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It’s Time to Build

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Re: It’s Time to Build

#241

Post by dang »

bob33212 wrote: post #234
jbverschoor wrote: post #227

What's the goal here? The American dream? Well, you need to be able to afford a home and children. People can't. Why not? Because they aren't paid enough for the work they do. The money is being made, but it ends up at the top, and not even corporate tax is being paid with all the tax optimization routes. So what do people do? They begin startups. Most of the time they're done by people who should even waste their ti…

Marc isn't interested in a solution that makes him have to live like a person who makes 400k a year. He needs a solution where he can still live on millions a year.

Please don't post petty personal swipes. The site guidelines ask you to assume good faith. Maybe you don't owe "Marc" better, but you owe this community better if you're posting here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: It’s Time to Build

#242

Post by soared »

kick wrote: post #159
cactus2093 wrote: post #78

Ok, assume I'm bought into this idea - where would I even begin? What are some companies working on these kind of fundamental building things problems? I know of the Boring Company, though haven't really heard anything from them since the flamethrowers a few years back. Sidewalk labs was doing some cool things in Toronto, but I think they've been running into big regulatory issues too and it one point it sounded like…

If you're actually set on the ideas laid out there, don't join a pre-existing company . Find a domain you're passionate about advancing, learn what you need to validate your hypothesis on improvement, then do what you need to do to advance it. If you don't have any passion about whatever you'd be doing, there's not really any point; the world doesn't advance because of people who don't care about what they're doing.…

Put more simply: Quit your job, learn to be an expert in a new field, raise capital, start a company, change the world. Simple.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#244

Post by jimnotgym »

nopriorarrests wrote: post #76
covidacct wrote: post #46

> I expect this essay to be the target of criticism. Here’s a modest proposal to my critics. Instead of attacking my ideas of what to build, conceive your own! What do you think we should build? There’s an excellent chance I’ll agree with you. What we need to build is the capacity to make investments in building backstops against low-prob, high-risk, collective risks. For almost all of those risks, the problem isn't…

Honest, no snark question -- what exactly US government did in last 30 years that should warrant providing more money to it? Is there any guarantee that another trillion dollars will be used more efficiently than blowing up another Middle East country?

It could give that money back to people and let them spend and invest it? More people free to quit working for someone else and to instead work on 'building' sounds like exactly what Marc is advocating. We have our smartest maths graduates trying to make automated trading algorithms skim an extra .0000001% off a trade, which you could argue is not helping humanity progress. Maybe with UBI they will quit that and work on something more long-term? For Marc's dream to come true it seems like reducing the concentration of wealth and power is the first step.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#245

Post by hdbdidusn »

KirinDave wrote: post #167

I find this essay to be extremely frustrating, and a good example of the attitude I've personally witnessed Andreessen have in the few interactions I've had with him directly. > Is the problem capitalism? I’m with Nicholas Stern when he says that capitalism is how we take care of people we don’t know — all of these fields are highly lucrative already and should be prime stomping grounds for capitalist investment, goo…

If you don’t mind me asking, what radio group are you involved with? I’m been working on some tangentially related projects and would love to be involved.

Apologies for the new HN account, lost my password for my main one somehow.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#246

Post by paulryanrogers »

BurningFrog wrote: post #206
csallen wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why not write simpler laws and regulations and leave it to the courts What incentives do lawmakers have to make laws simpler?

How can we change incentives for lawmakers?

Campaign finance reform, same day primaries nationwide, vigorously prosecute bribes and conflicts of interest, make corporate lobbying illegal, prevent industry careerists from holding office, prevent outgoing politicians from working in the industry for some cool off period

These things aren't hard they're just blocked by years of propaganda by incumbents.

Edit: forgot ranked choice voting

Re: It’s Time to Build

#247

Post by TbobbyZ »

kitotik wrote: post #201
mikedilger wrote: post #192

I'm in favor of building things. But we build in response to demand. Once people need more of something (e.g. PPE), production ramps up. That effect has been in place and has worked quite well for thousands of years. It doesn't require any policy or government, or even a new social movement, it's just an emergent property of humans being free. You might argue that we could be smarter, and that we should build excess…

There has been a huge demand for cheaper and more widely available healthcare for a long time.

Cheaper healthcare cannot be achieved because of the amount of regulation that is in the healthcare system.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#248

Post by threepio »

"I expect this essay to be the target of criticism. "

With good reason: in the midst of a global crisis, Andreessen launches himself into the billionaire-splaining hall of fame by enumerating a litany of critical projects he thinks others ought be taking seriously, while notably refusing to commit any of his own wealth and influence toward these causes, nor interrogating how his investing record over the last 20 years squares with any of these apparently deeply held principles.

If you think that's cruel, cover up the name on the essay and read it again. It sounds like an op-ed published by an undergraduate in the campus newspaper — anodyne generalizations set against the straw man of "Western life".

Net difference made in the world: zero

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