It’s Time to Build • Hacker News Board

Re: It’s Time to Build

#661

Post by dmode » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:51 AM UTC

coffeemug wrote: post #658

Fede_V wrote: post #598

I'm quite sympathetic to a lot of what's in that blog post but... A16Z directly invests gobs of capital, and, indirectly, shapes the outlook of other VCs who follow their investment decisions, and they plow way more money into software/bitcoin than physical companies. Why? Because they are really good at what they do, and they realize that building physical stuff is really hard, and they'd rather invest in areas that…

I don't think "put your money where your mouth is" is a good argument. A16z can be subject to prisoner's dilemma of our collective cultural decline and simultaneously have genuine desire to get out of this predicament we're all in. He says it right there in the blog post-- the problem is desire. For example, someone is reliably making tons of money in China stamping cities into the ground and building thousands of mi…

The high speed rail is nothing to do with bureaucrats (not sure what the term means anymore), but is delayed due the really difficult task of land acquisition, while maintaining property rights, and address thousands of lawsuits about communities objecting to various routes. It is easy to comment on the abstract, but I bet even Marc Andreseen won't be happy if a high speed rail runs in his backyard in Atherton

Re: It’s Time to Build

#662

Post by jointpdf » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 7:53 AM UTC

baq wrote: post #643

peterburkimsher wrote: post #640

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With so much money earmarked for the military, how absurd would it be to create a "health force" alongside the Space Force?

I predict this will happen when the US realizes that health of its citizens is a matter of national security. If that doesn’t happen during this pandemic, then I don’t know what can make it see that simple fact except a war happening in the country. The name might be a bit different though: say, National Health Service.

Or maybe we could call it the US Public Health Service: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Public_Health_...

Re: It’s Time to Build

#663

Post by chrisMyzel » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 8:05 AM UTC

Push aside your interlect for a second everybody, stop discussing, start building. Make groups for ideas - you did not understand the article, it did not ask for your opinion but for YOU taking action, if not now then when?

Re: It’s Time to Build

#664

Post by chrisMyzel » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 8:06 AM UTC

Push aside your intelect for a second everybody, stop discussing, start building. Make groups for ideas - you did not understand the article, it did not ask for your opinion but for YOU taking action, if not now then when?

Re: It’s Time to Build

#665

Post by coffeemug » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 8:08 AM UTC

dmode wrote: post #661

coffeemug wrote: post #658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think "put your money where your mouth is" is a good argument. A16z can be subject to prisoner's dilemma of our collective cultural decline and simultaneously have genuine desire to get out of this predicament we're all in. He says it right there in the blog post-- the problem is desire. For example, someone is reliably making tons of money in China stamping cities into the ground and building thousands of mi…

The high speed rail is nothing to do with bureaucrats (not sure what the term means anymore), but is delayed due the really difficult task of land acquisition, while maintaining property rights, and address thousands of lawsuits about communities objecting to various routes. It is easy to comment on the abstract, but I bet even Marc Andreseen won't be happy if a high speed rail runs in his backyard in Atherton

We used to be able to accomplish things like raising of Chicago[1] over 150 years ago but we can't move a few tiny communities in the middle of I-5 to build an infrastructure project of enormous economic value in 2020? I think that's case in point.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago

Re: It’s Time to Build

#666

Post by adreamingsoul » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 8:13 AM UTC

What I want to build is not attractive to short term investors. I want to build towards long-term growth. My challenge and current quest, is to figure out what that thing is.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#667

Post by shrimpx » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 8:13 AM UTC

I for one believe the quality of generally accessible k12 eduction is America’s biggest problem, by far. Who’s to build if there’s no good system for creating builders? Public k12 education in America is abysmal and few people are talking about it. It’s because we are myopic and talk about problems only when they manifest concretely in the economy. As in people accruing and defaulting in debt, unemployment, crime, etc. We suck at slightly longer term analysis and getting to the root causes. The American motto is “if it doesn’t hurt me, today, fuck it.” Good luck building a robust society with that philosophy.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#668

Post by birdyrooster » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 8:13 AM UTC

Who watches "Westworld" and their takeaway is that our cities should look more like theirs?

Re: It’s Time to Build

#669

Post by ImaCake » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 8:13 AM UTC

>Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings.

This is simply not true. In Australia, New Zealand, and several European countries institutions did act fast enough and did manage to flatten the curve. Go take a look at Australia's epi curve [0]. It is flat. Our case load has peaked, there are less Australians in hospital with Covid19 today than a week ago. There is reason to believe at least some Australian states will be completely free of Covid19 within 2 weeks.

Some might argue that this is because of the lucky isolation of Australia. But a similar thing can be seen in South Korea, and even more impressive results in Taiwan. Institutions can solve this. Even, gasp, Western ones. If Covid19 is a test of the quality of our institutions, the USA has failed and Australasia has passed.

0. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-17/coronavirus-cases-dat...

Re: It’s Time to Build

#670

Post by luckylion » Sun, Apr 19, 2020, 8:15 AM UTC

jariel wrote: post #617

The most sorely lacking in self-awareness aspect of his post is that a16z is a primary driver of a flavour economic (and social) neoliberalism that is a 'root cause' of almost everything he lamented. 1) If non-college educated kids had a legit path into the market (like they do in Germany) then surpluses would be more evenly distributed and housing wouldn't be such a problem. But they don't have path because a) indus…

I don't disagree on the primary point you're trying to make, but I feel like you have a warped image of -at least- Germany. Germany has a housing crisis as well, rent is through the roof in the major metropolitan areas.

> The US doesn't really care that much about citizen v. non-citizen - the economic benefit in the short term is outsource/insource - there is no consideration for the population.

That's very true for Germany as well.

Germany's Nazi-past has left the political climate in a state of explicit denial of self-interest. Obviously, Germany very much has political and economical interests as any nation will. The main difference compared to the US, Britain or France is that it's a big no-no to say so in Germany. Concerns about the impact of decisions on Germany's citizens are considered nationalist and suspect of being far right.