I am looking to frame a common practice I see occurring across the technology sector, but as I do with most of the masters tools, think about ways in which I can use to tear down his house, but also just grease up his hammers, loosen his axe heads, and other things that will just drive him bonkers. My new framing is called “digital fracking”, which also has been called disruption, cloud, APIs, AI, and other incarnations over the years, but is rarely about whatever words are used up front, and all about using those words to penetrate and extract value from any institution, corporation, sector, demographic, or individual.
I am simply borrowing from an existing energy industry phrase and applying to the digital landscape. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process that uses high-pressure fluids to extract oil and natural gas from shale rock formations. Digital fracking is a process the uses high-pressure sales processes and storytelling to extract value from companies, communities, and people. Words like cloud, disruption, and now AI have long been used as the “fluid” in digital fracking, accommpanied with some useful APIs, which convince you to open the door to your business or personal life, and then once penetrated, the extraction of value begins.
APIs are the drill. The words we use to convince you to open the door and bring an API into your home or office, is the fluid. This usually comes with some sort of pressure that you will be left behind, become insignificant, lose some competitive edge, and be let go from your job. In the early days, after opening the door, the API is pumping value into your well, but then as soon as possible the pump switch is flicked in reverse and the value begins to be extracted, with the volume and flow increased until everything is extracted. The environmental damage that will be left in its wake will be felt for generations, with some communities never quite recovering from each wave of extraction, and all valuable words left void of any meaning in it’s wake.
