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Magic Leap is neither magic nor leaping

theregister.co.uk

11–20 of 144 posts

Re: Magic Leap is neither magic nor leaping

#11
post #6

That these guys are a bunch of snake oil merchants has been obvious from day zero. Sometimes the overwhelming stench of bullshit is a little too difficult to ignore.

But one wonders why there has yet to be an exodus of talent from Magic Leap. I suspect the work is interesting for the engineers but nobody has the heart to tell the C level execs that what they are trying to sell the public is bullshit.

A job's a job, and with the funding ML has got it's probably a pretty safe one for now.

Re: Magic Leap is neither magic nor leaping

#12

sometimes i get tired of all the fakeness in the world. it seems to corrupt every part of society and makes me sick thinking about it. theranos, magic leap, and a lot more. everything seems to be overhyped bs, while the only successful things are essentially avenues to cram ads down your throat and brainwash you to spend money you don't have.

This is just what marketing looks like in the 21st century. You have to have a wow factor for people to notice you. I would suggest never trusting any announcement/trailer/teaser for anything to be honest; their aim is only to show you an 'experience' which entices you, something that makes you want to come back for more and spend money on it.

I think it's certainly been the case with a lot of kickstarter projects and certain startups. There's so much pressure on people to realise short term success, and so many people willing to believe in it.

Re: Magic Leap is neither magic nor leaping

#13
> Quick guide to spotting non-existent tech

> - Refusing to give a launch date

> ...

> - Confusing working hard with making progress

Some of these are valid, but some are inevitable for any tech that is actually revolutionary. Magic Leap's actions seem so far to be consistent with both theories. It's kind of unfortunately true that it's impossible to distinguish between the exaggerated-for-media-coverage-sake case and the actually-world-changing-but-really-technically-difficult case.

Re: Magic Leap is neither magic nor leaping

#15

sometimes i get tired of all the fakeness in the world. it seems to corrupt every part of society and makes me sick thinking about it. theranos, magic leap, and a lot more. everything seems to be overhyped bs, while the only successful things are essentially avenues to cram ads down your throat and brainwash you to spend money you don't have.

This is just what marketing looks like in the 21st century. You have to have a wow factor for people to notice you. I would suggest never trusting any announcement/trailer/teaser for anything to be honest; their aim is only to show you an 'experience' which entices you, something that makes you want to come back for more and spend money on it.

Various brands of snake oil have been on the market for a very, very long time.

Re: Magic Leap is neither magic nor leaping

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just what marketing looks like in the 21st century. You have to have a wow factor for people to notice you. I would suggest never trusting any announcement/trailer/teaser for anything to be honest; their aim is only to show you an 'experience' which entices you, something that makes you want to come back for more and spend money on it.

I think it's certainly been the case with a lot of kickstarter projects and certain startups. There's so much pressure on people to realise short term success, and so many people willing to believe in it.

While true this is really just a response to what the big companies have been doing for a long time. Some off the top of my head: MS Kinect trailer [1], and Hololens [2], also Ubisoft games with realistic graphics at E3 that were later downgraded [3].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qlHoxPioM

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aThCr0PsyuA

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNter0oEYxc

Re: Magic Leap is neither magic nor leaping

#18

sometimes i get tired of all the fakeness in the world. it seems to corrupt every part of society and makes me sick thinking about it. theranos, magic leap, and a lot more. everything seems to be overhyped bs, while the only successful things are essentially avenues to cram ads down your throat and brainwash you to spend money you don't have.

I'd like to break this down a bit. Firstly, why is this so frustrating.

On a practical level, it's frustrating for engineers because to operate as engineers we have to work for these companies. It's not just the fakeness, it's the bad management that comes with it. They dilute the pool of possible good companies that we could work for.

They also increase the cost of doing something actually worth while. Salaries get higher, cost of living increases.

So that's why these companies are annoying to engineers. It's not just people being bitter exactly...

---

The next question is why does this happen?

Firstly, tech investors are not great at DD of science/basic technology startups. Maybe they hire external consultants to do the DD (due diligence). Maybe they rely on their friends (prior investments/contacts). So they roll the dice, invest in some company that looks safe (founders worked a Google etc. etc.) and their friends like.

Then you get one big investor who throws a bunch of cash in. A large number of other investors throw in as well. They assume that first, big investor did the DD.

This is an easy play for the investors. They don't have to do much work. It's easier than say, doing the DD on a smaller seed stage play.

Once it gets bit enough, I guess they assume that they can crush other players in the same area just because they have a stack of cash.

TL;DR: They don't do the DD, it's easier to make big bets than lots of small ones.

It would probably be better for us, if the cash that was thrown at Magic Leap went to fund 2000 seed stage investments. But investors would find that too hard to do...

That's my take anyway. I'd be interested to better understand what others think.

Re: Magic Leap is neither magic nor leaping

#19
post #6

That these guys are a bunch of snake oil merchants has been obvious from day zero. Sometimes the overwhelming stench of bullshit is a little too difficult to ignore.

But one wonders why there has yet to be an exodus of talent from Magic Leap. I suspect the work is interesting for the engineers but nobody has the heart to tell the C level execs that what they are trying to sell the public is bullshit.

I see that they are based in Florida. Maybe part of the problem is that they just couldn't recruit the right tech talent in the first place.

Re: Magic Leap is neither magic nor leaping

#20
post #6

That these guys are a bunch of snake oil merchants has been obvious from day zero. Sometimes the overwhelming stench of bullshit is a little too difficult to ignore.

But one wonders why there has yet to be an exodus of talent from Magic Leap. I suspect the work is interesting for the engineers but nobody has the heart to tell the C level execs that what they are trying to sell the public is bullshit.

They're based in Dania Beach, Florida. I'd guess the job market is not quite as liquid as in the Bay Area.

People get locked in, family commitments etc. etc.

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