Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not • Hacker News Board

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#191

Post by toasterlovin » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 3:46 PM UTC

eaenki wrote: post #155

teddyh wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

It would have been faster if you just replied with “CA and NZ”, since those are the only other countries on that list, which btw, I’m skeptical of.

In your quest to rattle of glib retorts, you have failed to bother even reading the list. There are about a dozen countries with similar levels of corruption as Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, and New Zealand. And then there’s a whole bunch of other countries that are pretty close.

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#192

Post by davidajackson » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 3:47 PM UTC

eaenki wrote: post #165

davidajackson wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decentralized scripting that large numbers of developers know how to use is powerful. Entire parts of the internet could shift to that in the long term. Obviously, it's a long way away... but that's a given. Even if you choose another crypto and say it has a better approach because of x, y and z mining or other infra, you can't argue with the fact that Ethereum has increased the competition in the space.

It’s nice as I said, but it didn’t impact anything, and most likely never will. Even if the whole internet switched to that, there’s no x10 improvement in anything interesting. Unless you think airplanes are as good as owning your data and not having a few big entities owning the major services (which btw, you’d still have, because the oracle problem is basically impossible to efficiently solve).

>there’s no x10 improvement in anything interesting

Don't you think trusting code to transmit and trade assets is a x10 improvement over trusting people? I'd rather trust code I can audit than people.

Even if you don't call it an x10, I would definitely call it a success.

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#193

Post by sokoloff » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 3:51 PM UTC

jlokier wrote: post #174

briandear wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you take an extra $20k from me per year in the form of taxes, how does some kid’s invention actually pay me back? Am I a shareholder in this project? Will I get a return on that $20k? Will the government give me my $20k back plus a profit? This silly proposal is nothing more than socialized venture capital. We have real venture capital who invest in “far fetched” ideas already — and they have willing participants…

> Will I get a return on that $20k? Yes you will (according the basic theory of the idea). Unfortunately, even though you will get a return, when you get it you will believe that you haven't had the return because it will take the form of $100k of life improvements that you will believe you "would have had anyway" without the investment. You might even get $100k of cash, in the form of your salary increasing by much…

From where I stand, I seems not very far from that argument to arguing in favor of trickle down economics being a success by the same mechanism.

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#194

Post by dlp211 » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 PM UTC

briandear wrote: post #162

toyg wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capital is not underappreciated - it is hidden by owners. Because their power and wealth comes from control of a scarce, hidden resource. If everyone had access to capital, nobody would be “on top”, and that’s unacceptable to the owning classes.

Everyone can’t have access to capital. It’s a scarce resource. The study of economics is literally the study of the allocation of resources. If you distributed wealth completely equally across the world. It would take long before the world looks exactly as it does now. Some people make bad decisions and would lose it. Others would have it stolen. Others would be frugal and accumulate, and other would be bold and beco…

And that's why we should have an aggressive tax scheme that covers income, capital gains, and estates and a process that is able to rapidly respond to loopholes.

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#195

Post by JPKab » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 PM UTC

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #132

eaenki wrote: post #9

Imo Education is overvalued, Capital is under appreciated, And, Because Capital is trapped into networks, that Capital is squandered among an infinite array of companies employing the talent and producing products that don’t make you, or the planet, better, healthier, smarter or happier. (Apple’s SJ era, Google until 2014~ and Tesla fit the useful smarter happier paradigma, and not many other) My solution is: take a…

I don't think just giving the money to whoever has a prototype is a good idea. Some culturally relevant projects aren't the sort of thing you can make a prototype of, but I like where you're going. I'd amend it like so: Once I've been a citizen long enough (i.e. paid enough taxes) I get to invoke my free year, which is a year where the government pays me enough to cover my bills and maybe a bit extra for projects and…

"Once I've been a citizen long enough (i.e. paid enough taxes) I get to invoke my free year, which is a year where the government pays me enough to cover my bills and maybe a bit extra for projects and stuff."

I really wish people would stop saying "the government" in these scenarios. It's the taxpayers. Actual humans whose money is taken by force. Not saying it's a bad idea, just saying that we need to be thinking a lot more responsibly about the fact that this is money being taken from people who themselves would rather spend it on their own needs/dreams/business ideas etc.

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#196

Post by jlokier » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 4:00 PM UTC

briandear wrote: post #166

eaenki wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t free money for personal use, this is money that you legally have to spend developing that far fetched idea.

And how is that enforced? Are we going to arrest people that choose to spend the money developing some far fetched idea at a cantina in Cabo?

Grant agencies are able to enforce it (to some extent) when giving grants to R&D businesses. Through auditing and reporting.

If you're just blowing it all on holidays and fun, you're going to find it difficult to pass an audit for long. Maybe you'll have some fun for a while, but the grant tap will slow and eventually stop if you do that. Fraud charges maybe, if you push it.

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#197

Post by burntoutfire » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 4:01 PM UTC

NHQ wrote: post #188

I have tech talents that maybe a few thousand people in the world have, and research ability to move the needle (maybe even novel ideas in the field, if you ask me). I can't work in academia (no Ph.D), find capital (no connections), and the software job market is a crazy stupid PITA (no thanks). I know it's me, that I can have what I want if I really go for it, and that is what I do by living simply and continuing my…

> obviously talented

The only "obvious" proof of talent that will convince anyone is having impressive accomplishments in a given field. Do you have any?

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#198

Post by aj7 » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 4:01 PM UTC

eaenki wrote: post #9

Imo Education is overvalued, Capital is under appreciated, And, Because Capital is trapped into networks, that Capital is squandered among an infinite array of companies employing the talent and producing products that don’t make you, or the planet, better, healthier, smarter or happier. (Apple’s SJ era, Google until 2014~ and Tesla fit the useful smarter happier paradigma, and not many other) My solution is: take a…

There has recently been a similar thread to spread research funds much more uniformly, rather than concentrated among “successful” researchers and “hot topics.” It was pretty convincing to me, and I wish I had the references.

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#199

Post by jlokier » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 4:06 PM UTC

eaenki wrote: post #169

paulcole wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My solution is: take a piece of the federal budget and give $1-3MM to anyone with a far fetched idea that has a prototype to back it up So giving millions to people who are already privileged enough to have access to the tools/resources/education to make to a prototype?

You usually can make a prototype of literally anything with less than $10K. Education on the internet is free. And the internet itself is free at any Starbucks.

The cost of your unpaid time is often the most expensive thing.

Your time in Starbucks costs, at least, the sum of your home's rent or mortgage, food, and the laptop and phone you are using (and their occasional replacements when they break).

That can easily reach $10k by the time you've made a convincing prototype.

Re: Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

#200

Post by threeisoneis » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 4:07 PM UTC

aisengard wrote: post #131

threeisoneis wrote: post #74

Once again, an article related to utilitarian altruism that doesn't seem to draw a defensible conclusion from the arguments given. This particular type of article, and the works of the effective altruism movement more broadly, always creep up to the edge of demanding meaningful change but, in their conclusions, shrink away from it. They make the case that the world has a lot of issues, that a lot of people have bad l…

> The real solution is revolution. Take the table, take the world, break free from this failed system. Ah yes, violent revolution, where the lower class gets killed en masse (a "noble sacrifice") and autocracy takes even greater hold as a result. The wheels of the revolution larpers are always greased with the blood of the downtrodden.

I didn't advocate violence once. I did advocate democracy. I did advocate solidarity. I did advocate protest.

Revolution is not always violent and in fact is often not violent. Your reading of my comment as advocating violence is just your own projection.