A big keynote went out this week, the sort that gets a hashtag and a countdown clock, and within about an hour the internet had sorted itself into the usual two camps. One half declared it the most important thing in years. The other half declared it warmed-over nonsense with a new logo. Both camps had clearly made their minds up before the presenter finished the opening sentence.
I watched it, mostly out of professional obligation, and the honest verdict is: some of it is genuinely useful, most of it is incremental, and a bit of it is a solution looking for a problem. Which is true of nearly every keynote. The trick is that the format is built to flatten all three into the same breathless register, so you have to do the sorting yourself.
My only real takeaway is to wait. The interesting question is never "what did they announce", it is "what still works in eighteen months when the demo team has moved on". I will form an opinion when I have actually run the thing, not when the stage lighting tells me to. Until then I am happy to be the boring third camp of one.