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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

#91

Post by conductr »

trimbo wrote: post #76
Taek wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

This is something an effective government would have in queue at all times. We have a track record of poor disaster planning. We generally ignore the fact that disasters will even happen.

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

#92

Post by throwaway743 »

dfee wrote: post #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 f…

^ Look into NSCAI, a DoD think tank he's on the board of. Specifically, their plans for competing against China in essentially an AI arms race

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

#93

Post by methodin »

Qwertious wrote: post #79
natmaka wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's an interesting take as news organizations are not nonprofits. They are only businesses. The government is supposed to be acting as the central source of good information not a collection of for-profit companies. The issue we face now is our government is manipulating messages for political gain and the media is manipulating filters to further viewership both of which feed upon each other. I don't see how you place no blame on the government here.

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

#94

Post by SquareWheel »

jeffbee wrote: post #42
swiley wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

google docs as an application of distributed data structures is IMO pretty innovative. I'm not a fan of google but they've done a handful of things since the turn of the millennium.

Also an acquisition, FWIW.

So was DOS. That doesn't mean Microsoft doesn't get credit for Windows.

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

#95

Post by unishark »

untog wrote: post #53
ekianjo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I say work a job that pays, and that you can tolerate, then do what you enjoy in your free time. That's not what kids want to hear these days. They want life to be easy, and a big government ready to issue a wide safety net for them if they make bad choices in life. Perpetual childhood.

Give me a break. “Kids these days” have their eyes wide open. Just a few decades ago you used to have access to an affordable college education with good jobs on graduation. With a modest level of saving you’d have enough for the deposit on a house within a few years. None of that is true now. It’s drilled into high school kids that they must take on a punishingly expensive college education or they’ll never amount t…

> “Kids these days” have their eyes wide open. Just a few decades ago you used to have access to an affordable college education with good jobs on graduation. With a modest level of saving you’d have enough for the deposit on a house within a few years.

Except if those kids would get degrees in the right areas (like the thread is complaining they aren't), they would absolutely be able to get excellent jobs upon graduation. The unemployment rate in engineering has been almost nil for years. Even fields like civil and biomedical engineering, previously at the bottom of engineering in terms of prospects and pay, are now a lock for jobs, with employers desperate to hire anyone they can get. And of course computer science is now doing even better than all of them despite being much easier, frankly.

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

#96

Post by refurb »

moneytide1 wrote: post #6

I saw a "Just Have A Think" YouTube channel video recently describing the 1MV HVDC line being built across China. It is part of Belt&Road infrastructure project and will allow them to distribute excess loads to different time zones without skin effect losses of an AC line. This is a part of their COVID stimulus injection. When American $1.2k per citizen landed in accounts, I remember checking local Walmarts in the we…

It seems like you just made up the state about TV.

Seems like for most Americans, the money went to debt payment and savings, which seems quite rationale in times of uncertainty.[1]

For those in the lower income ranges, more of it went to consumers goods, but that would be expected at those income levels.

[1]https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/09/02/how-did-...

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

#97

Post by hliyan »

didibus wrote: 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 "…

My hypothesis is that the US is a victim of its own success: several generations of living in a prosperous, stable society reduces the need for the average citizen to develop survival skills. Here I use the term 'survival skills' very generally: it includes specialized education and expertise in some area, financial planning and risk management skills, inter-personnel and conflict resolution skills, emotional resilience etc.

I suspect that the education problem may be on the demand side (due to the above reason) rather than on the supply side (even though the prohibitive higher education costs do play a big role).

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

#98

Post by jacobwilliamroy »

didibus wrote: 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 "…

Having a dumb population means you can make lots of money for very little effort.

Pet rocks? Million dollar idea.

Water? As long as it's .00000000000000001% poison, it's a homeopathic remedy you can sell for $500 a vial. Add more water to make it more expensive.

Ever think about using the equity in your home to consolidate your credit cards and other debts?

Dumb dumbs spend more and expect less. Bad education is good for the economy.

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

#99

Post by unishark »

ekianjo wrote: post #28
didibus wrote: 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 "…

> There's also just the quality and access to education seems it's getting worse and worse. I don't know about access in other countries, but the quality of education is dropping like a stone pretty much in every developed country right now. (And it's not a recent trend, it's been years in the making)

What do you mean by quality here? I'd say the quality of the teaching has been going up as the quality of the students has been going down (precisely because access is going up). The focus is increasingly on the lowest common denominator which requires a lot more effort from teachers.

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

#100

Post by nikkwong »

Qwertious wrote: post #79
natmaka wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you are giving far too much credit to other members of our species. Members of the media are clearly as fallible as the dysfunctional politicians they are covering.

CNN and other left-of-center media organizations would do themselves a favor by at least holding their tongue on areas where they are too explicitly demonstrating their bias. The way their pundits make ad hominem remarks against the president every other story serves no purpose but to further aggravate the conservative right. It so obviously dilutes whatever message is attempted to be conveyed, turning what should be considered "news" into a pornography of entertainment that further divides our country. It's so blatantly destructive and should be so easy to filter out; but they create soundbite after soundbite that is cannon fodder for the other side.

Publications like the Economist are critical of the president but not in an antagonizing, ad hominem way. If more of the 'mainstream media' would follow that approach, more of their message would get through to the other side rather than adding fuel to their fire.

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