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It’s Time to Build

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Re: It’s Time to Build

#851

Post by derangedHorse »

jekoeoe9njdjr wrote: post #809
sanderjd wrote: post #794

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, if anything good comes from this open letter it will be from people in his own demographic (investors) reading, internalizing, and acting on it.

I’d rather he cram this letter up his arse and lead by example with a letter announcing deep investment in infra Otherwise this is just someone with the freedom to sit around rambling at length trying to look woke The model of investing he got rich on is part of the problem Is he actually going to change that or peddle warm fuzzies and never follow up? Academia knows where the problems are States know where the probl…

I agree that he should put his money where his mouth is, but it seems like most of your criticism here is on capitalism and wealthy individuals rather than the points he was making in the article

Re: It’s Time to Build

#852

Post by jtdev »

MattGaiser wrote: post #511
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?

He could call Harvard and donate a bunch of developers for a year to build that system which could educate a million 18 year olds. Harvard will certainly take his call. He couldn’t fund all the hyper efficient factories for the country, but he could build one.

Harvard seems to have troubling relationships with both China and Saudi Arabia. We need to start treating such relationships as treasonous/harmful to the United States and our future:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/13/harvard-yale...

Re: It’s Time to Build

#853

Post by lucio »

silexia wrote: post #793
danimal88 wrote: post #784

I build tech enabled, innovative physical infrastructure solutions for buildings. People do want them. VCs, less so, unless it's as high margin as a photo sharing app, destructive and lucrative as consumable businesses like Kurig, etc. Consumers don't know what they want until the possibilities are presented to them. VCs are literally the gate keepers of much innovative possibilty at the early phases of enterprises.…

What do you think of my proposals to fight regulatory capture? https://joelx.com/how-to-beat-regulatory-capture/15780/

>allowing someone to own an idea is insane

Let's say you have an inspiration, then you work hard on that for 5 years designing up to the last detail of a [business online idea/product]. You put your service online/start selling your product. It's a hit.

Aware of your early success. $BIG COMPANY$ with thousands of engineers and millions of users copies all the details that make your idea a success.

Your early users migrate, now your site goes into the drain, along with all your years of thinking and hard work.

Are you sure that allowing someone to own an idea is insane?

Re: It’s Time to Build

#854

Post by camgunz »

refurb wrote: post #579
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…

I have no doubt that money drives burdensome regulations, but most regulations are put into place because someone screwed up and hurt people. Yeah, there are a ton of regulations If you want to bring a new drug to market. That makes it super expensive to do. But in exchange we get pharmaceuticals that work, are reasonable safe, and are based solid data.

Totally, spot on. I think a great next step would be democratize the system that performs those tests and works with the regulatory institutions so new pharma companies can focus on innovation. A reasonable analog are the fintech startups that provide APIs and say essentially "were regulated so you don't have to be". That stuff is important and we should DRY it up so we don't have to copy/paste it every time we start a company.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#855

Post by bsanr2 »

Thorentis wrote: post #731
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 p…

This is the kind of response that comes from, and please excuse my language, someone who doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about.

There is barely a safety net. There is barely any institutional support for innovation. Accessing either is a competitive process that is purposely obfuscated to reduce costs. The downside involved in preparing for and executing on innovative ideas is potentially lethal for the individual, even if it might be incredibly advantageous for society for even one person to be successful.

If you want people to fly high, you start by putting a trampoline under them, not a trap pit of crocodiles. Things are as bad as they are because the people with the means to push us onward do not understand the problem.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#856

Post by jeffe »

At least for higher education, I think it's a little more difficult to scale than this piece makes. Higher education has a very entrenched culture of obsessing with fundraising, accumulation of prestige through factors tangential to education quality, and exploitation of undergrad/grad labor. My state school tried to 'build' enrollments in it's historically competitive STEM majors and I just saw these problematic factors become worse; increased reliance on underpaid student TAs, with additional funding being dumped into band-aids such as tutoring programs fractured between departments and stress relief fairs. For higher education it needs complete cultural or policy reform to focus on educating and eliminate cruft, before we can start building it out.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#858

Post by antsar »

danimal88 wrote: post #834
pc86 wrote: post #790

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I build tech enabled, innovative physical infrastructure solutions Can you explain what it is you do without copying and pasting a line from your pitch deck? This sentence could literally mean any of at least a dozen completely different things.

Sure. Tbh, I didn't really want this comment to be an opportunity to pitch my company or make it too specific about our solution as there are many different types of solutions, categories and problems that could use innovation capital that are second in line. flair.co is us. We have taken money from investors, those that aren't afraid of energy problems, that aren't afraid of energy efficiency, and that invest in mea…

TLDR (actually, the site title):

Smart Vents & Wireless Thermostats

Re: It’s Time to Build

#859

Post by lucio »

jakub_g wrote: post #714
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…

> I heard a few years back that a US health insurance startup had to provide on the order of 6000 pages of documentation to be approved. No wonder that there hadn't been another provider for twenty years or so. It seems like some things are hard to build mostly because some people want it that way. Very often regulation starts lean, then inevitably some assholes take advantage of it to their profit, so the regulation…

so when (extra) cost goes to zero, the demand goes to infinity?

Re: It’s Time to Build

#860

Post by kyletns »

jeremyjh wrote: post #831
aguyfromnb wrote: post #713

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> GOP put party win before a nation by agreeing to nominate an unfit individual for office. They failed as gatekeepers. Why do we want corrupt politicians as "gatekeepers" to anything? The Democrats did a fine job "gatekeeping" Sanders from the 2016 and 2020 nomination, to what end? By the way, nothing will ever get done in the US until the bitter partisanship ceases. Most of what both parties do is political theatre…

> The Democrats did a fine job "gatekeeping" Sanders from the 2016 and 2020 nomination, to what end? I don't understand this perspective. Sanders lost because he lost primary elections. That happened because democrats didn't believe in him as a candidate. Many of us have been steadfast in our disbelief for years due only to listening to what he himself says about what he wants to do. Why discredit our opinions this w…

Sorry, but if you don't think the entire Democratic machine has been working against a Sanders win for 5 years, you haven't been doing enough research. I know you don't like him, and you are 100% entitled to dislike and vote against him - but to pretend that he lost only because he wasn't popular enough is pretty blind to how our democracy runs.
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