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It’s Time to Build

a16z.com

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Re: It’s Time to Build

#951

Post by pmarca »

fcarraldo wrote: post #332
darawk wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Markets build in response to incentives. Most American production choices are determined by markets, including the choices of investors allocating capital. This leaves out the most important problem though: regulatory capture and bureaucratic gridlock. Markets would love to build more housing. But they're prevented from doing so by the regulatory state. Markets would love to build nuclear power plants, but they're…

> Markets would love to build more housing. But they're prevented from doing so by the regulatory state. I'm not certain this is a problem outside of the Bay area.

It's a problem that strongly correlates to the cities richest in high-income knowledge-intensive jobs.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#952

Post by pmarca »

olivermarks wrote: post #276
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…

Interesting that Andreesen mentions Milton 'Shock Doctrine' Friedman. I recently read 'don't be evil' by Rana Foroohar about big tech and 'Goliath' by Matt Stoller, the 100 year battle between monopoly power and democracy in the USA. I believe we are a dangerous point in history - look at how the Amazon/Bezos monopoly has become even more dominant in the last few weeks of soft martial law, with online orders permissi…

This is an odd time to attack Amazon?

Re: It’s Time to Build

#953

Post by pmarca »

worik wrote: post #318
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.

There is a problem. Ten years is not long term. In the long term we are all dead. So we have to want to do these things for people who are not born yet and who will never pay us or pay us back or be able to even thank us. We have to do these things because these things are the right thing to do. That will decrease our wealth. Now please explain how capitalism can do that?

The average time horizon for anyone with young kids is 80+ years.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#954

Post by pmarca »

notacoward wrote: post #417

It seems a bit too easy to challenge the left to show that the public sector can do amazing things ... when the public sector doesn't have the freedom of action we've given to the private sector, and the left isn't even in control of it right now. "Come on, let's fight, you with your hands tied, and see who's better." Cheap shot, Marc. Point the second: of course a VC wants people to build. Of course a VC wants creat…

The left has been in control of the public sector in California for approximately forever.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#955

Post by pmarca »

jonathanberger wrote: post #812
zachrose wrote: post #44

> 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, good both for the investor and the customers who are served. I'm not familiar with Nicholas Stern, and will look him up, but does anyone here want to elaborate as if you were talking to a five-year-old?

At this point in the essay, Andreessen is wondering aloud why more building hasn't happened in the United States to solve problems in fields like education, manufacturing, and transportation. He asks what the reasons could be, and lists several rejecting each of them. One reason that he rejects for why more building hasn't happened is capitalism. Andreessen thinks capitalism can't be the reason for us not building be…

Indeed. Communist societies build less, and somehow also pollute more.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#956

Post by pochekailov »

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…

Great reply, thanks, you are restoring my faith in the humanity.

I fully agree that we have to build build build, to surpass technological level of Star Trek. And yes, I do want to live in science fiction.

"Early retirement" is the most retarded concept to me. Yes, I will retire when I will be a retard. Retired = retard.

People in the late 1800 actually hated the idea of retirement; corporations forced them to retire to give way to young people.

Out biggest problem compared to people of 1800 that we have a facebook (or twitter, or instagram). So instead of building, we outjealousing each other with beautiful vacation pics.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#957

Post by CommonAccord »

pmarca wrote: post #365
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.

Yes! Law = code. Law should be turned into code, and made available to everyone. A great current attempt is https://donotpay.com/

A piece of this is to eliminate the friction of legal text by open sourcing legal templates, in a graph, on GitHub. The key word here is "source." Legal documents currently are blobs, not source. See github.com/CommonAccord/ Lots of exampless, including the YC SAFES, Series Seed, GA4GH data sharing, etc. It's not full algorithmic, but compatible with algorithmic approaches, like Mike Genesereth's and Meng's.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#958

Post by mdonahoe »

dodobirdlord wrote: post #457
pmarca wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! Law = code. Law should be turned into code, and made available to everyone. A great current attempt is https://donotpay.com/

No, law is not code and it’s very important that it’s not code. Law is subject to interpretation, and that’s great. When bugs are discovered in law, they can be retroactively corrected.

“Law is subject to interpretation, and that’s great.”

I’m not sure it is always great.

Studies show racism[1] and hunger[2] and can impact sentencing judgments.

> When bugs are discovered in law, they can be retroactively corrected.

How is that different than software?

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/16/black...

2. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/apr/11/judges-lenient-b...

Re: It’s Time to Build

#959

Post by jbkiv »

lucio wrote: post #865
Talanes wrote: post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never looked for data to back this up, but I had a teacher outline the following theory of healthcare costs. Insurance companies have out-sized bargaining power and will only pay a fraction of the list-price for a procedure. Doctor's know this, so prices inflate to the point where the negotiated price is in line with what they'll actually do it for. Everyone who is not insured or not covered for that procedure e…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeDOQpfaUc8 With references

I had not seen that one. Lots of truth indeed!

AND you have not looked into the arcane world of pharmacy bids company. Stick your nose into their billing, you are guaranteed a 20% discount (Oh, sorry we discovered several mistakes). But this is boring stuff for 2020 startups who "want to disrupt the industry".

Now you wonder why the Democrats are pushing TONIGHT last minute negotiations in DC to add another $250B in stimulus money. We'll sign ONLY if you carve out, say $50-100 Billions or additional money for...HOSPITALS!

You get it now?

Re: It’s Time to Build

#960

Post by quietthrow »

dang wrote: post #900
quietthrow wrote: post #313

Since you are reading why nations fail I would like to recommend a pairing. How democracies die by Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky. The central thesis here is parties are the gatekeepers of democracies and when they put party before nation they erode the democracy that eventually fails. More often it’s a slow degrade than a sudden spectacular collapse. The erosion paves way for leaders that are more “spectacular”…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22912001 .

Thats fine. Just curious why would you do that?
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