Info Titans

MY DESK is littered with year-end trade publications hyping the heroes of The Revolution. They shout cover lines like “The Fifty Most Important People in Info-Technology,” “Ten Fast-Trackers to Watch for 1997,” “Rising Stars of the Infotainment Industry.” You get the idea. A few years back, we all loved it when George Gilder began to do that info-thing of his. George could sell laptops to Bedouins. But then the hard-eyed money guys came along, doing the deals, and levitating initial public offerings with good stories but (drop your voice), well, no, no actual sales. Now even the mainstream media are breaking out in an info-sweat. Take Newsweek’s auto-erotic cover line: “Microsoft: Bill’s Next Vision.” Hmm. If reporting on The Revolution were a dance craze, it would now be in the macarena stage. Even Al Gore would be hip to it.

Well, let me add my own list to the year-end pile. How about, “Three Guys Who May Trip, Fall Hard, and Hurt the Rest of Us Really Badly.”

About the Author

Neal B. Freeman

Neal B. Freeman, businessman and journalist, was a director of National Review Inc. for 38 years.

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MY DESK is littered with year-end trade publications hyping the heroes of The Revolution. They shout cover lines like “The Fifty Most Important People in Info-Technology,” “Ten Fast-Trackers to Watch for 1997,” “Rising Stars of the Infotainment Industry.” You get the idea. A few years back, we all loved it when George Gilder began to do that info-thing of his. George could sell laptops to Bedouins. But then the hard-eyed money guys came along, doing the deals, and levitating initial public offerings with good stories but (drop your voice), well, no, no actual sales. Now even the mainstream media are breaking out in an info-sweat. Take Newsweek’s auto-erotic cover line: “Microsoft: Bill’s Next Vision.” Hmm. If reporting on The Revolution were a dance craze, it would now be in the macarena stage. Even Al Gore would be hip to it.

Well, let me add my own list to the year-end pile. How about, “Three Guys Who May Trip, Fall Hard, and Hurt the Rest of Us Really Badly.”