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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”

#211

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

ryandrake wrote: post #64
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…

The hero worship of successful people is just survivorship bias in action. Out of a population of people flipping coins, we (after the fact) find the ones who flipped heads 10 times in a row and fawn over them, asking them how they became such great coin flippers and what we can do to improve our coin flipping skills. See also: Good To Great or any similar business book.

This comment seemed to really resonate with people: https://twitter.com/jezenthomas/status/850433378230951937

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

#212

Post by aptwebapps »

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…

Wait, what's the medium for these ads? Audio? Video? If you're watching tv in your car, sure there might be ads but are you saying that if you're reading a book you won't be able to turn off the radio or tv? That seems a bit extreme.

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

#213

Post by aptwebapps »

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…

"... venture capitalists whose sole claim to fame is making a lot of money off a social media platform. ..."

There was the whole Netscape thing, too. I mean, way his arguments on their merits, but he's not just a random VC.

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

#214

Post by jackvalentine »

mrep wrote: post #195
graycat wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel like getting to your job should be part of the job I agree: I put 200,000+ miles on each of three cars, mostly commuting to work. Soooo, that was a lot of money, all after tax -- buy the car, usually on time so that there was interest, pay for insurance, fuel, maintenance, tolls, parking. All those expenses should have been pre-tax money, "unreimbursed business expenses" like, say, professional text books at…

Except you chose to live that far away. I live right next to my office and it takes me less than 10 minutes to get to work. Should I be compensated for my high rent that comes with living downtown?

We have this exact argument at my company.

The parking is insufficient and costs money, so the drivers would like cheaper more plentiful parking.

The non-drivers catch the bus or pay extra to live in the surrounding suburbs so they can walk in.

Neither side will see the others point of view.

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

#215

Post by mercer »

taysic wrote: post #205
weaksauce wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will likely be a race to the bottom where it's expected that you work during your commute as well pushing the urban sprawl further and further away from the main cities. This will be exacerbated by the fact that jobs are going to be more and more scarce with the impending automation of most things.

I have a really hard time believing that jobs will be scarce. There are always new things to build - always new things that people want. People will come up with new products no one ever knew they needed but want - and need to hire people to come up with building something that can't be automated out of the box. I don't think there will be a problem for white collar workers or technical workers at all. Not sure about…

I agree that we'll probably find ways to keep ourselves busy (while I'm not sure if we should), but I think the worry about automation and job scarcity is still very real even if you just consider the temporary disruption of 'work as we know it'.

Even if newer generations will be prepared for different types of labor, that still leaves lots of people with skills that are obsolete and the inability to adjust. And I think this problem is much bigger for lower-schooled work, which is exactly the kind of stuff that'll be automated first.

I'm a well-educated programmer and many of my skills are general and abstract enough to adjust to a changing world with relatively little effort. But I suspect a truck driver without a degree will have significantly more trouble adjusting to a world where his job is automated away.

While white-collar jobs fall somewhere in between, even there I've seen the negative effects of automation and changing requirements, and I think this is only now starting to become a real problem. I've met quite a number of people (even in the The way I see it, many of these people are one crafty, ambitious, young tech-savvy employee, consultant, or competitor away from being obsoleted. There's just a lag between what is possible and what companies actually do.

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

#216

Post by mercer »

aptwebapps wrote: post #212
smacktoward wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Wait, what's the medium for these ads? Audio? Video? If you're watching tv in your car, sure there might be ads but are you saying that if you're reading a book you won't be able to turn off the radio or tv? That seems a bit extreme.

I'd say initially the medium is the one that many of us already use whenever we find a spare moment: mobile phones or tablets. A self-driving car will just be one more setting in which we can view ads, play pay-to-play games, and so on.

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

#217

Post by CalRobert »

graycat wrote: post #187
goatlover wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like getting to your job should be part of the job, especially when it becomes possible to do your job on the way.

> I feel like getting to your job should be part of the job I agree: I put 200,000+ miles on each of three cars, mostly commuting to work. Soooo, that was a lot of money, all after tax -- buy the car, usually on time so that there was interest, pay for insurance, fuel, maintenance, tolls, parking. All those expenses should have been pre-tax money, "unreimbursed business expenses" like, say, professional text books at…

I pay more in rent so I can live close to my job. I walk to work. Should I be able to expense my rent?

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

#218

Post by CalRobert »

jackvalentine wrote: post #214
mrep wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you chose to live that far away. I live right next to my office and it takes me less than 10 minutes to get to work. Should I be compensated for my high rent that comes with living downtown?

We have this exact argument at my company. The parking is insufficient and costs money, so the drivers would like cheaper more plentiful parking. The non-drivers catch the bus or pay extra to live in the surrounding suburbs so they can walk in. Neither side will see the others point of view.

Don't know where you're located, but attempts to handle this have been made via parking cashout laws (https://www.arb.ca.gov/planning/tsaq/cashout/cashout.htm)

When I was brand new in my career I got about $200 a month for not using a parking spot in Santa Monica. It was a nice little bonus.

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

#220

Post by jackvalentine »

CalRobert wrote: post #218
jackvalentine wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have this exact argument at my company. The parking is insufficient and costs money, so the drivers would like cheaper more plentiful parking. The non-drivers catch the bus or pay extra to live in the surrounding suburbs so they can walk in. Neither side will see the others point of view.

Don't know where you're located, but attempts to handle this have been made via parking cashout laws ( https://www.arb.ca.gov/planning/tsaq/cashout/cashout.htm ) When I was brand new in my career I got about $200 a month for not using a parking spot in Santa Monica. It was a nice little bonus.

That would actually work - our company has its own campus and (mostly) controls its own parking.
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