In my mind, I am officially the Jim Cramer of tech. Every tech prediction I make, just do the opposite!
I remember when Apple announced the iPhone and I instantly dismissed it. Back then, I was rocking a T-Mobile Sidekick and a Blackberry. A phone without a keypad? That was crazy talk! I thought typing on a touchscreen would be clunky and that people would revolt and demand the return of physical keys. Spoiler alert: I was very, very wrong!
And then came the iPad. I asked, “Why would you need an iPad when you already have an iPhone or a Mac?” To me, it was just a giant iPhone—which didn’t make much sense. Your iPhone could fit in your pocket, while the iPad was relatively bulky and didn’t seem to offer anything new. I now use the iPad with GoodNotes! I love it!
Spotify also came along and I reasoned that there is no chance that the music industry would let people stream essentially unlimited amount of music for a low monthly subscription. I used to go to Walmart to buy physical music CD’s (young kids definitely have zero clue on what I am talking about!). And then when iTunes came along, we bought individual songs for 99 cents. There was even an uproar when Apple decided to increase the price to $1.29 per song. And now? Spotify gives you the whole library for what, some change a month?
So in keeping with my impeccable track record, I also thought Airtable would flop.
I didn’t see how a relational database with an Excel-like interface could possibly work—especially not for large datasets. For simple data? Maybe. But scalable? No way.
And yet… here I am, using Airtable and absolutely loving it.
It’s like a playground for data. I can build workflows, play with interfaces, and create forms without writing a single line of code. What’s more, I can make things user-friendly for other team members, which feels like unlocking a whole new superpower.
I was wrong Airtable! You guys rock!