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Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#131

Post by xgess »

EdwardCoffin wrote: post #68

I've been thinking about Robert's Rules of Order [1] for some time now, and the idea that it would be nice if it were updated for today's world of discussion forums, in which the interactions are more drawn out, rather than conducted with all participants active at the same time. I think it would be nice if there were a discussion forum that implemented some sort of policies that had been as well thought-out as Rober…

I've played in this space! A few years ago, I half-assed the world's worst startup for asynchronous political debating that focused more on identifying and understanding opinions as opposed to expression and dialog, because dialog necessarily breaks down to dichotomies and outgroup homogeneity which are exactly the problem. I never really figured out how to elevator-pitch the damn thing, but here are some blog posts I wrote back in the day: http://blog.agreethepeople.com/ If you do follow that link, start at the bottom and work your way up. And let me know what you think!

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#132

Post by dukeluke »

ryanworl wrote: post #126
maxxxxx wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's easy to say for someone with a good income. For a lot of people wages go down while cost of living goes up.

That's not what I'm getting at. I'm referring to technology specifically. Cost of living is dictated predominantly by the cost of housing, healthcare, education, and food. Food cost as a % of income has decreased significantly since 1960 according to the USDA [1]. Technology and globalization have impacted food a lot. Education, and housing? Not nearly as much. Healthcare is more complicated, and I'm not an expert, s…

The problem is that the benefits of globalization are offset by the centralization of the remaining jobs, and is adding to the inequality seen in America. There are some parts of the country doing fantastic, but a lot of the Midwest is seeing lower wages, fewer jobs, and a lower quality of life.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#134

Post by CM30 »

grey-area wrote: post #19

I think we need something a little more revolutionary for news than holding current news sources to account, or fact-checking tools. Most of the problems we see in our news outlets are around the competition for attention as the article says, but also around old business models for newspapers/tv which still haven't changed to adapt to a world in which anyone can report from anywhere live using a simple phone and anyo…

It's an interesting idea, and one I've been thinking about for a while.

Issue is, I think that's kind of what social media is meant for. Anyone can contribute news as a primary source and share it with others online via sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

So my worry is that any system like this would basically be just another social media service (albeit with a 'news slant' in the marketing material) and therefore be very difficult to promote.

User created news is an idea that seems obvious and logical in theory, just very hard to promote in a world where it's competing with thousands of other services offering (in your user's eyes) very similar functionality.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#135

Post by feral »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #118
maxxxxx wrote: post #47

I am a little ambivalent about this. On the one hand the intent is probably good but on the other hand companies like YC and Silicon Valley are drivers of a lot of developments that led to the current situation. - Silicon Valley is a great example of growing inequality. Most of the rewards go disproportionally to a select few at the top - A lot of VC companies are killing a lot of previously relatively stable jobs. U…

Silicon Valley is a great example of growing inequality. Most of the rewards go disproportionally to a select few at the top. That's a good thing: http://www.paulgraham.com/inequality.html "Decreasing economic inequality means taking money from the rich. Since risk and reward are equivalent, decreasing potential rewards automatically decreases people's appetite for risk. Startups are intrinsically risky. Without the…

>That's a good thing:

No; that essay might argue that inequality is a necessary side-effect or condition of startups, but that is not the same as arguing it is a "good thing".

For comparison: pollution might be a necessary result of the industrial revolution, and perhaps a cost we pay gladly; but that doesn't mean pollution is good. If we could get industry without pollution, we would.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#136

Post by alphonsegaston »

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #124
alphonsegaston wrote: post #53

The thing that is needed most is a laboratory of ideas for what will replace the neoliberal order. A corporate democracy that increases inequality and only panders to justice by gestures towards identity politics is seemingly over. What we're faced with now is either devolving into an Ethnic Nationalist state on par with Russia, or something entirely new that has yet to be described. What needs to be recaptured is a…

> corporate democracy that increases inequality "democracy" makes the sentence an oxymoron.

You're right. Corporate republicanism would have probably been more accurate.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#137

Post by RangerScience »

adamnemecek wrote: post #50
tptacek wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's been a YC RFS for Education for a long time; it's #7 on the list. YC has had some success in the space with companies like Clever, and for awhile had a sister-program dedicated solely to K-12 startups.

While nice, neither of these strikes me as truly disruptive. The downside is that to achieve the best educational environment, you'd have to open a school which doesn't scale nicely unless you plug into existing "world APIs". I guess you could start by opening a co-working space with a supervising adult (not teacher, this adult will be there to ensure that the kids aren't killing each other). There would be teachers…

"A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer", perhaps?

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#138

Post by CalChris »

city41 wrote: post #128
maxxxxx wrote: post #47

I am a little ambivalent about this. On the one hand the intent is probably good but on the other hand companies like YC and Silicon Valley are drivers of a lot of developments that led to the current situation. - Silicon Valley is a great example of growing inequality. Most of the rewards go disproportionally to a select few at the top - A lot of VC companies are killing a lot of previously relatively stable jobs. U…

Technology is also inevitable. Nothing you mention can be stopped. So standing up even more technology to help balance things is at the very least a noble effort.

Is Uber technology or is it a Ponzi scheme? I admire their technology at the same time as I have absolutely no faith in their ability to ever turn a profit, and more particularly, ever be a net benefit.

No, the technology label is not sufficient. It isn't an immunity necklace. It doesn't mean inevitability. I say this as an engineer.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#139

Post by Kluny »

thowar2 wrote: post #34

Education should be on this list. The root of all these problems stem from a lack of effective education. 1) The current methods are highly ineffective for teaching By getting more effective at teaching children, and helping them to self educate, we get better informed citizens who can interpret news more accurately and effectively participate in democracy. 2) The current goals for education do not align with current…

We can start moving toward an education system that works once we agree on some core values.

Someone else said that the goal of education is to produce factory workers. I disagree. I think the goal of education is to allow one teacher to effectively babysit up to 30 children at once. With both parents working, it simply isn't possible for them to give kids the attention they need to keep them healty and sane, let alone educate them on how to be part of society. Schools are supposed to do this instead, but the primary goal is training the children to be manageable at a ratio of 30 to 1.

Before we can do anything else, we have to acknowledge that the first goal is getting the kids out of their parents hair. This is the fundamental truth that everyone knows but refuses to acknowledge when they're debating policy. After that, we can make other decisions that make more sense. The lecture-hall format really only makes sense when the number of students is unmanageable for a single adult. If was only 10 kids per teacher, they would actually have time for more useful activities, applying knowledge, giving guidance to students who are ready to strike out on their own.

Tripling the number of teachers is going to cost some money, and application-type lessons costs more than lecture-type lessons. Some ways to deal with this - as a society, acknowledge that creating educated, well informed citizens is not a fuzzy, feel-good liberal goal, but a necessary factor for everyone's safety, including the permanently child-free. I think most people agree with that already, but since many people voting are full grown adults who still aren't properly educated, not everyone will come to the same conclusion, and therefore a massive infusion of public money for this idea isn't likely to happen. So I think a successful, disruptive idea will be one that gets around the cost problem of a much lower student-to-teacher ratio. I don't think remote teaching is going to be the answer here.

Re: Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy

#140

Post by TeMPOraL »

sparkzilla wrote: post #97
sparkzilla wrote: post #69

Given Sam Altman's recent statements, will pro-Trump founders be discriminated against?

It doesn't matter anyway. Even though I am building a social news search engine that aims to minimise bias and eliminates fake news, given @sama's statements I don't think there will a culture fit. So I'm not going to apply this time, or ever again.

> given @sama's statements I don't think there will a culture fit

Could you summarise those differences?

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