Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?

Post by md_ » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 6:51 PM UTC

appleshore wrote: post #28

dumbfoundded wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a libertarian talking point. The idea is that government control of money leads to less private innovation. We had the industrial revolution in the late 19th century while on the gold standard and now with government-controlled money, most of the long term innovation like renewable energy, nukes, the internet are all funded by the government. It has almost nothing to do with this article.

Low interest rates certainly lead to non-optimal housing development. I completely support massive government funding of energy, nuclear, technology and research. But I don't support the NY Fed and the bank CEOs controlling the open markets, setting the interest rates and flooding dumb "elite" investors with cheap money so they can build bad systems. Having 1 of 12 FRBs dominate the monetary system is a flawed idea,…

Post by epicureanideal » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 6:52 PM UTC

xiphias2 wrote: post #17

md_ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive me, but I don't understand your point. Is it that it's so easy to borrow money that there's no need to sift good ideas from bad? And if so, that seems like it would result in more bad ideas being funded, not fewer good ideas. Yet the paper claims to present evidence to the contrary (sort of; they're talking about innovation gains, not "ideas")--that the cost of gains is increasing. I don't see how that would…

Money (in the form of buying power) can't be created from nothing, so whenever a bad idea/execution is funded, it takes away buying power from companies that have better execution, but less access to cheap loans. As an example I personally know a CEO who had a great idea, great exececution, but a new competitor startup was funded with millions of dollars of cash that threatened to sue him in the US. He didn't have mo…

Post by etrautmann » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 6:58 PM UTC

GuB-42 wrote: post #29

Just look what it takes to have a good idea now. A good example is astrophysics. There are so many nice theories around, but they are all wrong. If you want to theorycraft the universe now, you need to deal with an incredible amount of very precise data, advanced maths and billion dollar machines. If you don't, the best you get is to have you theory proven wrong by an actual specialist, most of the times it is "not e…

Post by bumby » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 7:01 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #12

Gollapalli wrote: post #6

It may just be a change in the way that we work. This paper may just as well be titled "Are institutions getting less effective?" or "Are research institutions getting less effective?". Hell, it might even be that our smartest people aren't researching and the amount of brainpower we throw at research problems has actually decreased even though the effort/money we throw at research problems has increased.

It may just be a change in the way that we work. This paper may just as well be titled "Are institutions getting less effective?" or "Are research institutions getting less effective?". Lots of progress might be stymied by entrenched interests using laws, regulations, or some form of corporate bureaucracy/cronyism as a "moat" to ward off competition. The short shrift paid to EVs by auto makers and car dealers before…

Post by teunispeters » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 7:06 PM UTC