Build Unix, Not Uber
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Build Unix, Not Uber
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Re: Build Unix, Not Uber
#2It's always interesting to me how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story. The existence of space-based, free and ubiquitous semi-precise navigation was an enormous subsidy.
Re: Build Unix, Not Uber
#3It's always interesting to me how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story. The existence of space-based, free and ubiquitous semi-precise navigation was an enormous subsidy.
That's interesting! I think GPS falls in the category of "works so reliably that I don't perceive it as technology" for me. But yes, GPS an underrated piece of infrastructure, even more impressive as it's globally available (edit: as in, US tech infra made available beyond US).
Re: Build Unix, Not Uber
#4It's always interesting to me how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story. The existence of space-based, free and ubiquitous semi-precise navigation was an enormous subsidy.
> how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story
Uber would not exist without GPS. I wonder how many other of the unicorns:
* Twitter without Rails
* Facebook without PHP (I think this is fair but maybe not)
* Reddit without Python
* Tesla and Solar City without huge government subsidies
Crazy to think how many Lake Tahoe vacation homes were transferred thanks to these projects.
Re: Build Unix, Not Uber
#5At the risk of saying something dumb and meta... it's ideas all the way down (for a really long time now).
The individual corporations are ideas, and then of course there's the idea of the corporation itself. As the post notes, corporations only work because of other ideas about property rights and scarcity. But more fundamentally they only work because they're an idea quite a few people already believe in.
I'm a little fuzzy on the level at which the post means "autonomous ideas" will steer society--do they mean autonomous ideas like Unix? Or autonomous ideas like governments and corporations and pope-less religions?
I think the post helps draw a latent curiosity out of me that I probably wouldn't have put quite like this, but: can we better identify and allocate resources towards good ideas that don't make market sense?
Re: Build Unix, Not Uber
#6It's always interesting to me how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story. The existence of space-based, free and ubiquitous semi-precise navigation was an enormous subsidy.
I listened to a podcast this week (https://why-is-this-happening-with-chris-hayes.simplecast.co...) where GPS featured prominently. It's about an upcoming ~Netflix show (called The G Word), so I assume there'll be a whole episode on it?
Re: Build Unix, Not Uber
#7It's always interesting to me how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story. The existence of space-based, free and ubiquitous semi-precise navigation was an enormous subsidy.
> how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story Uber would not exist without GPS. I wonder how many other of the unicorns: * Twitter without Rails * Facebook without PHP (I think this is fair but maybe not) * Reddit without Python * Tesla and Solar City without huge government subsidies Crazy to think how many Lake Tahoe vacation homes were transferred thanks to these projects.
Maybe this is apocryphal, but I think I remember hearing that Reddit was originally written in some kind of lisp. Not to say it doesn't owe its success to python.
Re: Build Unix, Not Uber
#8It's always interesting to me how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story. The existence of space-based, free and ubiquitous semi-precise navigation was an enormous subsidy.
> how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story Uber would not exist without GPS. I wonder how many other of the unicorns: * Twitter without Rails * Facebook without PHP (I think this is fair but maybe not) * Reddit without Python * Tesla and Solar City without huge government subsidies Crazy to think how many Lake Tahoe vacation homes were transferred thanks to these projects.
There are a lot of alternative programming languages that those companies could have used. There's no GPS alternative for Uber.
Re: Build Unix, Not Uber
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
> how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story Uber would not exist without GPS. I wonder how many other of the unicorns: * Twitter without Rails * Facebook without PHP (I think this is fair but maybe not) * Reddit without Python * Tesla and Solar City without huge government subsidies Crazy to think how many Lake Tahoe vacation homes were transferred thanks to these projects.
There are a lot of alternative programming languages that those companies could have used. There's no GPS alternative for Uber.
GLONASS, But that's splitting hairs
Re: Build Unix, Not Uber
#10Unix was a terrible idea that probably set us back multiple decades not to mention fueling the computer security circus and the trillion dollar cybercrime industry it spawned. But yes, we need more ideas like it
I’d prescribe the author multiple courses of The Unix Hater’s Handbook but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a cure.