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

731–740 of 1001 posts

Re: It’s Time to Build

#731

Post by Thorentis »

zelly wrote: post #487

This was one of the best posts I've ever read. Thinking about printing it out and framing it. It's more inspirational than anything I've read, and it articulates the elephant-in-the-room problem we all know but aren't talking about. No one is innovating anymore. Everyone copies each other. Even in the YC crowd, every other thing is a dumb CRUD app or AI snake oil project that has been rehashed since the 80s. Where's…

I believe we have reached a point where most people are in an equilibrium of comfort and desire, where the desire to innovate and do more, is perfectly balanced out by the present comforts we are able to enjoy.

People are so doped up on Netflix, cheap takeaway, porn etc. There is relative safety, lack of disease and war for the most part. People no longer desire to improve the world. It's about maximising the small pleasures for as long as possible and then dying.

America used to innovate, improve the world, improve our knowledge. Now it has stagnated. The populace is obese, lazy, and getting dumber.TV and porn were bad ideas.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#732

Post by xal10 »

mattmanser wrote: post #718
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.

I always get a bit conflicted with Marc Andreessen stuff. Like this article starts out with a bold claim that's...wrong. Germany have done well. A western country has done well. Elephant in the room, massive 80 million person country, major western power, and the American claims no-one's done a good job because the US hasn't. And then he goes into talking about having pre-prepared therapies or a vaccine. Again, we al…

Perhaps the medical system works better in Germany than in the U.S., but the rest of the article's points stand:

- Rents are sky high, and the landowners and people in power have no intention of changing that. In fact, they import more people at any opportunity in order to increase the size of the industrial reserve army and push up rents.

- Germany has no substantial capacity of manufacturing simple goods like masks.

- While Germany still has manufacturing, the middle and lower classes are exploited and relatively poor.

But people get what they vote for.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#733

Post by ankit219 »

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 know for sure, but there is always a chance that they realize the same thing now and put their money where their mouth is. This is something written with the benefit of hindsight, and could be the scenario that he might have the same insight now that we have and not had it like 5 years ago. (guessing based on the tone of the essay). The other thing is the difference in budgets. The numbers at which they invest might not be enough to scale a full fledged physical project. But I do hope they take a lead into this in the near future.

Further, I would argue that even if he doesnt follow through on this, it is still a good and important essay in the context in a sense that there is every chance this can motivate others to take action. Given his reach and stature among the entrepreneurs, there is every chance it motivates you or me or someone else to take an action - the lack of which is quite apparent today. Call to actions work even when the people mobilizing others do not act on those. Of course, putting your money where your mouth is always a better scenario, but if that does not transpire here, this essay could still inspire others.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#734

Post by 1cvmask »

ALittleLight wrote: post #645
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?

The US spends about 600 billion on the military and about a trillion on Medicare and health. https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-bud...

Depends on how it is counted. If the budget was counted like other countries the defense budget would be over 1.2 trillion per year:

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tom-dispatch-ameri...

Re: It’s Time to Build

#735

Post by john_minsk »

Very interesting article. 5 cents from post soviet hole I'm in:

[] US/EU moved production to China because it was/is cheaper

[] It was/is cheaper because innovation in production technologies to this date haven't narrowed the gap for US/EU companies to move production back to US/EU.

[] US/EU workers don't want to compete with Chinese workers because they are "too cheap", but can't scale their efficiency proportionally. This is the main challenge of the developed economies - find how to continue growing the efficiency

[] US strategic failure is in putting all the eggs in one basket - China. Why not to have 5 production hubs around the world is not clear (maybe other nations don't want to work as hard as chinese?)

[] Another US strategic failure is to choose offshoring over local production. This could be achieved by lowering minimum wage or if this decision is not politically feasible - import of workforce. For this you could make elaborate laws where people coming to US for work couldn't stay there and had to go back once their work is done. Arab countries are doing this a lot.

[] The conflict of interest became apparent in times of struggle: virus shown that US is not de facto in control of outsourced production overseas

[] It DOESN'T mean that US must bring back production or start wasteful BUILD projects, which no one ever will use. It means that US must start investing even more into bridging the gap between overseas labor costs and automation due to innovation. Or create even more service industries that will be in demand overseas

[] If US succeeds in this mission - it is rightfully the leader of the world, its system is superior and next development revolution will be theirs to benefit from

[] But if US fails to bring the world new development cycle or someone does it before them - US citizens shouldn't expect their living to improve significantly since financial manipulations can bring you only so far

So if robots happen - all of the above resolved. And in times like this it must be quite easy to repurpose robot, which will solve extreme capacity shocks in the system.

BTW US were building high speed trains - it is called airplane! And was winning worldwide competition to date, but decided to outsource critical development to India... So I guess another example of strategic failure.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#736

Post by intended »

xal10 wrote: post #732
mattmanser wrote: post #718

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always get a bit conflicted with Marc Andreessen stuff. Like this article starts out with a bold claim that's...wrong. Germany have done well. A western country has done well. Elephant in the room, massive 80 million person country, major western power, and the American claims no-one's done a good job because the US hasn't. And then he goes into talking about having pre-prepared therapies or a vaccine. Again, we al…

Perhaps the medical system works better in Germany than in the U.S., but the rest of the article's points stand: - Rents are sky high, and the landowners and people in power have no intention of changing that. In fact, they import more people at any opportunity in order to increase the size of the industrial reserve army and push up rents. - Germany has no substantial capacity of manufacturing simple goods like masks…

This is news to me that the German middle and Lower classes are relatively poor.

Who is this in comparison to?

Could you share where you got this info?

Re: It’s Time to Build

#737

Post by vgchh »

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 think we are better off focusing on the message versus the messenger. I tend to think that there are good ideas in the post. Given our response to Covid19, the call to build in America is very timely and is not for one person/organization, but for the collective We.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#738

Post by coffeemug »

dmode wrote: post #679
coffeemug wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You can view that as a negative. But you can also interpret this as a positive development, where people at grassroots are empowered to protect their own communities, and cannot be simply swept over.

The way to solve this problem is by (largely) adopting the premise of the Coase Theorem, but we've created an environment where that's impossible. So now a community of a few thousand can hold millions of people and hundreds of billions of wealth hostage.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#739

Post by ianai »

“Many of us would like to pin the cause on one political party or another, on one government or another. But the harsh reality is that it all failed — no Western country, or state, or city was prepared — and despite hard work and often extraordinary sacrifice by many people within these institutions. So the problem runs deeper than your favorite political opponent or your home nation.”

I stopped reading here. I thought this (HN) was a discussion board of thoughts outside the political realm. But this is clearly a political statement begging for a deeply partisan response. Or, worse, a gross misunderstanding of the last century of political history which contributes gravely to an incorrect recollection of all that has unfolded. In effect establishing a deeply political conclusion to the benefit of one specific party at the cost of another.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#740

Post by tekdude »

buss wrote: post #405
tekdude wrote: post #388

Regulatory capture is indeed a major underlying cause of a lot of the issues, but who will actually do the political work to fight against it? Someone spent money to capture the regulations in the first place, through lobbying and campaign donations. Who will spend the money to lobby and donate for the cause of undoing that? The "builders"? No, their focus and limited capital is spent on whatever it is they are worki…

In San Francisco, at least, YIMBY is the organization that is organized around ending regulatory capture in housing, and The Neoliberal Project (in SF YIMBY Neoliberal) is organized around broader dismantling of regulatory capture. We mobilize people in support of reform-focused politicians and have even started running our own (Sonja Trauss in 2018 and myself in 2020). Happy to talk more about it -- steven.buss@gmai…

I've read about YIMBY groups before, particularly the one called BARF (if I remember correctly). This is a great start to the type of work that needs to be done.

However, I have to ask: What is your group's funding situation? Who is bankrolling the effort? Is it grassroots funded, or are there wealthy benefactors who agree with the objectives (or, from a more cynical perspective, might be using your group for something)?

For the record, I believe both approaches can work. We have obviously seen the wealthy fund politics in favor of their interests and successfully get their way, but there have been grassroots successes as well. In particular, I am thinking of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with its cause, the NRA has 5+ million dues-paying members and it has been extremely successful at deploying those funds to achieve its very specific political objectives.

On a more abstract note: the founders of America may have originally envisioned a system where various interest groups debate the issues and arrive at a governing consensus, but the system has [d]evolved into one where those groups compete to raise funds that can channeled to lawmakers to encourage them to implement preferred policies. Some groups recognized this long ago.

Post reply on HN