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Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups

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Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups

#31

Post by gamble »

I've worked for healthcare and education startups. These are very, very hard markets for a startup to tackle. They combine the slow, expensive sales cycle of a large business with the regulation and bureaucracy of essential government services. It's a long, hard slog that most investors won't touch with a ten-foot pole.

Programmers start companies that solve their own problems because they understand those problems. Few programmers understand the problems in health care or education, and it's not a market to screw around in when you don't know what you're doing.

Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups

#32

Post by marshallp »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #29

This is shallow thinking. Facebook and the various other social apps do in fact address serious societal problems and needs. There's been a trend for several decades of people in modern society growing further apart. It's been lamented at great length in numerous studies and publications. It's a natural consequence of the other choices our societies are making, becoming more mobile in both work and home. People move…

The OP is talking about getting "work" done, like solving cancer. The "togetherness" stuff can be defined as entertainment. Watching movies and playing games is meaningful, as is staying in touch with friends, but these things don't make the trains run on time.

Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups

#33

Post by jamesaguilar »

I understand the feeling, it's one articulated by people around the world every day. But look at the commonalities between the things she mentions as real problems. What is the shared thread? They're all about people who can't afford certain things. There are some businesses built on serving these markets, but they aren't typically internet technology businesses.

Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups

#34

Post by ryan »

I find it really difficult to read such an argument (whether I agree with it or not), if it doesn't come from someone who is actually out there trying to solve these problems himself or herself.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Arena

Edit: at least the gladiator image in the post is apt :)

Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups

#37

Post by marshallp »

replicatorblog wrote: post #15

I 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…

Tech is the major part of the solution to every problem.

For example, homelessness can be solved to a large extend by the ROR hacker. For a start, a webapp for the health practitioners, volunteers etc. to better organize would make it all more efficient - let's say by 20%. Webapps that create greater efficiencies in the housing market add another 20%. Add in a webapp to organize homeless advocates to lobby politicians, and you've gone a pretty large way.

Software creators don't realize just how much of an impact they can actually have on the world.

Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups

#38

Post by prodigal_erik »

timr wrote: post #22
replicatorblog wrote: post #15

I 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…

"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." I think you're missing the larger point: when the best and the brightest technological minds are chasing the instant riches of social networks for dogs, they're not creating new antibiotics, energy efficient cars,…

Economic incentive is how we allocate resources. Expecting big brains to defy what the market currently wants is not only a huge personal sacrifice but it may even prevent them from succeeding. Organizations (mostly governments) that want betterment of the world should be paying the market more to efficiently deliver it.

Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups

#39

Post by marshallp »

gamble wrote: post #31

I've worked for healthcare and education startups. These are very, very hard markets for a startup to tackle. They combine the slow, expensive sales cycle of a large business with the regulation and bureaucracy of essential government services. It's a long, hard slog that most investors won't touch with a ten-foot pole. Programmers start companies that solve their own problems because they understand those problems.…

Write the software and sell/rent it on to businessfolk who can navigate the regulatory hurdles.

Re: Bread and Circuses: The State of Web App Startups

#40

Post by marshallp »

ryan wrote: post #34

I find it really difficult to read such an argument (whether I agree with it or not), if it doesn't come from someone who is actually out there trying to solve these problems himself or herself. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marre…

So you're saying OP isn't allowed to point out that the emperor wears no clothes, or that roger ebert is useless.
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