Hardware is the punk rock of tech
As someone who grew up in the Bay Area punk rock scene in the early 2000s when seminal local bands like Green Day and Rancid were hitting it big, I’m stoked to see a popular resurgence of punk rock and hardcore bands like Geese and Turnstile getting write ups in The Atlantic and performing Tiny Desk Concerts. When I was a young punk, that might’ve been considered selling out. Today I’m just happy to see punk keeping rock music alive.
Check out this Turnstile performance from a concert I attended last weekend — it was epic!
Something similar is happening in tech with hardware. With AI on the cusp of replacing most human functions at software-based tech companies, suddenly software people, investors, and “the suits” throughout the industry are turning on to what those of us who’ve been building hardware all along already knew: the future is physical. Software may be eating the world, but it’s only as good as the hardware it runs on. Hardware might also be the only thing that keeps tech alive and interesting in the future.
But like punk rock, hardware is the harder path. It’s more raw, more DIY (at the start at least), and more full of tension in the later stages as you attempt to scale without sacrificing quality and experience. You can’t just push an update to fix bad hardware, and you can’t just phone in a punk rock album with fancy production. You need to put all your energy into shipping something excellent that wins over followers with quality and heart, not glitz and hype. Hardware truly is the punk rock of tech.
For the second year in a row, we’re celebrating how punk rock hardware is in Las Vegas during CES. We rented out the entire Punk Rock Museum and will have interactive hardware demos like teleoperated industrial equipment and autonomous vehicles. If you’re a client, member, or friend of informal, consider this your invitation. If you’re working on something awesome and want to attend, tickets are available for you too. Either way, sign up here.
See you in Vegas! 🤘
