Musings

“Developers, developers, developers” chanted former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the peak of the hysteria.

Microsoft needed developers and quickly, if they were going to remain the reigning champs of personal computers.

There was one problem, their solutions required a population educated on their specific flavor of technical debt.

Hi, my name is Tyler Childs, and I was 11 years old in the year 2000 when Steve decided to come for my generation as a corporate strategy.

I won't wax poetic, but save to say, the year is 2023 and not a single tech executive has read Sun Tzu's Art of War and thinks their company will survive if they stay out of the education pipeline.

So here I am, trying to wedge my way into the education pipeline, but here is where I am different. I won't describe transparency as a cancer.

For your children to be able to defend themselves, we need to give them tools. I've designed the tools I would need to be given at age 11 to rebuff not only Microsoft, but the entirety of the digital shell game.

Why now?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is approaching general awareness and this has caused alarm in some circles.

AI is an existential threat to middle men everywhere.

AI undoes acquisition after acquisition after acquisition and some of those purchase prices are still on the balance sheet and have not finished amortizing.

Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016, 8 years after I began using it for professional networking. AI will be able to connect work to workers without this.

Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion in 2018, 7 years after I began using it for collaborative software forging. AI will be able to connect users to software without developers.

Microsoft acquired NPM in an undisclosed agreement in 2020, 6 years after I began using it for software distribution. AI is irrelevant here, because this was mostly a short sighted landgrab that will go down in history as the server-side edition of internet explorer adjacent shenanigans.

These are three acquisitions that have negatively impacted my efforts to avoid dealing with Microsoft— a mission I've had since childhood.

They've had many acquisitions over the years and I cannot tell you the stories behind each one, but I can tell you a common thread.

Each was a threat to their business. AI is a threat that cannot be acquired, but my god are they trying with OpenAI.

I digress. Sillyz.Computer has no AI or monetization strategy baked in.

But your children should be able to easily layer these on top and take down not just Microsoft, but every tech company. Please help the children win this time.

Let them be a threat.