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It’s Time to Build

a16z.com

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Re: It’s Time to Build

#281

Post by KirinDave »

amasad wrote: post #278
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…

> We don't have it because building these things requires long term investments and folks like Marc and his investors are not interested in long term investments. I don't know where you get this from but as far as VC goes a16z are especially willing to take long-term bets. Case in point, when we pitched them, we explicitly said it's going to take us a decade to achieve our goals and they were okay with that.

Weird, they told me "it would take too long for that to work."

Re: It’s Time to Build

#282

Post by JackFr »

dikaio wrote: post #254

Such great ideas, both in this article and here in the comments, yet, none of these ideas will bear fruit. Why? Partly due to the fact that the people like Marc Andreessen and others here in this thread that you can clearly see are very capable of thinking through and helping solve some of the issues touched on in Marc’s article don’t run for office. Instead you have glass eyed Attorneys and puppets on both the right…

The reason why turnout is so poor in American elections is that the candidates suck. We refuse to play in a charade of false consensus by holding our noses and voting for the candidate who sucks marginally less.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#283

Post by harryh »

imafish wrote: post #275

The biggest argument for tax paid, public sector health care and education, is that it should be much cheaper for the customer when the institutions are made efficiently and not for-profit. A quality education does not have to cost more than $10-20k to produce (per student). So why are current prices in the $100-200k range?

US spending on public education at the K-12 level is close to 15k per year. Your assertion that removing the profit from the system will lead to significantly lower costs is not supported by the data.

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66

Re: It’s Time to Build

#284

Post by nathandaly »

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…

Also, here's an essay I really like written more from a tech/software engineer perspective about how to align your career towards building (with an emphasis on building our way out of the climate crisis): http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange

I've pivoted my career to working on the Julia programming language, because of its focus on science and engineering (_building things!_) rather than what I used to be doing in the software world (e.g. my past job at google), squeezing out more dollars from advertising. https://julialang.org/

Re: It’s Time to Build

#285

Post by qplex »

Barrin92 wrote: post #212
oxymoron wrote: post #70

I'm in the process of reading _Why Nation Fails_. The central thesis is that the rich and poor countries are separated by inclusive vs extractive institutions. The extractive institutions are characterised by elites that attempt to defend their own wealth and status by maintaining the status quo and resisting the creative destruction that may threaten that position. It seems to resonate a bit here, when Marc speaks o…

The inclusive vs extractive institutions mentality makes sense but I think in the exact reverse way then you suggest. It's precisely because of the Wests (and like Marc says it really is the West) failure to respond to this crisis. It's the excess of inclusivity that leads to short term, ballot box decision making in response to crises, and it is the short term, market logic that leads to loss of autonomy and neglect…

All the recent outbreaks of viruses like this have originated from East Asia.

I really wouldnt give much praise to the great governing elite that failed to prevent this in the first place, despite scientists telling them about it a long time ago.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#286

Post by wesammikhail »

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…

This should be printed and sent to his office once a day. This is exactly my frustration as well. It is rather hard for people like Marc to look in the mirror because it is in their personal interest not to do so. It is clear that his class has failed us more than politicians or any other faction of society.

Unfortunately though, he will never accept this and see the failure as, at least, partly his own. He will not change his ways and nor will the rest of his peers. Because, once again, it is in their short term personal interest not to do so.

For a "tech visionary and investor", that short term thinking is one hell of a pathetic attribute to have.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#287

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

justicezyx wrote: post #262
betocmn wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why Nation Fails" is a phenomenal book. I'm sorry, but I have a hard time to think of US institutions as reasonable examples of how the author portraits creative destruction and extractive institutions. I understand there might be some broken things in your nation's systems. Still, the fact you're able to discuss them here or work towards changing them through legal methods, shows the US is far off on the right trac…

Any recent example of a societal issue affecting American lives got fixed in American system?

I can think of 1

It used to be very expensive to travel between US cities because a govt agency (forget the name, maybe the board of air travel?) set the who what how could fly planes from a to b, and at what price. Think mad men times, panAm, etc.

That agency was eliminated circa 1980 by some stroke of luck and perfect alingment of planets. Ticket prices plummeted and this opened flying to the poor.

That was also the last time a US regulatory agency was disbanded.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#288

Post by amasad »

KirinDave wrote: post #281
amasad wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We don't have it because building these things requires long term investments and folks like Marc and his investors are not interested in long term investments. I don't know where you get this from but as far as VC goes a16z are especially willing to take long-term bets. Case in point, when we pitched them, we explicitly said it's going to take us a decade to achieve our goals and they were okay with that.

Weird, they told me "it would take too long for that to work."

But you're right in that 99% of VCs and investors in general think short term. Very high time preference.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#289

Post by KirinDave »

harryh wrote: post #272
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…

I'm confused why you think a VC who generally won't see returns on a good investment for a decade or so thinks that "value lies in quarterly profits."

Having been through the VC wringer I don't think you can be unprofitable for a decade.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#290

Post by vsareto »

>The problem is desire. We need to want these things.

Good luck generating the want. You don't have insurance nerds like computer nerds. You can't open your insurance plan, hack it to bits, and then put it back together in an interesting fashion and start your own business with it. You can't iterate and break stuff in insurance like you can with software. Even if you removed all of the regulatory capture, companies in those kinds of industries only come down to profit.

Insurance is boring. What are you going to do, make a $10/month health insurance plan that covers everything? You'll be popular, then broke. But that's what America really deserves: essentially free healthcare. The problem beyond regulatory capture is capitalism at its core because capitalism doesn't like anything given away for free.

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