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Startup School Beijing

conference.startupschool.org

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Re: Startup School Beijing

#51

Post by ed_balls »

api wrote: post #43
nieksand wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems very fashionable to pull out moral equivalency every time China's autocracy and misbehavior is mentioned. Simple experiment: 1. Walk down Pennsylvania Avenue with a sign that says "Trump is a pussy grabber who should be impeached". 2. Go to Tiananmen Square and hold up a poster-sized picture from the 1989 massacre. See how equivalent the governments are then. (As an aside... if I was employed by the Chinese…

You can make an exact comparison. Not too terribly long ago I saw protests holding up poster sized pictures of prisoner abuse from Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay, which is roughly like holding up a poster-sized picture from the 1989 massacre. Nothing happened to these people in spite of the fact that these pictures are deeply embarrassing to the US government and intensely inflammatory in regions of the world where we…

Would you do something truly immoral, because "rule of law"? An example: Every new born child with Apgar score below 8 should be killed. Would you really do it? Would you stick to the rule of law?

> Snowden violated a government secrecy oath that he signed, which is a crime and this fact is printed rather boldly on the contract.

He broke the contract, but you can make a case that the contract was in violation of constitution.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#52

Post by zappo2938 »

goseeastarwar wrote: post #39
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"And even if you are successful, you have to consider the ethics of what you're enabling..." This is the thing I don't understand. Ten years ago, you could make a case that simply by making stuff people want, the world would become more connected, all sorts of goodness will happen. You can no longer make that case. People are not idiots. They see both the good and bad that tech has brought. Technology companies are e…

Cash Rules Everything Around Me So says Wu-Tang Clan and apparently YC.

I think the song was about rising out poverty and that the Wu-tang did it music instead of gangbanging, killing, and drug dealing. They use their own experiences to show young men living in poverty that the can find other means to obtain respect and lots of money that is healthy for themselves and their communities.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#53

Post by icantdrive55 »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #35
opportune wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, investing in China is the "invading Russia" of the tech world. Yes, China is a huge market and a rapidly growing economy, which makes investing there an extremely appetizing prospect. However, it seems very difficult for non-chinese to be able to hold onto their investments in China without their business being ripped off (e.g. having the business model copied by a more Chinese company that gets favorable gov…

"And even if you are successful, you have to consider the ethics of what you're enabling..." This is the thing I don't understand. Ten years ago, you could make a case that simply by making stuff people want, the world would become more connected, all sorts of goodness will happen. You can no longer make that case. People are not idiots. They see both the good and bad that tech has brought. Technology companies are e…

[dead]

Re: Startup School Beijing

#54

Post by philippz »

I don't find Beijing to be the best place to start something like that. I'd rather prefer Shanghai which provides a much better ecosystem and access to capital than Beijing.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#55

Post by gaius »

shaki-dora wrote: post #13
zfdrdg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what the parent comment meant but maybe because software jobs will start to move to lower earning locations. I've been wondering about this. Manufacturing has largely moved off shore over the last 40 years but software seems much easier to move. Could the whole industry disappear from the first world at a much faster rate?

> Could the whole industry disappear from the first world at a much faster rate? No. Because any country dominating the software industry will, almost by defintion, be “first world”.

That is not what first world means.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#56

Post by seanmcdirmid »

philippz wrote: post #54

I don't find Beijing to be the best place to start something like that. I'd rather prefer Shanghai which provides a much better ecosystem and access to capital than Beijing.

Shenzhen is the tech place to be in China. But if you want to make the government happy, you got to be near them in Beijing, so a lot of tech happens there also.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#57

Post by api »

ed_balls wrote: post #51
api wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make an exact comparison. Not too terribly long ago I saw protests holding up poster sized pictures of prisoner abuse from Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay, which is roughly like holding up a poster-sized picture from the 1989 massacre. Nothing happened to these people in spite of the fact that these pictures are deeply embarrassing to the US government and intensely inflammatory in regions of the world where we…

Would you do something truly immoral, because "rule of law"? An example: Every new born child with Apgar score below 8 should be killed. Would you really do it? Would you stick to the rule of law? > Snowden violated a government secrecy oath that he signed, which is a crime and this fact is printed rather boldly on the contract. He broke the contract, but you can make a case that the contract was in violation of cons…

If I were ordered to do something that deeply immoral by the state I might pretend I was going to comply, but only long enough to pack a "go bag" and get myself and my family out of the country. You picked an incredibly extreme example. Not only would I run out of unwillingness to do what was asked but also because living in a country that does that kind of thing is fundamentally unsafe.

I agree that what Snowden did was generally positive and important, but I also agree that he broke the law as written. If I were Snowden's lawyer I would argue exactly what you've argued-- that he acted to expose programs contrary to the US constitution and that therefore his security contract was not valid since a contract to engage in illegal activity is not enforceable. It's likely that the case would make it to the Supreme Court.

No nation is perfect and no system is perfect. I was responding to claims of moral equivalency between the USA and China. In the USA Snowden-like cases are rare. In China you have private citizens who have not signed secrecy oaths being arrested all the time for mere political activism.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#58

Post by seanmcdirmid »

How does this work since foreigners are still not allowed to have equity in Chinese startups? Is YC getting an exemption from the government, or are they holding it in a Chinese incorporated company?

Re: Startup School Beijing

#59

Post by [deleted] »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #35
opportune wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, investing in China is the "invading Russia" of the tech world. Yes, China is a huge market and a rapidly growing economy, which makes investing there an extremely appetizing prospect. However, it seems very difficult for non-chinese to be able to hold onto their investments in China without their business being ripped off (e.g. having the business model copied by a more Chinese company that gets favorable gov…

"And even if you are successful, you have to consider the ethics of what you're enabling..." This is the thing I don't understand. Ten years ago, you could make a case that simply by making stuff people want, the world would become more connected, all sorts of goodness will happen. You can no longer make that case. People are not idiots. They see both the good and bad that tech has brought. Technology companies are e…

[deleted]
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