SXSW - small ideas, ennui, exhaustion, and BBQ

Kara Swisher at SXSW: Too Much BBQ, Not Enough Fresh Ideas | Vanity Fair: " . . . To be fair, it’s hard to resist that with great BBQ places like Ironworks so close by the Austin Convention Center and then the endless food trucks offering ribs, chicken, pulled pork, and more. So you don’t—unless you are a dedicated vegan with a whole lot of self-control. But if you continue on your truth-telling journey, the vague ennui and inevitable exhaustion felt at SXSW is actually due this year to more than bad choices of protein. It’s that there has really been little fresh to see, interactively-speaking—no apps or technology that has jumped out at you and grabbed your attention the way Foursquare or Twitter most definitely had in the past. Maybe it’s because tech is running out of bracing ideas, which is the constant agonizing worry of those in Silicon Valley and the topic of a periodic mainstream-media thumbsucker on the issue that is usually titled: “Is Innovation Dead?” It’s not and really never is, although some fret that in the new app-centric, mobile-obsessed tech culture, perhaps some of the ideas are also shrinking. “There are a lot of big minds chasing small ideas,” said one weary investor to me recently. . . ."

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