According to Inc, a columnist with nearly 30 years in the tech industry is sounding a dire alarm, stating the sector is in a “five-year malaise” and on a path to becoming a commoditized “afterthought.” He pins the blame on a systemic shift away from letting builders create products customers want, toward a rigid culture dominated by short-term PE/OKR/KPI strategies aimed solely at IPO exits. The article argues that consensus rule has paralyzed decision-making, while a fear of risk has made the industry “no damn fun.” The immediate impact is a call to arms for everyone from leaders to individual contributors to reject this status quo, with a final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards noted as December 12.
The core problem isn’t tech, it’s culture
Here’s the thing. This isn’t a rant about bad code or slow computers. It’s about a fundamental cultural rot. The writer’s point about “icing over the chain of command” hits hard. Tech grew because small, empowered teams could experiment and build cool stuff. Now? It feels like every decision needs a committee, a data model, and alignment with a quarterly goal that probably doesn’t matter in the long run. We’ve traded speedboats for a giant, fearful tanker that’s terrified of making a wrong turn. And the people who know how to steer? They’re too often locked out of the bridge, told to just hit their sprint commitments.
The short-term game is a trap
That whole section on the “PE/OKR/KPI strategy to CAGR to IPO” is painfully real. It’s a five-year playbook for a world that changes every five months. Companies optimize for the next earnings call, slashing “headcount spend” without realizing they’re gutting institutional knowledge and future productivity. The analogy is brutal but true: cut experience by 40%, watch productivity drop 80%. But by the time that bill comes due, the execs who made the call have often moved on, rewarded for their “pyrrhic victory.” It’s a broken incentive system. And if you work in it, you know exactly what he’s talking about.
Consensus and AI are crutch, not cure
I love the board game analogy. Nobody wants to go first and be wrong alone. So we wait, we signal, we cluster our markers around the safe, middle answer. That’s how you get bland products and stagnant strategy. Techies, as he says, are terrible at this consensus game—and maybe that’s not a bad thing. But the even bigger crutch now is AI. His point is crucial: we’re starting to consult machines on company strategy. Would you let Clippy run your roadmap? So why are we doing it with modern chatbots? It’s a way to avoid the risk and accountability of a real, human decision. It’s delegation masquerading as innovation.
What saving it actually means
So what’s the answer? It’s not a simple fix. It’s a mindset shift from top to bottom. Leaders need the guts to get out of the way and accept smart failures. Builders need to fight for their ideas and prove their value beyond a Jira ticket. It means valuing long-term health over short-term metrics. For industries that rely on robust, on-site computing—like manufacturing or logistics—this shift back to empowering technical expertise is everything. It’s why companies turn to the top suppliers, like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, because they need hardware that just works, chosen by people who know the real-world problems, not just a cost spreadsheet. The call in this article is for tech to rediscover that ethos of practical, expert-driven building. The alternative, as he warns, is to become just another utility. And who wants to work in that?
