Suppose we solved all these "real problems." What then? We're done? No more startups or apps?
Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
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Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
#12Here’s a problem: Many Americans can’t afford medical care.
Er, not sure where the author has been since the November 2008 election, but President Barack Obama made tackling this decades long problem a signature issue of his presidency, and actually got the problem addressed comprehensively. Sure, there is still work to do, but health care which makes up 1/3 of the economy was never going to be solved by programmers building web apps. And there are projects pushing technology forward in this area to increase efficiency.
Here’s another problem: Many Americans can’t afford a decent education, and many parts of our public school system suck.
There are technology projects working on improving this, both within the school system and in the tech arena.
Here’s another, even more pressing problem: Many Americans are homeless. Many can’t afford to eat.
I'm not sure how technology might solve homelessness, but there are actual real world answers like food banks and soup kitchens to address the hunger issue. The homeless experiment posted on Nev Blog shows how relatively easy it is for real homeless people (not those that panhandle, then jump into sports cars, or those with addictive habits to feed) to acquire food. (http://www.nevblog.com/homeless-experiment/)
The author reflects on some problems in America -- where even the poor are really not that poor by the standards of many other nations -- and seeks solutions in technology because technology is good at solving certain kinds of problems, especially ones mechanical in nature. This doesn't mean it can solve any kind of problem. Large, longstanding, complex socio-economic problems can't be solved by Twitter type applications. The kinds of problems of which the author speaks require a combination of educated people, politics, and economic focuses for making any real difference. Technology may certainly help, but it's not the sole answer.
Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
#13I find it rather ironic that many of the problems she claims the rest of the world should address aren't even real problems at all. Her problems: Many Americans can’t afford medical care....many parts of our public school system suck.... The real problems: Many Americans are unhealthy, many Americans lack the skills necessary to get a job. When you prematurely narrow the problem, you can't identify all solutions. Jol…
Those were just example problems. A way to represent a class of problem. The real problem might not even be that Americans need a healthier lifestyle, it might be that it's really difficult to live that healthier lifestyle in the face of a food system designed to make you live the unhealthy one.
Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
#14I fail to see how overly bureaucratic paper-pushing and stiflingly ridiculous licensing and regulatory frameworks (which are the REAL reasons that medical care is the problem) can be solved by technology.
That is, it is not a technology problem, it is a problem of regulatory capture.
Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
#15I didn't find the reasoning in this article very sound and the heated "high school angst" quotes hurt its credibility. e.g.
"These products feed and profit from our bovine adoration of mindless time-wasting."
That said, to address her point, I don't understand why tech start ups would be the answer to everything, especially a complex problem like homelessness. Homelessness isn't going to be solved by some RoR hacker creating a website that matches the homeless with available space. Rather it is the challenge for social workers, mental health practitioners, etc.
The same with education, the problem with inner city education isn't technical, its that vast swaths of the population do not respect education. My wife taught in an inner city, had amazing technical resources thanks to grants and well meaning donors, but had parents who were totally checked out.
Furthermore, because some people use tech in a frivolous way doesn't mean there aren't noble uses. e.g.
Foursquare - Learn about resources in my town and places I visit I wouldn't have otherwise. Lets me provide info about areas I know well to those who don't. Makes my consumption choices visible and potentially incites me to make better decisions for the community and my health.
Groupon - Helps support local merchants who have difficult challenges marketing against national chains. Reduces risks for customers to try new things.
Twitter - connects me to people and bodies of knowledge that would otherwise be hard to tap. Lets me connect job seekers with job holders.
Zynga games - Creates a meeting place/activity for friends/family. Sure, at its worst it has "junkie" characteristics, but used sparingly it gives me a way to say hi to a friend and keep a little social bonding going.
Commerce isn't bad and tech isn't the solution to every problem.
Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
#16I fail to see how overly bureaucratic paper-pushing and stiflingly ridiculous licensing and regulatory frameworks (which are the REAL reasons that medical care is the problem) can be solved by technology. That is, it is not a technology problem, it is a problem of regulatory capture.
I work in medical and regulatory compliance isn't that big a burden. The simplest way to reduce health care costs in the US would be reducing obesity which tends to cause the most expensive diseases (Diabetes, Heart Disease, Stroke).
Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
#17I find it rather ironic that many of the problems she claims the rest of the world should address aren't even real problems at all. Her problems: Many Americans can’t afford medical care....many parts of our public school system suck.... The real problems: Many Americans are unhealthy, many Americans lack the skills necessary to get a job. When you prematurely narrow the problem, you can't identify all solutions. Jol…
Those were just example problems. A way to represent a class of problem. The real problem might not even be that Americans need a healthier lifestyle, it might be that it's really difficult to live that healthier lifestyle in the face of a food system designed to make you live the unhealthy one.
The real problem might not even be that Americans need a healthier lifestyle...
You just did the exact same thing Jolie O'Dell did - you picked an action, identified a problem that the action solves, and declared that new problem to be the original problem.
Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
#18I find it rather ironic that many of the problems she claims the rest of the world should address aren't even real problems at all. Her problems: Many Americans can’t afford medical care....many parts of our public school system suck.... The real problems: Many Americans are unhealthy, many Americans lack the skills necessary to get a job. When you prematurely narrow the problem, you can't identify all solutions. Jol…
High cost of medical care is an orthogonal problem to a healthiness level of Americans. Even if Americans were the most healthy nation in the world, medical care and health care insurance would still be expensive.
As to the school example: if dissatisfaction with schools system won't lead to improvement or replacement, then what will? Certainly not satisfaction.
I don't see anything ironic in that post. Both the high cost of health care and (objectively measured) low quality of school system are real problems that affect almost all americans. The fact that there are other problems that affect them as well doesn't make them any less problematic.
Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
#19So stop living in a world of bread and circuses. I don't use foursquare because I get no value. Nor do most people I know. I use Twitter for work, nothing else. I produce, I do not consume. I am not special. There are lots more like me. There is an entire world of startups focused on societal betterment -- some with the stated goal of just being self-sustaining rather than profit centers. in finance: kiva, prosper, e…
And I forgot my other comment to make which is, as someone else before me once remarked, many startup's problem space early on appears to be a toy or something of little utility or value, but that is rarely the case in the long-run. Just look at Facebook!
Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups
#20I have a serious problem with the logical connection between these two statements: They’re not doing what technology is intended to do: Solve problems. and: But by and large, these apps do not exist to solve problems. They exist and thrive because they feed our individual vanity. In the first statement, she is saying that these technologies do not do what technology should do. In the second, she says that their inten…
I might be putting words in the author's mouth, but I think the things he's talking about are "products" not "technologies." This isn't to say that the same sort of beneficial serendipity doesn't apply, but it applies less.