I’ve been building web applications for 24 years, long enough to ride almost every big tech wave...
Dot-coms, outsourcing, SEO farms, social media, MOOCs, crypto, and now AI. Each time, the story feels new, the hype feels unstoppable, and then the crash feels inevitable. But if you stick around long enough, you notice a pattern. The dust settles, the noise fades, and the people who win are the ones who bring something uniquely human to the table.
1. The Dot-Com Bubble (late 1990s → early 2000s)
- Bandwagon: Everyone rushed to launch an internet startup. You didn’t even need a product. All you needed was a domain name, a vague plan, and preferably a sock puppet mascot.
- Distortion: Money poured into nonsense companies (think Pets.com and Webvan), valuations ballooned, and actual business fundamentals were ignored.
- Backlash: The bubble burst in 2000–2001, wiping out most of the hype-driven players.
- Partial reversion: Investors went back to valuing companies on revenue and sustainability. But the internet didn’t die. Amazon, eBay, and Google emerged stronger with real models.
2. Outsourcing/Offshoring Craze (2000s)
- Bandwagon: Western firms outsourced call centers, IT support, and even dev work to India, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe to cut costs.
- Distortion: Customers hated scripted call centers, cultural gaps slowed down problem-solving, and quality suffered.
- Backlash: Many firms pulled services back in-house or did "nearshoring" to culturally closer countries.
- Partial reversion: Outsourcing never disappeared, but it evolved. Now it’s more about specialized outsourcing (e.g. niche dev shops, managed cloud services) than blanket cost-cutting.
3. SEO Content Farms (2008–2012)
- Bandwagon: Companies realized Google rewarded keyword-heavy content, so armies of writers churned out low-quality "How to tie your shoelaces" articles.
- Distortion: Search results became spammy wastelands and a place where you could learn how to boil water in 500 words, with three ads in the middle.
- Backlash: Google rolled out Panda and Penguin algorithm updates, crushing content farms overnight.
- Partial reversion: Today SEO still matters, but content has to actually be good (or at least look good). Human creativity and expertise regained value.
4. Social Media Marketing Gold Rush (2010s)
- Bandwagon: Every brand jumped onto Facebook and Twitter thinking free reach would guarantee infinite eyeballs.
- Distortion: Newsfeeds turned into branded noise. User trust eroded, and platforms throttled organic reach.
- Backlash: Companies realized "posting memes" wasn’t a real strategy. Ad budgets soared as pay-to-play became the rule.
- Partial reversion: Organic social is now mainly for authenticity and community, not growth hacking. The pendulum swung back to quality storytelling, influencer partnerships, and good old-fashioned word-of-mouth.
5. MOOC Hype (Massive Open Online Courses, 2012–2014)
- Bandwagon: MOOCs were supposed to "democratize education" and replace universities. Everyone signed up for Coursera, Udacity, edX courses.
- Distortion: Completion rates were abysmal, people treated free courses like Netflix backlog, and employers didn’t value them.
- Backlash: Critics declared MOOCs a failure. Universities weren’t replaced.
- Partial reversion: Now MOOCs are seen as supplements, not substitutes. They’re valuable for upskilling, but the core of higher education is still in-person degrees and credentials.
6. Crypto & NFTs (2017 → 2022)
- Bandwagon: Everyone and their grandma bought Bitcoin or launched an NFT project.
- Distortion: Wild speculation, scams, and meme-coins. JPEGs of rocks sold for millions.
- Backlash: Crashes, rug pulls, regulatory crackdowns.
- Partial reversion: Blockchain tech didn’t vanish. Finance, supply chain, and niche art projects still explore it. The mania cooled, and we circled back to "does this actually solve a problem?"
7. The AI Craze (2022 → ?)
- Bandwagon: Everyone jumped on ChatGPT, image generators, and "AI-powered everything." Resume writing, copywriting, coding helpers, art. If it could be automated, it was.
- Distortion: Noise floods every channel. Identical resumes, spammy AI-generated LinkedIn posts, copy-pasted code with subtle bugs, and "AI startups" with no real moat. HR responds with AI filters, writers with AI detectors, schools with plagiarism checks.
- Backlash: People are already complaining the internet feels bland, recruiters distrust applications, and "authenticity" suddenly becomes a hot commodity. We now live in a world where even the bots are tired of reading what the other bots wrote.
- Partial reversion: Humans reassert themselves as the differentiator. Referrals matter more, unique work shines brighter, and communities become filters for trust.
Hype cycles feel chaotic when you’re in them, but in hindsight they’re reassuring. The dot-com crash didn’t kill the internet, outsourcing didn’t end jobs, MOOCs didn’t replace universities, and crypto didn’t turn money into monkey JPEGs.
Every wave leaves something useful behind. AI will be no different. Once the dust settles, the gimmicks fade and the infrastructure stays.
The lesson is simple: balance wins, real value wins, and those who keep their heads usually come out ahead.
Cover photo by Liliane Buntinx - Sunset Silhouette of Unique Spiral Staircase on Pexels