Draft

Software Inherently Makes Processes Faster

The media frames Silicon Valley as this generation’s innovation center. The truth that the public doesn’t know is that software itself is just re-inventing the wheel to be slightly faster for the end user on their phones or computers.

At the end of the day, software makes processes efficient or automated. In many B2B SaaS apps, the goal is to integrate a lot of their processes into a SaaS and let the SaaS handle any form of automation. The most prominent example is Zapier, and Zapier-like workflows are found in many business applications.

Software is a Process Innovator

Software makes processes faster, either by code or by design. Programming languages and frameworks natively accelerate coders and their applications. SaaS companies are not innovating in code; in fact, they advocate for easier-to-use software like Python/JavaScript which are inherently slower but faster to write than other programming languages due to labor costs. Rather, SaaS companies are innovating in process.

Consider the La Guardia Airport redesign. In 2019, La Guardia reconstructed Terminal B to lessen the amount of reading and instead guide passengers through the terminal via space. This shift in thinking from too many confusing signs towards natural guidance by space is a process innovation. SaaS websites use their designs to control their large user base’s behavior to exert a desired effect. For instance, Reddit’s threaded comments encourage deep discussions compared to YouTube’s single depth replies which encourage quick, short comments. Even from an operation’s standpoint, Reddit’s voluntary moderation and per-subreddit-rules force a certain behavior in a subreddit.

Rippling is an example of creating the most efficient backoffice automation platform for HR and IT administration. It makes cross-department processes efficient by creating software that centralizes decision-making onto their platform. They have automation rules — such as deactivating an employee’s email when they leave — that can be set up to avoid manual, repeated tasks.

However, by design, software can shift human behavior. I have a theory on large civilizations being unnatural, unpredictable, almost like the Joker, such that our genetics tuned us to live in small tribes and cannot comprehend how to handle, arbitrate, negotiate, and live in large civilizations. I find software similar to laws written by people to control the masses where software is written to accelerate a desired effect — whether it is to make a community or to make business processes faster.

Physics, the Actual Innovator

Billionaires and Silicon Valley bros like some of my peers have been moving towards hard tech because it’s viewed as an actual frontier in tech: quantum computing, supersonic planes, robotics, brain tech. They see physics as a way of unlocking the next frontier in human civilization, and the Internet leading to many successes is possibly the seed idea of why many believe in this.

There’s a video about how Billionaires want you to know they could have done physics that captures this sentiment, though I find it backwards: people in the Valley have realized software is mostly solved, and solving software problems is mostly choosing a framework, looking up an answer, or making a solution yourself. In software, there are no unknowns: even if you have to make something yourself or debug a problem, it may be hard, but the solution can definitely be made with enough effort.

When making frontier hard tech, there’s an element of unknowns. You can’t just throw money at a problem and expect a solution. Sometimes, the science hasn’t been invented. I think software people have realized that any software can be made with enough money, effort, and the right person for the job. But in hardware, you can choose the brightest mind, but there may be too many unknowns, a missing stroke of luck from someone who has not been born, or insufficient new science to actually build what people want like teleportation.

”Physics” is not a single field like software where software is limited to two objectives (efficiency and automation). Hardware engineering is akin to software where each field unlocks a way for humans to perform their innate activities — curiosity, exploration, destruction. But physics is an exploration to describe the unknowns which hardware engineers take advantage of to unlock ways for humans to do those aforementioned activities.

Describing the unknowns is a tough feat — what makes it tougher is that throwing money at it doesn’t mean a discovery will happen; one has to be the right person for the job. Science is a peculiar thing; we think throwing money can accelerate our understanding of the universe. It takes a stroke of genius and millions of babies and billions of government funds in education and food to create a genius. But when we think of advancements, it is not in ground-breaking scientific discovery but money driven.

I think many tech bros have an ego problem, and that’s why many say they could’ve done physics.

I think broke tech bros are self-indulging in their insecurities by pivoting to hard tech and proving that they are smart.

Software is Still Cool, Maybe not Frontier

Even with LLMs like GPT, it’s an efficiency enhancer. Rather than writing custom logic to do something, LLMs can help. But the innovation of LLMs come from the frontier of their hard tech — the improvements in GPUs.

I still find Silicon Valley innovative in the sense that they are able to make businesses and people’s lives more efficient, whether that be through automation or a nicely designed website that creates a more efficient process in a business. But software is a performance enhancer, not an unlocker.