If you started tech in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you must have received two certifications: CCNA and MCSE. Yes, Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MSCE) were basic requirements to work in most leading IT organizations. We got them; the more ambitious techies would get OCP (Oracle Certified Professional).
With CCNA and MCSE, you were sure of a job because IT was booming. In the bank, three of my colleagues left for the US within weeks; American companies interviewed them, and the US Embassy sent them work permits via FEDEX! Like the Japa of nurses and doctors of today, Sheraton Hotels Ikeja used to be a gathering place of IT guys and American recruiters!
As that was happening, Cisco left the world, out of the influence of gravity as the stock price hit records. Then CEO John Chambers was a household name in the world of business: Cisco will network and connect the world. Bill Gates who signed the MCSE certifications was on a huge ascension as Microsoft powered the world with Windows.
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Then, there was a bubble, and like the Chemistry lab experiment you did in secondary school, where you added base (sodium hydroxide, NaOH) and acid (hydrochloric acid, HCl) to produce salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) and water (H2O), delivering an effervescent effect, everything disappeared, and stock prices were neutralized. Yes, like that lab experiment, the world of the market system was neutralized producing an effervescent effect (yes, BUBBLES) when a chemical reaction in a liquid produces a gaseous product.
Today, people are discussing the Nvidia parabolic ungravity to what happened to Cisco. Here is my take: the future is full of abundance, and technology will continue to unlock it. That Cisco faded did not mean that Apple, Facebook, Tesla, Huawei, etc did not rise. Yes, Nvidia could fade, but that does not mean there would be a tech industry effervescence because the human anions and cations [God bless my Chemistry teachers: Mr Ekeabu and Mr. Udeagu Jnr] must still congregate in the creation of products to fix market frictions.
Simply, new reactions will happen, and we can decompose the tech equivalent of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3 = N2O + 2H2O) to have nitrous oxide (the laughing gas), and everyone will be laughing because better tech awaits.
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To begin with, it’s been ages since I read/heard anions and cations, in fact the anions first looked like onions, until I took a second look. Chemistry of the old…
Cisco had its moment, just like IBM, until the goalpost shifted. Nvidia will stick around for a while, until majority of the chip buyers struggle to link profitability with huge investment in AI, then investors will start murmuring, and a new kid or (old one will repackage) will announce itself on the next big thing, and moneymen will port. The world itself is a continuous cycle of bubbles. A soup is a collection of all the ingredients, and no single ingredient can be referred to as a soup.
It’s a play, just find yourself a spot and play along.