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Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

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Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#71
post #47
post #19

> "America does not have enough people with those skills." Seriously, I feel the US has a big education problem, with part of it being cultural I think. Seems being educated, knowledgeable, having expertise, learning about science and technology, medicine and law, just isn't valued anymore, in fact it's almost being denigrated and shamed. What I see instead is people pushing for anti-intellectualism and valuing the "…

> in fact it's almost being denigrated and shamed. "Almost" really isn't necessary there anymore. There's a growing group that believes virtually all doctors, scientists, and professionals within certain fields are "in on it" and part of some big conspiracy to do some vague, undefined thing that'll take down America and corrupt their children. These used to just be a fringe group. Now it feels like about half the peo…

Isn't it an effect of a feeling caused by governments using experts in a way letting (too often and a too large part of) the public think that they, at worst, are all (gov & experts alike) pushing their own short-termed and only self-beneficial agendas or, at best, nearly always devise some "Grand Plan" which then appears to cost much more than budgeted, gives less than promised and has unwanted unexpected side-effects?

There is a fair part of subjectivity in those opinions, for example most of us tend to forget/neglect granted benefits and focus on unwanted side-effects.

It seems to me that a growing opinion is that governments less and less understand what is going on, and therefore cannot efficiently adequately assess and plan. This is especially true when it comes to managing innovation, which is intrinsically full of new concepts and uncertainty.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#72
Eric Schmidt is a household name around here. Doesn’t mean I give a damn about what he thinks.

> Dr Schmidt, who is currently the Chair of the US Department of Defense's innovation board, said he thinks the US is still ahead of China in tech innovation, for now.

“Invest in my next project now, before it’s too late!” is what I read it as.

Edit: let me clarify. Innovation isn't zero-sum. I believe America is the most fascinating experiment – balancing (albeit imperfectly) innovation with ethics. There's a lot of innovation that can happen – and at a cost that's too great.

For example, North Korea has demonstrated an ability to develop nuclear weapons (deep technical advancement), and China can develop datasets on millions (billions?) of people (broad technical advancement). But, the ethical costs are too great. I don't want to celebrate cultures of innovation that do this – foreign or domestic.

Sure, let's always have an eye on increasing our investments against R&D – fundamental and more broadly. But I'm no apologist for falling behind when the truth is that that view of innovation is a zero-sum game where we lose our humanity in the process.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#73
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then just like so many other Google initiatives, they got bored abandoned it and in some cases left damaged roads in their wake. https://wpln.org/post/google-fiber-disruptions-have-some-say... https://www.wdrb.com/news/business/louisville-to-fix-google-... In the meantime AT&T has been rolling out gigabit up/down for the past 5 years. I got AT&T four years ago and the price has been $70/month no extra fees.

Google Fi is not Google Fiber - it’s probably the least overtly scumbag-y of the US cellphone networks. That said, I switched away from it today after a few years of OK service because they don’t support Apple Watches.

My bad.

I’m looking at their plans.

https://fi.google.com/about/plans/

They look worse than T-mobile.

https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans

Unlimited 3G hot spot and $20/month for tablets with unlimited data can’t be beat.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#74
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Fi has been a godsend compared to the likes of AT&T, Verizon, and TMobile.

And then just like so many other Google initiatives, they got bored abandoned it and in some cases left damaged roads in their wake. https://wpln.org/post/google-fiber-disruptions-have-some-say... https://www.wdrb.com/news/business/louisville-to-fix-google-... In the meantime AT&T has been rolling out gigabit up/down for the past 5 years. I got AT&T four years ago and the price has been $70/month no extra fees.

Fi is not Fi(ber)

Google's problem is that they try too many things to see what sticks, but no one wants to stick around long enough to make it stick.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#75
post #51
post #38

I am not sure what he is talking about. I work on AI/Machine Learning and I can't think of any major paper that came out of China.

That doesn't matter so much because they can apply all the SOTA results just as well as the rest of us, and maybe better because they have fewer ethical concerns.

Maybe that's true, but that is not what he is saying:

"In the race for publishing papers China has now caught up."

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#76
post #48
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, you "checked local walmarts" to inventory all their televisions? That's the biggest bunch of horse shit I've ever read, even on HN. According to the government, only 7% of recipients used any part of their stimulus money to buy household items. https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-9/receipt-and-use-of-sti...

I think it remains a valid question though. What if we had handled the unemployment by creating infrastructure jobs instead of universal handouts? That has the added benefit of increasing the productive output of our economy.

How are we going to ramp up infrastructure projects with zero notice, while people are supposed to be social distancing?

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#77
post #19

> "America does not have enough people with those skills." Seriously, I feel the US has a big education problem, with part of it being cultural I think. Seems being educated, knowledgeable, having expertise, learning about science and technology, medicine and law, just isn't valued anymore, in fact it's almost being denigrated and shamed. What I see instead is people pushing for anti-intellectualism and valuing the "…

The fact is it’s extremely valued, in the economy [1]. And that value - the resentment thereof - is why many without the education purposely elect buffoonish leaders that choose to be proud of ignorance 1 - 61% of US population above 25 has “some college” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_th...

Is it really? FAANG jobs are outliers. Some professional fields seem to do OK (medical), but others are atrocious on average (law).

Most people see science/engineering jobs as a path to a cubicle for a while with an OK salary before being laid off at 40. And for the most part, they're right.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#78
post #75
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't matter so much because they can apply all the SOTA results just as well as the rest of us, and maybe better because they have fewer ethical concerns.

Maybe that's true, but that is not what he is saying: "In the race for publishing papers China has now caught up."

Most of those papers are just applications of already existent ideas to different problems.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#79
post #71
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in fact it's almost being denigrated and shamed. "Almost" really isn't necessary there anymore. There's a growing group that believes virtually all doctors, scientists, and professionals within certain fields are "in on it" and part of some big conspiracy to do some vague, undefined thing that'll take down America and corrupt their children. These used to just be a fringe group. Now it feels like about half the peo…

Isn't it an effect of a feeling caused by governments using experts in a way letting (too often and a too large part of) the public think that they, at worst, are all (gov & experts alike) pushing their own short-termed and only self-beneficial agendas or, at best, nearly always devise some "Grand Plan" which then appears to cost much more than budgeted, gives less than promised and has unwanted unexpected side-effec…

I wouldn't blame the government here, but the media. Their job is literally to represent experts and their true image to the general public - as in, they're supposed to research and tell us whether the expert seems credible, and if the government is lying about experts (or anything else) it's the media's job to call them out on it.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#80

Why do we persist in this old fashioned notion that Nation States are the axis on which “innovation” turns? The brainpower, resources, and motivation for innovating increasingly lie with huge multinational tech companies, not nation states. And they largely don’t care where you live - if you’re smart they want to hire you (unlike nation states with their Byzantine immigration policies)

I think laws are extremely far-reaching. Imagine you're a group of like-minded people in power in the world's most powerful country right now. What's to stop you from dismantling a company?

Or in other terms, do you think that laws are slower than the cost of innovation? You're right to quote "innovation" here, because it seems nebulous. But the only reason it seems so is because it is difficult. To "innovate" independently of national boundaries, a company must have infrastructure, talent, and capital (at the least) that can pick up and move.

I'm aware of capital mobility, but at some point "the buck stops." In the case of innovation, real results need to come from real people. You can't business and finance it away to some remote island.

Edit: Changed something like "imagine you're a group of GOP officials" to "imagine you're a group of like-minded people in power in the world's most powerful country right now." My thoughts aren't meant to be political, so interpret the latter however.

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