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Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

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Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#31

Post by skynode »

colmvp wrote: post #11
debt wrote: post #8

he's a media vc. facebook is basically his crown jewel and that's it. facebook/media is cool i guess, but i don't see how he know much about anything else such as robotics or ai. just look at andreesen horowitz investments. many are largely media companies(buzzfeed, stack exchange). they've tried doing finance which is a much bigger market but like clinkle clearly imploded and coinbase probably is next(literally tran…

Not necessarily about Marc, but I honestly find it so frustrating to see media outlets interview people who have zero experience writing, doing research, or leading an AI related company/research institution but still ask them about their opinion on the future impact of AI, while completely ignoring individuals who are on the forefront of the field. If you read interviews on the topic of say, cancer research, it woul…

The media (in 2017 at least) is not necessarily here to inform the public. Some of these vanilla interviews are staged by actors on both sides of the aisle just to keep the capitalist machine oiled and keep the relevant guys relevant. As an analogy, Marc can have an opinion (and y'all should hear it) about ML/AI not because he has great domain knowledge but because he's Marc Andreessen and he controls a large chunk of one of the most hallowed means of production.

Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#32

Post by goseeastarwar »

TarpitCarnivore wrote: post #19
bredren wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This commute thing is a big deal. Changing the way it feels to commute and what you can do while in motion will reduce housing pressure in urban places and has the potential to lift up previously rural communities. His quotes are more like anecdotal illustrations to a bigger point.

But why not encourage people to build offices closer to these rural places or places in need up an uptick (Cleveland, Detroit, etc)? Why is the solution always to commute into cities?

Density allows communities to be more efficient.

Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#33

Post by matt_wulfeck »

I'm getting tired of all of the hot air coming from these tech oligarchs. They're so enriched by a tech boom and a decade of easy money that we worship at their feet. Their vision and goal for the future is simply more money for themselves at the expense of others.

"Guys look! An hour long commute is actually a good thing because you can spend it with your kids!" Why is it so hard to spend time with our kids now?!

I know that sounds harsh, but we seriously need to stop the hero worship in SV culture and begin building a society that benefits everyone, not a society that works itself to the bone just to eat the cake of a larger corporation and enrich the early investors. They will just as quickly dilute your quality of life as they will dilute the shares in your company.

Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#34

Post by goseeastarwar »

dcosson wrote: post #22
bredren wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This commute thing is a big deal. Changing the way it feels to commute and what you can do while in motion will reduce housing pressure in urban places and has the potential to lift up previously rural communities. His quotes are more like anecdotal illustrations to a bigger point.

> will reduce housing pressure in urban places and has the potential to lift up previously rural communities. I'm skeptical because 1. a large part of the housing pressure in many urban places is artificially created by the past several decades of bad building/zoning policy. 2. the usual type of struggling rural community we think about is often more than an hour from a big city. I doubt even a self-driving car makes…

#1 is right, but if you replace rural with exurban (which I think is more appropriate in this discussion), you're hugely improving the quality of life for millions with autonomous commutes.

Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#35

Post by exclusiv »

Cpoll wrote: post #27
6stringmerc wrote: post #4

> So if technological change were going to cause elimination of jobs, one presumes we would have seen it by now. ...considering this statement was delivered while the US Workforce Participation is at 30+ year lows while productivity and technological change has made significant inroads during that time (ex: Macintosh 512k vs. iPhone 7), I think he's missing a large chunk of the, uh, big picture. Then, contrast one of…

> Because in the United States, we should be working even while we are getting to work, because we don't work enough? No, because if you work-day was originally 8hrs of work + 2hrs of commute, it's now just 6hrs of work + 2hrs of work.

Exactly. Although I don't think work in the car would be the same quality - if you use that time to handle emails it could be a big boost to get most emails addressed before you get to the office. I live about 12 miles from my office and going to the office removes about 1.5-2 hrs per day. Getting ready, 30 mins each way. I try to schedule phone calls for my commute but I don't always have calls to handle. I've worked with people with families who commuted 1.5 hrs each way every day. So yes, self-driving cars would impact a lot of people in a positive way if they optimize their workflow.

Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#36

Post by [deleted] »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #33

I'm getting tired of all of the hot air coming from these tech oligarchs. They're so enriched by a tech boom and a decade of easy money that we worship at their feet. Their vision and goal for the future is simply more money for themselves at the expense of others. "Guys look! An hour long commute is actually a good thing because you can spend it with your kids!" Why is it so hard to spend time with our kids now?! I…

[deleted]

Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#37

Post by exclusiv »

smacktoward wrote: post #18
6stringmerc wrote: post #4

> So if technological change were going to cause elimination of jobs, one presumes we would have seen it by now. ...considering this statement was delivered while the US Workforce Participation is at 30+ year lows while productivity and technological change has made significant inroads during that time (ex: Macintosh 512k vs. iPhone 7), I think he's missing a large chunk of the, uh, big picture. Then, contrast one of…

When he talks about "what if you don't have to worry about driving," what I hear is: what if your car is one more place where we can show you ads? Right now we can't show you ads in your car, of course, because you're in command of two tons of steel moving at high speed, so your attention needs to be fully concentrated on that task. But if the car could drive itself, think of all the ways we could monetize that newly…

I'm sure people would take an ad-subsidized car (or ride). Nielsen pays people to walk around with radio tracking devices.

Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#38

Post by stvswn »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #33

I'm getting tired of all of the hot air coming from these tech oligarchs. They're so enriched by a tech boom and a decade of easy money that we worship at their feet. Their vision and goal for the future is simply more money for themselves at the expense of others. "Guys look! An hour long commute is actually a good thing because you can spend it with your kids!" Why is it so hard to spend time with our kids now?! I…

What makes you jump to the conclusion that technology investment, or capitalism, or whatever you think is "bad" is "at the expense of others?"

Currently, about 10% of the world's population lives in extreme poverty. It was 12% in 2012. It was 40% in 1990.

The history of the world, post-war 20th century, is one of extreme progress for the lives of real people -- especially really poor people.

So, what do you think drove that change? Was it shaping a society that "works for everyone?" Or was it technology and the efficient allocation of capital?

I'd argue that it was the latter, because I can look at the world and find the places where people have remained extremely poor, where people have starved to death in large numbers, and it's not hard to see that it happens in the places where technology and capital are stopped.

Before modern markets were (slowly) permitted to function in China and India, lots and lots of people died of hunger. Way more than today. The lives of nearly everyone in the former USSR became much better when the wall fell. It's still pretty terrible to live in North Korea. Right now in Venezuala people are starving, and there are hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating on the streets.

I'm fine with "the oligarchs" getting rich, by comparison.

Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#39

Post by rmason »

icelancer wrote: post #28
debt wrote: post #8

he's a media vc. facebook is basically his crown jewel and that's it. facebook/media is cool i guess, but i don't see how he know much about anything else such as robotics or ai. just look at andreesen horowitz investments. many are largely media companies(buzzfeed, stack exchange). they've tried doing finance which is a much bigger market but like clinkle clearly imploded and coinbase probably is next(literally tran…

Not aware of Opsware/Netscape I guess.

Remember the time he went walking with Mark Zuckerberg and Zuck says I know you did something famous back in the day, what exactly was it? Answer: I'm the father of the browser.

He had a career before Netscape, he wrote the Mosaic browser for the Mac and Windows while he was still a student at the University of Illinois. After having to install tcp/ip on my Windows machine (Trumpet Winsock) that is the first browser that I used, perhaps a week(?) after it launched.

Interestingly after getting into a spat when he wanted to use the Mosaic name with his new company his alma mater licensed the code to Bill Gates so he could quickly launch Internet Explorer 1.0 and use it to destroy Netscape. So he really is the father of the modern browser.

Re: Marc Andreessen: “Take the Ego Out of Ideas”

#40

Post by eanzenberg »

bazinga888 wrote: post #25
eanzenberg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool, let's stop progress then cause life was so great in the 1980's with healthcare, communications, science and overall knowledge.

No one is wanting to stop progress. Personally, I just want a better voice in what that progress looks like. Rather than listening to venture capitalists whose sole claim to fame is making a lot of money off a social media platform. "Oh, well he got lucky in the financial lotto, so I guess I better listen to him." SV capitalists are like yesterdays capitalists. "More capitalism" is the only solution that makes sense…

How did 'he' get lucky in the financial lotto? For providing a service that practically everyone in the world wants but no one did right at the time?

How do you have progress without private industry actually making things?

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