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Startup School Beijing

conference.startupschool.org

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Re: Startup School Beijing

#61

Post by gaius »

hutzlibu wrote: post #26
donttrack wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the engineers start earning more in tech oriented cities like Shenbu or Bongai where ever, the shops and landlord charging more, houses become more expensive, living costs rise, which makes engineers start demanding higher salaries, which then starts a feedback loop of rising prices. It's almost like people in developing countries are real people with similar behavioral patterns like people in the west..

"It's almost like people in developing countries are real people with similar behavioral patterns like people in the west.." Really? .. I thought they are supposed to do the work for us, yet allways stay below our level, because thats the way things are supposed to be.

You jest but that is the sincerest belief of typical Western managers

Re: Startup School Beijing

#62

Post by seanmcdirmid »

greatabel wrote: post #17

They need compete with www.sinovationventures.com.'Sinovation Ventures' has quite a few similarities to YC, for example:The founders like to support each other, etc

Kai Fu’s (famous for the ballmer chair) innovation works has been around forever, it’s not like China is lacking for YC-style tech incubators. However, they are all Chinese owned and managed without direct connections to SV.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#63

Post by mirgj »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #56
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.

Is true, but Shenzhen is culturally very different from Beijing and so is Shanghai.

Shenzhen is a new city and tech stuff are there because of the influence of Guangzhou as production hub and HK as facilitator for access to the west.

Beijing is more, let me say it, artistic. Is much more vibrant, culturally, than any other city in China. This kind of mix that you can find in New Work, Berlin or London also it brings innovation. So I don't think is meant to make the government "happy". Many Chinese tech company started in Beijing form many reasons: education, capital access, culture and so on. To give you an example: Mobike was founder by an ex journalist

Re: Startup School Beijing

#64

Post by Presquare »

Very exciting news!

I hope YC will help Chinese startups become global. My biggest problem with Silicon Valley is its ideological uniformity and the increasing willingness to use their companies/products as vehicles to push their ideologies.

China would be in an excellent position to address the part of the Western market that is increasingly alienated by this push. They can build SV tech clones for the local market, and then expand to the global market by offering ideologically more neutral (from Western perspective) alternatives to SV tech.

Chinese startups will have their own flaws, but at least we will have a choice.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#65

Post by seanmcdirmid »

mirgj wrote: post #63
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is true, but Shenzhen is culturally very different from Beijing and so is Shanghai. Shenzhen is a new city and tech stuff are there because of the influence of Guangzhou as production hub and HK as facilitator for access to the west. Beijing is more, let me say it, artistic. Is much more vibrant, culturally, than any other city in China. This kind of mix that you can find in New Work, Berlin or London also it brings…

Many tech companies started in Beijing with obvious government boosts. There is also the major research universities (PKU and Qinghua at the top, many more at tiers just under). However, Beijing is also famous for government meddling and Black Audi-style privileged that is lacking in SZ and SH.

Take traffic for example, it is much saner in SH and SZ because the police can actually enforce the rules, whereas in BJ you get a asense they have given up because they feel like everyone is an official or is connected to one. It is a weird city even by Chinese standards.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#66

Post by dis-sys »

api wrote: post #57
ed_balls wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

explain these to those killed in Vietnam or Iraq. Immoral? You mean paying your tax to fund those wars started purely based on a lie, e.g. WMD in Iraq? That is pretty immoral to me. oh, btw, last time when I checked, your tax is still being used to keep the Guantanamo Bay open, immoral or not?

Re: Startup School Beijing

#67

Post by dis-sys »

api wrote: post #37
throw2016 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is jingoism masquerading as concern for autocracy. If people really cared about things like surveillance or dystopias in any serious way they would be on the streets about the extensively documented activities of the NSA, rubber stamp courts, secret orders, searching through personal effects at borders and campaigning for Snowden and other whistle blowers to be brought back with honors. But on the ground these l…

I think this is "whataboutism." America's respect for individual liberty and the rule of law has eroded over the years, but it is still considerably stronger than what's found in China. You see some of the same corruption and autocratic tendencies on both sides of the Pacific but there is a substantial difference in degree and pervasiveness. We are not the best in the world (several EU countries are better) but claim…

> America's respect for individual liberty and the rule of law has eroded over the years, but it is still considerably stronger than what's found in China.

individual liberty such as those mass shootings protected by the constitution?

if you do believe there is real democracy in your country, maybe you can talk to your democratically elected local representatives and make some _real changes_ in that aspect first? talk is cheap, show me your democracy.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#68

Post by [deleted] »

throw2016 wrote: post #47
api wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is "whataboutism." America's respect for individual liberty and the rule of law has eroded over the years, but it is still considerably stronger than what's found in China. You see some of the same corruption and autocratic tendencies on both sides of the Pacific but there is a substantial difference in degree and pervasiveness. We are not the best in the world (several EU countries are better) but claim…

China and the US have different histories. World affairs are not simplistic binaries of good and bad. Political systems take time to evolve. Western Europe evolved from feudalism over 300 years. China has 1.3 billion people to take care of. This is not a joke. Let them manage and make the transition their way without sanctimonious judgement from others. The USA is effectively two party state with both parties proppin…

[deleted]

Re: Startup School Beijing

#69

Post by rorykoehler »

nieksand wrote: post #38
throw2016 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is jingoism masquerading as concern for autocracy. If people really cared about things like surveillance or dystopias in any serious way they would be on the streets about the extensively documented activities of the NSA, rubber stamp courts, secret orders, searching through personal effects at borders and campaigning for Snowden and other whistle blowers to be brought back with honors. But on the ground these l…

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…

The Chinese example you mention is more akin to Chelsea Manning and we all know how that worked out.

Re: Startup School Beijing

#70

Post by torstenvl »

dis-sys wrote: post #66
api wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. explain these to those killed in Vietnam or Iraq. Immoral? You mean paying your tax to fund those wars started purely based on a lie, e.g. WMD in Iraq? That is pretty immoral to me. oh, btw, last time when I checked, your t…

First of all, exactly zero people pay taxes to fund the GWOT. When the wars started, taxes were lowered, not raised. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been funded by debt, not funded by taxes like they should have been.

Second, the whole "WMD is a lie" is largely a matter of semantics. Under federal law, any bomb is a WMD; any grenade is a WMD; any rocket with > 4oz propellant is a WMD; any missile with an explosive charge > 0.25oz is a WMD; any mine is a WMD; any large caliber firearm with a bore > 0.5" in diameter (except shotguns) is a WMD. Of course, chemical, pathogenic, and radioactive weapons are also considered WMDs. 18 U.S.C. §§ 2332a, 921(a)(4).

What evidence do you have that the Iraqi army under Saddam didn't possess grenades?

Certainly, a grenade isn't what most people thought President G. W. Bush meant. I won't dispute that there's a lot of spin involved.

But there's a big difference between spin and a lie.

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