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Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

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Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#81

Post by coffeemug »

axod wrote: post #62
coffeemug wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Know rich people? They'll help you get rich too. What you may not realize is that everyone is knowable if you put enough effort into it. If you have no drive and no talent, rich people won't be able to help you. There aren't that many driven and talented people out there, so if you're one of them, and you make an effort to meet rich people, they'll help you too.

I think the problem is that some people (Me included) would rather spend all energy making stuff people want, rather than schmoozing people who might buy you. But I do see your point.

I think it's better to approach this from a different perspective. "Engineering relationships" doesn't work in general - if you approach people because you want something from them, they'll sense it very easily and push back. It's much better to approach people because you genuinely like them and want to learn from them. Many rich people have a ton of knowledge and experience that most of us don't, and it's genuinely interesting to learn from them. It's no good to expect anything, it's much better to try and learn from them just like from anyone else. If you approach it this way, it becomes an activity with very positive connotations, as opposed to schmoozing.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#82

Post by moe »

axod wrote: post #65
Timothee wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's some truth to what you're saying (I'm afraid), though a lot of it is more general than just "rich people will help you get rich". You'll learn more around smart people and you'll be more likely to be a criminal if your friends pull you into it. But overall your negativity throws me off a bit. One definitely notices when a company with many ex-Googlers is bought by Google. But if you think that's how the world…

I think you're missing the irritation though. Surely it's like the girl who sleeps with the boss gets a promotion. Sure, if you want a promotion you could sleep with the boss too, but it'd be nice if everything was just fair and done on merit. Not everyone wants to sleep with the boss.

It'd also be nice if there were no wars and if I had a pony.

Sorry, but to me that comes across as whining, and I'm most certainly not from the "rich circles" either.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#83

Post by yeeyay »

martian wrote: post #15
icco wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be curious to know how you use the service. Most of the questions I see asked on it seem pretty poor and uninformative.

If you ask an interesting, detailed question, you'll usually get something unique in return. An example of a question (and an awesome answer) I submitted: http://vark.com/t/cad4a0

Why not Yahoo Answers? I have used it and gotten pretty satisfactory answers thus far. Infact, I posed your exact same question on Y A now and I already have an answer. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Au8X0fm5n8cpX9D...

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#84

Post by [deleted] »

henrikschroder wrote: post #25
bgraves wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, would you care to elaborate? I'm not really sure what you mean by "the M&A department the first time around". I think the fact that only _some_ of the team members are ex-Googlers is significant. Additionally, what other business case could their be to purchase such a small, new company. Couldn't Google just have integrated these features into their shiny new Buzz service _last week_ and have overshadowed Vark…

If you quit a company, do a successful startup, and then get re-acquired by the company you quit in the first place, chances are that you don't want to go back to work for them again. If you did, why did you quit your job in the first place?

[deleted]

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#85

Post by andreyf »

marshallp wrote: post #80
paul wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really -- we didn't know the Facebook team all that well. Your argument would make more sense if we had sold to Google, but even then it would be false. If your point is that people can build future success on top of past success, yes obviously that is true, but there is nothing wrong with that. It means that you need to work at it for a while and not expect people to simply hand you whatever you want because of…

Well it's not exactly "Create something remarkable and people with money will find you." then. More like 'create something remarkable and have enough reputation or schmoozing ability, and be in the right geograhic area'. Even the 'remarkable' thing is not entirely true. I don't think facebook or microsoft were remarkable, for example, they just hit the right combination of luck and skill at execution. Google on the o…

I'm tempted to thow out the over-quoted "luck favors the prepapred mind". Yes, Microsoft lucked out when Bill Gates' mom was a boardmember of IBM, but they certainly took full advantage of it, and their many other opportunities - most of which came with having a more accurate understanding of their market than others. What might seem like luck to the inexperienced mind is usually a well executed strategy in line with a superior model.

All in all, though, I think it wise to hold yourself responsible for your accomplishments - both geographic location and your circle of acquaintances is something you have significant control over.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#86

Post by andreyf »

marshallp wrote: post #78
coffeemug wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Know rich people? They'll help you get rich too. What you may not realize is that everyone is knowable if you put enough effort into it. If you have no drive and no talent, rich people won't be able to help you. There aren't that many driven and talented people out there, so if you're one of them, and you make an effort to meet rich people, they'll help you too.

"There aren't that many driven and talented people out there" I beg to differ, if you assume that there are an equal distribution of talented/driven people, then how come there are more millionaires (talented people) in silicon valley than the rest of america, and america more than europe, and europe more than the rest of the world. More likely is that rich people are cliquey and luckier/lazier/less talented at spott…

Driven people go to SV because it's easier to find other driven people to work with there. PG says this explicitly quite often.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#87

Post by andreyf »

axod wrote: post #65
Timothee wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's some truth to what you're saying (I'm afraid), though a lot of it is more general than just "rich people will help you get rich". You'll learn more around smart people and you'll be more likely to be a criminal if your friends pull you into it. But overall your negativity throws me off a bit. One definitely notices when a company with many ex-Googlers is bought by Google. But if you think that's how the world…

I think you're missing the irritation though. Surely it's like the girl who sleeps with the boss gets a promotion. Sure, if you want a promotion you could sleep with the boss too, but it'd be nice if everything was just fair and done on merit. Not everyone wants to sleep with the boss.

I agree that it would be nice, and that's the world most parents try create for their kids. Outside of meticulously engineered/supervised social structures, however, I see little reason for a pure meritocricy to arise, if only for the reason that the concept of "merit" doesn't exist outside of our moral models.

And you can certainly get a promotion many ways aside from sleeping with the boss.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#88

Post by marshallp »

andreyf wrote: post #85
marshallp wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's not exactly "Create something remarkable and people with money will find you." then. More like 'create something remarkable and have enough reputation or schmoozing ability, and be in the right geograhic area'. Even the 'remarkable' thing is not entirely true. I don't think facebook or microsoft were remarkable, for example, they just hit the right combination of luck and skill at execution. Google on the o…

I'm tempted to thow out the over-quoted "luck favors the prepapred mind". Yes, Microsoft lucked out when Bill Gates' mom was a boardmember of IBM, but they certainly took full advantage of it, and their many other opportunities - most of which came with having a more accurate understanding of their market than others. What might seem like luck to the inexperienced mind is usually a well executed strategy in line with…

I don't think you can attribute Bill Gates to superior understanding and execution, at 50/100 million or even 500 million, but getting to 100 billion at one point, I don't buy it. Is Bill Gates really that much smarter than the rest of us. The same can be said for most people that's over 10 million I reckon.

"All in all, though, I think it wise to hold yourself responsible for your accomplishments - both geographic location and your circle of acquaintances is something you have significant control over." I agree in spirit, but the reality is different.

Yes. -if you're a white/asian male -born to middle class parents -and you're parents emphasized education -and good nutrition/genes so that you grow to above average height -and that you go to a good college -and can fit in with the right crowd yes, you simply move to silicon valley/manhattan/london and fit right in. IF you're a black man from a poor single parent family in small town mississippi, or the daughter of a farmer from a village in bangladesh, things are much more difficult.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#89

Post by drusenko »

axod wrote: post #61
paul wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just want to world to recognize you as "having merit" and give you money? You want to be successful, but are unwilling to make any sort of effort? Create something remarkable and people with money will find you.

Surely that assumes people with money are good at spotting 'worth'...

Well, making lots of money is an easy indicator...

Otherwise, you make the best bets you can.

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