The Illusion of Progress

Show Notes

The Illusion of Progress: Avoiding the Faster Horses Trap in 2025

In this episode of Old School New Tech, host Ran Aroussi delves into the difference between real progress and the illusion of progress, using historical examples like the retail industry's initial forays onto the internet and mobile phone companies' reactions to the iPhone. He discusses how today's 'make me an AI' mentality mirrors past missteps and emphasizes the need for true transformation rather than superficial changes. Aroussi challenges companies to ask the hard, transformative questions necessary for genuine progress. Sponsored by Automaze, this episode urges listeners to reconsider how they integrate new technologies into their business strategies.

00:00 Introduction and Sponsor Message
00:52 A Look Back at 1997: The Illusion of Progress
02:14 Nokia and the iPhone Revolution
03:20 The Real Revolution: Beyond Incremental Improvements
04:36 AI in 2025: The New 'Make Me an Internet'
05:33 Asking the Hard Questions for True Transformation
06:49 Conclusion and Call to Action

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Creators and Guests

Host

Ran Aroussi

Building software and AI for companies that can't afford to guess | Automaze •VarOps

What is Old School / New Tech?

Old school thinking meets new tech — an unfiltered podcast, hosted by Ran Aroussi and a co-host you won’t see coming.

​Live every episode. No production lag, no editing. Business, AI, tech, startup ideas, and whatever's worth talking about — through the lens of someone who's been building production systems for 35+ years

Ran: Hey everyone.

Welcome back to Old School New
Tech.

I'm your host, Ran Aroussi, and
today I want to talk about

something that's been on my mind
lately, and it might make some

of you uncomfortable.

It's, about the difference
between real progress and just

pretending to make progress.

But before that, I want to
mention that this episode is

brought to you by Automaze, My
agency, that's a full service

technology partner for startups
and businesses that need more

than just code auto.

Automaze's CTO as a service,
combines strategy, engineering,

and startup thinking without the
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automaze.io All right, let's
dive in.

Let me take you back to 1997.

Picture this, i'm running a
small web development agency,

and clients would literally come
to me and say, and I'm not

making this up"make me an
internet".

That was the entire belief.

Just make me an internet.

I remember, one day we were
sitting in this corporate

boardroom of major retail chain
with, uh, glossy brochures

everywhere, awards on the walls,
very expensive art as well.

They even brought in the CEO to
impress us.

Their big revolutionary move
into the digital age was.

They wanted to put their entire
product catalog online.

That's it.

Customer would still have to
call in orders or physically

show up at the branches.

They thought they were crushing
it, But sitting there, I had a

feeling that they were already
dead and years later, I was

proven right.

Amazon was coming, eBay was
coming, Shopify was on the

horizon.

The entire business model was
about to get vaporized.

But in their minds, they have
already done the internet.

You know, they checked the box,
they moved on.

That's not progress.

That's the illusion of progress,
and you can see it everywhere.

Let's take Nokia for example.

We love to mock Nokia and
Blackberry for missing the

iPhone revolution.

We all tend to think that they
were asleep at the wheel, but

here's the thing, they weren't
asleep at the wheel because when

Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone,
Nokia's, CFO actually said, and

I quote.

This launch would benefit us.

The iPhone will expand the
market and people will choose

our N95.

They thought they had it
covered.

They were making improvements,
they were adding features.

They were iterating over their
designs, but they were stuck in

that same illusion.

You see, the winners that were
emerging weren't just adding

mobile features to their
existing products.

They were becoming mobile.

Think about it.

Uber wasn't possible without GPS
a touch screen and an app store

in everyone's pocket.

They weren't mobile enabled.

They weren't a taxi with a
mobile app.

They were mobile.

That's a massive difference.

There's a famous quote by Henry
Ford, you may have heard before.

He said, if I had asked people
what they wanted, they would

have said faster horses.

And that's the trap right there.

A lot of companies are focusing
on incremental improvements,

making things faster, cheaper,
shinier, which is great, But

this approach also comes with
the risk of missing that

tectonic shift that's happening
right beneath their feet,

another example is that when
Thomas Addison lit up, Manhattan

back in, the 1880s, he imagined
maybe a few thousands of light

bulbs, at peak demand.

That was the grand vision.

He couldn't even picture washing
machines or televisions,

microwaves, computers.

He definitely didn't see how
electricity would reshape

society itself, enabling women
to enter the workforce.

Teenagers, spending the entire
summers glued to PlayStations.

And that's the thing with real
revolutions, it's easy to see

the first domino brick fall, but
we can't imagine the avalanche

that will follow.

And the reason I'm mentioning
all of this is because we are

now in 2025 and.

It seems to me that the make me
an Internet of the nineties has

become, make me an ai and you
can see it everywhere.

Companies rolling out these cute
little AI side projects so the

CEO can tell the board on their
next quarterly meeting.

Don't worry, we are doing ai.

We're there.

It's the modern version of that,
product catalog website.

And look, there's nothing wRang
with experimenting.

We should all be experimenting
pretty much always.

The danger is when we mistake it
for actual transformation.

And when I'm really honest with
myself, when I ask if my own

company has truly changed
because of ai.

The answer is not enough.

And we're a company that's
heavily using ai.

Because the real question isn't
how do we add AI to what we're

doing?

The real questions are way
scarier, What do we need to

completely dismantle so we can
rebuild from scratch?

Or how are our customers
fundamentally changing, not just

what they want, but who they're
becoming?

How is the entire business model
shifting underneath us?

Again, think taxis versus Uber.

Where is the power moving to?

Is it to the customers, the
platforms, to someone we haven't

even thought of yet?

How can we deliver not just two
x value, but 10 x value?

Think Google versus Yellow Pages
and, and this is crucial.

What will never change?

What's a human need that stays
consistent no matter what.

Technology comes along.

Because if we don't ask these
questions, the hard ones, the

scary ones, we'll end up exactly
like that.

Bankrupt retail chain I met back
in 97.

Sitting in a shiny boardroom
surrounding by achievements of

the past, telling ourselves that
we are relevant while the world

reshapes itself around us.

The illusion of progress is
comfortable.

Real progress, however, is
terrifying, but it's the only

kind that matters.

So these are my thoughts on
faster horses in 2025.

I would really love to hear your
thoughts about this.

Are you seeing the illusion of
progress in your industry?

Find me on X.

Drop me a line.

I'd love to hear what you think.

I want to thank you for
listening, everyone, That's it

for this episode.

See you on the next one.