176 km. Why don't they make a 1 kilometer proof of concept then plan the other 175 once they've ironed out the kinks?
That’s too scary, what if the product doesn’t find market fit? Let’s just build the complete product first with VC money.
Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
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Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#112176 km. Why don't they make a 1 kilometer proof of concept then plan the other 175 once they've ironed out the kinks?
If you would be the designer of this thing, how soon would you want the gig to be up ?
The purpose of this thing is not economical, or political, or social - the purpose is to satisfy the ego of an autocrat, and as long as that ego is getting stroked, the money will continue to flow.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#113Bloomberg has a good running series on this 'city of the future'. As you will expect consultants are making good money on this. I personally can't get enough of this foolish mega-project, I love the dry reporting on it. Here's one of the latest: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-mbs-neom-saudi-arabi... There was also a very telling interview with architects, builders, concept people etc... and after talking abo…
A friend of mine works on the NEOM project, and it really is like winning the lottery. Remote work with an occasional field trip to look at the place. But Google level salary to tell them how to save some data.
The scale of the feeding trough is unimaginable. I saw an advert for NEOM on Piccadilly Circus, the whole entire e-wall, and the place isn't even built yet, so I'm not sure if they're using it to recruit. It's not just what you think of as traditional civil engineering which would require you to be in the desert. The thing is supposed to be a smart city, whatever that means, but every buzzword seems to be required. Machine learning, green energy, internet of things, they seem to want everything.
I did read an article saying the Saudi guy in charge was a bully, so maybe it's not at positive, but worth a look if you can be a sub contractor.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#114Accessible nature = scorching-heat desert. Great for cycling i guess
This whole project - Why? Whoever sold this to the Saudis, bit prankster
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#115I wonder who would live there? Somehow I really doubt people from first world would go. Then third world? Doesn't seem like a cheap place.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#116I don't think there is enough extractable riversand on planet earth for that amount of glass.
Glass is made from melted sand, so taking the raw materials from the desert is just fine.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#117I wonder who would live there? Somehow I really doubt people from first world would go. Then third world? Doesn't seem like a cheap place.
Presumably he’s building it to house his own people, and people of a similar culture to them.
He is a prince after all, developing the nation is one of the first duties of an monarch since the country “belongs” to you.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#118From the Atlantic profile of MBS earlier this year: “What struck me was that Neom’s vision is really an anti-vision. It is the opposite of the old Saudi Arabia. In the old Saudi Arabia, and even to an extent today, corruption and bureaucracy layered on each other to make an entrepreneur’s nightmare. Riyadh has almost no public transportation. No matter where you are, you cannot walk anywhere, except perhaps to your l…
It's as far from the enemy (Iran) as possible.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#119Good. All the money wasted on this boondoggle won’t be spent on bombing Yemenis or funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#120Bloomberg has a good running series on this 'city of the future'. As you will expect consultants are making good money on this. I personally can't get enough of this foolish mega-project, I love the dry reporting on it. Here's one of the latest: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-mbs-neom-saudi-arabi... There was also a very telling interview with architects, builders, concept people etc... and after talking abo…