Why is disruption so disreputable? Hark my historical tale of woe

How about I disrupt your face?

Photo © 2025 Felix Mittermeier

Dr Dre snuffed it after eight weeks. Not a long life for a pair of earphones, is it?

When influencial rapper Dr Dre launched himself onto the stage of tech disruptery by designing his iBeats range of muvva-fuddin’ bitch-slappin’ headphones – shortly before Apple bought the brand – I was among the first to rush and buy a set.

They were on discount.

My reasons were particular: I was determined to defile the expensively overblown earphones – despite them being intended for youthful enthusiasts of shit music who have too much pocket money – by listening to early Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream and tedious prog rock albums by the likes of Gong, Soft Machine and King Crimson.

I did this because I thought it would be ironic. I never seriously expected that ambient chin-rubbing sounds of the seventies could actually cause dem ho cans to break down for, er, realz.

Naturally I wrote to Dr Dre with a demand for an explanation but never received a reply, which I find extremely unprofessional of him. I am beginning to suspect that he may not be a real doctor after all.

Besides, this all happened years ago. It’s water under the bridge as far as I am concerned. I hold no grudge against the wanky Dr Dre brand for ripping me off for a set of cock-sucking shit earphones that fuck up after just eight weeks. No grudge at all.

At the time, though, having one’s earbuds-with-mic for one’s smartphone stop working shortly after one has set off for one’s day of work proved to be extremely disruptive… for one. Yet disruption, we are frequently told, is supposed to be a good thing. Disruptive technology is what drives IT development and engineering advances.

You know, advances such as AI. Which I didn’t want to write about this week. Again.

So disruptive technology is ... a pair of broken earphones?

The analogy is perfect. Time and time again, any mention of the word disruption in the workplace invariably heralds a nightmarish period involving one system-wide disaster after another, lots of blame-calling in meetings, key resources being wasted, resignations of the best staff and vast sums of money vanishing into the pockets of slippery consultants.

So instead of writing about the comprehensively documented dangers and horrors and plain idiocy of generative AI, I want to put the technology into the context of a classic commercial bubble. Plenty of organisations are spending big money right now to replace their cheap workforces with overpriced and underperforming genAI solutions that are plain bullshit.

No no, the experts bleat, I have it all wrong! AI is more than disruption – it’s disruption on steroids! And disruption is cool and sexy! Disruption brings progress! Disruption makes the heart swell!

Disruption makes AI-hawkers’ willies and wallets swell, more like.