Old: factory manufactures goods. goods can be judged. generates cashflow. value can be derived based on numbers. grows through debt. low/no narrative. bank loans cant be based on narrative.

Recent: software. non tangible but exists. solves real problem. hours invested to create and maintain. grows through diluting equity. just numbers can’t fetch the valuation required. needs to sell a story. needs both narrative + numbers. profit caps valuation. brings reality. hence the meme about companies not wanting to get profitable. taken to extreme, this gets changed to don’t get even revenue. revenue = numbers. numbers ruin the narrative.

Now: in a post numbers world, where underlying numbers don’t matter anyway, why even create something. why even set up the company or create a product.

The strongest narratives get created when there is no revenue. there is no profit. there is no number. heck there is not even a product. now you can tell any story you want. and raise money directly from people. why learn how to read a balance sheet or do DCF analysis when you can just invest in a meme shitcoin for shits and giggles. memes are the highest level abstraction.

(Had shared this note on Twitter a few weeks back. Saving it here for myself.)