Taxonomy of Hype
Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal of Oxide Computer Company, joined by MattSci, Todd Gamblin, Aaron Goldman, and Tom Lyon, categorize various technologies using Johannes Klingebiel’s five-level hype taxonomy. They analyze historical and current examples, placing cloud computing, mobile, and Wi-Fi as underhyped or adequately hyped, while critiquing technologies like 3D XPoint (Intel Optane), the Segway, and cold fusion as suffering from magical thinking or exaggerated returns. The discussion also covers the hype surrounding Rust, DTrace, and Docker, distinguishing between technical merit and the business models built around them, such as monetizing open source.