybe a couple thousand? That's not quite "changing the world".
Argument still solid. I'm not talking about fools; I'm speaking of people like myself who have a few marbles but didn't have a way out of their dead-end careers. Smart people that didn't have a chance to step up before. The Proletariat of the 21st century.
Google helped me step up and out of that position; not an investment, not a boss, not a long period of hard work, just google, my websites and an internet connection.
Even if I was loosening my description to people not so much like myself, People with skills; the fact is their skills were misdirected and if they used them for anyone other than a BOSS they would be out on the street in no time.
Anyway, my earlier point covers this argument better; "Weather or not we have any capable people is totally beside the point... The fact is that (google is) signing the checks and no one else before ever DARED to do that!"
So you just aren't seeing the bigger picture here. Google DID something (as in past tense) that changed the world. They started a trend and that trend is growing. Now there are many networks that will pay you well for ad space on your blog. This trend will grow. It certainly is inside facebook.
Eventually we're talking about a large percentage of the population, I'd say roughly equivalent to the number of people (worldwide) that work for ad agencies today, who make their primary living by selling ad space online.
So stop talking about the blogger who makes $450/year from Adsense... My standards are a bit higher than that and you sound naive enough to not believe it's possible to be successful at adsense to people like me.
I have accepted that a vast majority of people, (evidence: Facebook) do not wish to better themselves enough to actually earn a living online. They believe that working at a J.O.B. is "normal" and "safe" and sadly they don't find out until much later that there is actually a reason to earn a living online.
If this 'blinders-on" phenomenon did not exist, and people actually had the will to learn how to really earn a living online, then Adsense can allow them to do it very, very quickly.
Until recently there was nothing at all to do that. Nada. In all of human frickin' history.
This is my main point. Now you can, Before you could not.
Even if I'm the only person on earth who has, It exists. Now.
I say it is.
Let's say that today, in January of 2011, it is only 300 people. Three effects will ensure that this number grows quickly:
1. (Copycats) Adsense already has Copycat competitors. I make more money with one of those copycats than I do with adsense so the growth rate of this is obviously going up and would not die tomorrow if Facebook bought out google and shut adsense down or something like that.
2. (On Ramp) Adsense is the easy way to get money fast, but once you've got a little, as I'm sure you know, you want more monetizers on your site and learn about things like CJ, CPA forms, revshare, etc. Adsense is a stepping stone to more ways to be successful, while paying your bills in the meantime. (Which allows ppl the time away from a J.O.B. in order to be a success.)
3. (Time & tech adoptation) Adsense is a first-gen solution. Imagine when someone does it better. (Like the upcoming Open Graph might.) Or Imagine if two adsense farmers marry and raise little adsense farming children who are already financially secure by age 17.
Over time:
The people will multiply, & they talk to their friends about it.
The Tech will multiply, it could get more easy to be successful at.
The availability will multiply, as more countries get online all the time and internet adoption is currently exploding.
So, by 2016, say, I'd put that number in the realm of 10,000 or more people, and by 2025, it could be that EVERYONE who isn't a retard and prefers a J.O.B. will make some money online and only those who enjoy doing so will choose to spend their entire career doing it.
We'll certainly have more choices by then. Either way, the world will have changed. Much.
And Google started it all. -At least give them that much, despite any evil things they did to your private life.
Dear Rebecca,
In regards to your doubts about what constitutes "a true Renaissance Man," <INSERT OBLIGATORY ANTI-FEMINIST JOKE HERE>.
Sincerely,
Luke
Just got out of the kitchen and thought I'd check in. I've noticed a distinct lack of real responses to my (rather legitimate) question.
I'll leave you gentlemen in peace. Maybe later y'all can go pummel wild beasts with your manly fists to impress us hapless females. LOL!
Don't kid yourself - you're still working for a boss. If you depend on Adsense, then when Google decides to bitch slap you you'll be out on the street just like someone with a real job. Google is your boss and will fire your ass just like they've fired thousands of other adsense earners.
Again, you're giving credit to Google for something that they did not start. They improved on it, but they didn't "start the trend".
Adsense is useless if you can't generate traffic. If you do know how to generate traffic, then Adsense is probably not your first choice for monetization is it?
No, they didn't "start it all". I'm not knocking Google either, I'm just saying that your perception of their role in history is so fucking delusional that I had to say something. Feel free to continue to live in your utopian adsense farming reality though.
You're totally not listening, dude. I've said in many places that G isn't my #1 source of income anymore. If they DROP me (there is a difference... I have some control over that drop, not a human being's whims) then I'm not destitute. That ad space gets replaced on my sites.
Did NASA get the first man on the moon? I think we'll give them credit for that, despite the Russians getting the first dog, Human, and satellite in Space.
Yes, they stood on the shoulders of others, but Google crossed the "finish line" first. They perfected the process of making it easy to make your first buck online. -Which Affiliate programs or banner ad exchange made it so easy that a complete Noob could do the same before them?
So you were listening when I said it's no longer my #1 choice? Very confusing dude, stop waffling like that when it suits your argument.
In the olden days of yore, say, 1998, it was to difficult for a layman to monetize his site. Adsense vastly improved that, but did little to help the traffic source problem.
Then sites like hubpages, squidoo, and other revshare sites came along and everyone who can log into one could get money for their content, with no learning curve whatsoever.
So although it's true that you can't 'be successful' without driving traffic, anyone who has the will to succeed can drive it. -That's specifically the learning curve I spoke about above, and it basically comes down to doing linkbait up front for popular sites, and then mass producing sites forever afterwards to play the numbers game. I'm sure both methods of driving traffic are well covered in free ebooks online today.
I felt I had to say something because something exists that you deny; I guess if you're not an adsense farmer or you didn't get started specifically that way then you might not have been able to appreciate it.
I'd frankly rather you Knock Google. They have done some questionable shit in their day, under the guise of "doing no evil." I for one would NEVER put analytics on my sites or use a few other spyware apps they distribute.
But at the same time I feel the history books will show decades from now that something started here, back in 2003 to be exact, that allowed a new, never-before-achievable existence for mankind... The possibility for anyone to not work for others.
You may have not noticed this, but before we all started making money online, there weren't many options but the following:
1. Be rich by inheritance or some other unfair means.
2. Work hard for someone else for DECADES at a JOB.
3. Win a friggin' lottery... But then not knowing how to make it means you run through it really quick and it's gone.
....And that's about it.
So just give G a little bit of credit for making an online income in reach of the common man.
Did all common men flock to it and make it a home run? No. Common men turned out to be lazy.
But they have the opportunity to do so, and that's all I'm saying G deserves credit for here.
Plenty of entrepreneurs throughout history would disagree with your conclusion.
The problem is, you're taking Google's importance in your life, and trying to transpose that over to the rest of humanity and that's just ridiculous. What you are describing would be far more accurate if you replace the word "Google" with "The Internet", because Google is only one small way that people make money on The Internet. They just aren't as relevant as you want them to be. Hell, eBay transformed the economy more than Google. So has Paypal.
Farkin hell, that's not unique. I'll name you one thing that someone can learn in a matter of minutes that will make money without an internet connection.
I guess you've never heard of selling something to someone for more than you know you can buy it for, then taking their money, buying the item and giving it to them? I reckon people have been doing this since before christ was born, much less before the internet or google.
(providing you're in a 1st world country) You don't need money to start a business and 'work from home' and if you are a creative thinker, you never did.
Edit: Btw, I see you've been reading too much Kioysaki or perhaps spent too much time on investing forums or the other WF. There are plenty of people with a J.O.B. that aren't 'just over broke'
FUCK!
Think and Grow Rich was written in 1926 (or around then). 'making money from home' existed WELL before the internet and in fact before everyone started to specialize, MOST of the world were self employed business owners selling shit to each other.
I guess you didn't look too hard at the exhibits while you were in that museum huh?
The Entrepreneurial path must coincide with one of the above choices, or the entrepreneur doesn't get to eat.
This is an interesting thought. I'm talking about a corporation offering something to the people that nobody or no thing in human history has dared to do before, and you make it all about me. Hmm.
Sure we, and by we I specifically mean those of us smart enough to take advantage of adsense and prospering from it, are few. But we are something that COULD NOT HAVE EXISTED BEFORE. And we are growing. Get it??
I've already granted you that they are standing on the shoulders of other preceeding accomplishments, most importantly the internet.
But they are the FIRST to DARE to sign the Checks, period.
What a risky move that was! Imagine those two young nerds back in 2003 talking about it:
E: "Whats the worst that could happen?"
S: "We could owe half the known world $1,000 each this time next month?"
E: "Nahh.... Let's do it anyway. It'll be fun."
It was risky. They had no idea what the adoption rate would be. Lucky for them most Americans have the work ethic of a drunken Orangutan.
My great grandfather on my moms side made, bottled, and sold wine during the prohibition.
My grandfather on my dads side sold $.25 cent lunches during the great depression and later started a successful photography store.
This is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about and this is my conclusion:
For some of us the internet is the reason we don't work at normal jobs, for others it's just the vehicle for an outcome that was inevitable.
what the fuck are you talking about?
You can repeat this as much as you'd like, but it will never make it true. They were not the first to sign checks, or the first to give people a way to earn money online. Jesus Christ you've been drinking some serious Google kool-aid.
Your complete lack of understanding of their business model makes all your prior ridiculous conclusions make perfect sense now...
My guess is that you are confusing Google with what the information age has brought.
What we see nowadays is that the tools for production are available for a cheap price, enabling the "little man" to earn money on his own.
This has nothing to do with google, though, but with technology in general and computer technology in particular.
Wanted to write a newspaper 100 years ago? You better had some deep pockets.
Nowadays?
Cheap netbook + Wordpress = bingo, there ya go blogging.
But this is only one example.
Even other professions get this advantage of cheap digital technology.
Photography equipment has gone down in prices immensely.
Digital SLR + hard work + stock photography sites = Photographer with international customers.
Don't confuse adsense with lower barrier to entry due to technology and the internet.
::emp::
What we see nowadays is that the tools for production are available for a cheap price, enabling the "little man" to earn money on his own.
This has nothing to do with google, though, but with technology in general and computer technology in particular.
Wanted to write a newspaper 100 years ago? You better had some deep pockets.
Nowadays?
Cheap netbook + Wordpress = bingo, there ya go blogging.
But this is only one example.
Even other professions get this advantage of cheap digital technology.
Photography equipment has gone down in prices immensely.
Digital SLR + hard work + stock photography sites = Photographer with international customers.
Don't confuse adsense with lower barrier to entry due to technology and the internet.
::emp::