Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It’s Time to Build

a16z.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

721–730 of 1001 posts

Re: It’s Time to Build

#721

Post by Lionga »

neilparikh wrote: post #596
amasad wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having children will give you that incentive. People with no children will have higher time preference -- they prefer today's consumption over investment in the future. That's why I find a lot of the antinatalism of modern western culture to be concerning.

> People with no children will have higher time preference -- they prefer today's consumption over investment in the future. I don't think that's required, or requires blaming antinatalism. I don't have children, but I recognize that others will, so I'm motivated to address long term problems for the sake of future lives. There's also some cognitive dissonance in recognizing that the future world faces existential ri…

And the primary reason for climate change is having so many people on this planet in the first place

Re: It’s Time to Build

#722

Post by laurentb »

pinkfoot wrote: post #650
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?

Not absurd at all. Since a billion years ago the South African (National) Defence Force has always had four equal branches: - Army - Navy - Air Force - Medical But the USA is already mostly there: there are eight uniformed services. One is the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps that employs the surgeon general. But you will have to stop your military's obsession with earning combat action badges. From what…

South Africa as a country is only 110 years old. come on now....

Re: It’s Time to Build

#723

Post by Jommi »

adamsea wrote: post #486
Jommi wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great comment, and hopefully I could add some real life example around this, esp with 1) and 2). Uber did this in Europe. Uber pushed, fought and introduced gig-economy employment laws in every country it has operated in EU, specifically around taxi and for hire transport regulation. Uber employed a huge amount of legal and PR counsel to achieve this, with massive lobbying funding. And what has happened? It…

Isn't Uber kind of the opposite kind of building the OP refers to? Uber externalizes so many costs to its drivers. It relies on someone else's healthcare system to care for its drivers. Someone else to pay to maintain the cars. So far the gig economy is maybe, half building something which has potential social benefit,half building something which clearly does not. Now, if Uber was lobbying hard for universal healthc…

Uber has lobbied for gig worker healthcare and social benefits in Europe. I think it's a perfect example.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#724

Post by akaiser_ »

The problem is incentives. I absolutely agree that we should build more. Building brings us closer to the world outlined in the essay. But building more doesn't solve the kind of problem like how we were unprepared for the Corona virus. Neither in the health care system nor on the political level are there any incentives to act in the long term, taking rare events into account. Preparing for rare events does neither help the current quarterly figures nor a re-election. On the contrary, such preparations require money and attention. When the disaster is there, a government can act in crisis mode. Sums that seemed unimaginable before can be waved through quickly. Even governments that have been in power long enough to take precautions are now getting approval for at least not failing completely in the crisis. And with the approval won, the government still has no incentive to change anything in the long run. We need to adapt our systems to reward long-term incentives and preparation for rare events. I doubt, however, that the actors will be able to make these adjustments on their own.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#725

Post by Jommi »

PeterisP wrote: post #689
Jommi wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think trying to put all of Europe into one EU in your argument is already where it breaks down. Europeans don't live in a cohesive society. Italians, Germans, Swedes live in a cohesive society in their small california-sized countries.

Well then, California is california-sized as well, so if that approach does not work for USA in its entirety then perhaps it can fix the healthcare system in California?

Yes, perhaps. That's what California is attempting. Unfortunately social security in US is national, so you can't operate a closed system.

E.g. only Danish people can get Danish social security

Re: It’s Time to Build

#726

Post by atmosx »

pdonis wrote: post #505
Aeolun wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt Marc has anywhere near enough capital to get these things done (by himself). 2 trillion is on a completely different order of magnitude. That said, maybe this post is a call for help and the billionaires will unite?

> I doubt Marc has anywhere near enough capital to get these things done (by himself). He probably has enough to make a good start on one of them. > maybe this post is a call for help and the billionaires will unite? If enough people in his position each pick a problem and start on it, that in itself would be a big help.

If he did what he is proposing, he would be out of business quickly with no investor money to mess around. This entire post reads like a script for Gavin Belson to me.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#727

Post by pinkfoot »

laurentb wrote: post #722
pinkfoot wrote: post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not absurd at all. Since a billion years ago the South African (National) Defence Force has always had four equal branches: - Army - Navy - Air Force - Medical But the USA is already mostly there: there are eight uniformed services. One is the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps that employs the surgeon general. But you will have to stop your military's obsession with earning combat action badges. From what…

South Africa as a country is only 110 years old. come on now....

I wasn't prepared to find out when they setup the SAMHS - I have a small phone.

It turns out it was 1979. Which for HN is nearly a billion years ago :)

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

Re: It’s Time to Build

#728

Post by mengwong »

mkolodny wrote: post #264
tlb wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting an answer from a court (is X legal?) takes a long time: at least a few years and several hundred thousand dollars. Far too long to wait before building a business around X. Asking people to build the business first and then find out if it's legal isn't how a society of laws is supposed to work. Fast courts would be a huge benefit to society.

This is exactly how two of the biggest startups of the past 15 years - Airbnb and Uber - were built. Airbnb and Uber built products that were in a legal gray area. Lawmakers are still catching up to them.

Technology innovation: "Can it be done?"

Market innovation: "Should it be done?"

Regulatory innovation: "May it be done?"

Re: It’s Time to Build

#729

Post by xchaotic »

One way to win at anything in life is to be counter cyclical. Sure you can also win by being best but the numbers are stacked against you when everyone is doing the same. As someone funnily quipped the pandemic is so bad that most places are out of stock on podcasting microphones. If everyone is podcasting and writing apps then it’s much harder to get through the noise. Find something that no else is doing, maybe something that requires physical presence, just to be contrarian. So now might a great time to write some software but now and in a few months will be a particularly hard time to turn that into a profitable business. Remember VCs don’t care if you take losses.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#730

Post by simonh »

friedman23 wrote: post #715
3xblah wrote: post #674

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I read the parent comment, the point is not that Andreesen could singlehandedly make a difference with his investments. The point is that his words do not match his actions. His work is fostering an industry whose competitive advantage is not having to build anything tangible for the public's benefit and, in the case of companies like Facebook, not having to pay taxes on their profits.

> His work is fostering an industry whose competitive advantage is not having to build anything tangible for the public's benefit His work doesn't foster this. Being able to sell a product that has nearly infinite margins will naturally be more profitable than the alternative. > not having to pay taxes on their profits. The government has enough tax revenue, how about they stop spending it on pointless wars and destr…

Fine up until the last cheap shot. None of those conflicts were wanted or started by the US. Saddam invaded Kuwait, the Taliban enabled 9/11, Assad provoked a civil war in Syria.

Disengaging always makes things worse. After the ‘Surge’ in Iraq the US tried to pull out and what happened? ISIS. The US pulled out of north Syria and our (talking broadly, I’m a Brit) allies the Kurds got massacred and thousands of ISIS prisoners got loose again. Walking away doesn’t work, we tried that with Afghanistan, just leaving it to the Taliban after the Soviets pulled out, and they came after us in New York anyway. It’s a small world whether we like it or not, and we’re in it together.

Post reply on HN