Viewing profile — DividesByZero

I would suggest it's not just a matter of willpower. You should be in a material position to execute effectively - having to start worrying about how you'll feed your family, or pa…

If you want to really do a start-up, quit your job. If you can't or won't quit your job, it is not yet time for you to do a start-up. I quit my job with six months in savings to st…

If you only have 20 people to reach out to, you don't need much structure in how you go about doing it. Your goal should be to make those meetings happen at all. Ask them for advic…

Exactly. But those services are typically provided to entire families by BigCo - padded margins sound like this is a space where a cost-focused company could stand to make quite a …

From my own recent experience, there is definitely demand from the side of founders for an AirBnB style deal specifically aimed at a place to live-and-work, especially for start-up…

I don't think this makes economic sense. Equity in startups who don't have enough cash on hand to pay rent is likely to be more risky than equity in those who do. Giving away equit…

Buckminster Fuller had it right back in the 70's - "We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thou…

The accusations of 'revisionism' show an underlying bias - in the former soviet union and much of Europe, this is has been the accepted historical perspective for some time.

Bad news for the educational game accelerator they just launched.

I don't recall LJ having anything like a 'search by mood'. I guess my memory might be hazy though.

When I saw this I was confused about why Facebook wanted to be more like LiveJournal. Is that a reflection on the userbase?

The best advice I ever got about how to hire people and fill gaps in your team is to do the job yourself first - this applies to everything, not just tech. The advantages of this a…

It's in the interests of the smugglers that tight immigration controls remain in place, just as it's in the interests of Silk Road that regulations on restricted substances remain …

I'm not sure we disagree here - rent seeking indirectly by the mechanism you describe between police and drug trafficking is still rent seeking behaviour! You don't need a formal a…

The owners of such roads are operating rent-seeking businesses. Not in any way a contradiction.

Consider that it's very much in Silk Road's interest that the regulations that currently create the transactional frictions on which it makes a profit remain as they are, or perhap…

Roads are a public good, not a business (despite what libertarian rhetoric would have you believe). All business seek to enforce their position, by the way.

You're correct, every business that profits from easing transactional friction is to a greater or lesser extent, rent seeking.

For someone who paints themselves as some sort of Randian superman, he sure uses the words of collective action and altruism a lot. "It’s paradoxical, but the less you focus on you…

Please elaborate on this? Good work in what sense? Ignoring the dubious ethics of running a black market, SilkRoad is ultimately a rent-seeking enterprise making money from transac…

I don't think any of the things you mention are equivalently intrusive. But it's a point that scares me a little.