Layoffs at Canadian tech startups • Hacker News Board

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#181

Post by Mikeb85 » Wed, Sep 28, 2022, 7:46 PM UTC

throwawaylinux wrote: post #180

Mikeb85 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Less investment means less investment to lose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_(macroeconomics) https://archive.unescwa.org/investment-spending I think you're thinking of a different definition of "investment". Since this is a discussion of the economy, I'm using the "economics" definition of investment spending. You don't "lose" infrastructure, land, machinery, etc... in a downturn. The point is that Cana…

Well this started by talking about investment (e.g., from VC) in the software sector which carries very little infrastructure, so I don't know what you're talking about now. That may explain why you were saying costs are very high when wages are typically far below the US, you don't seem to have been talking about the same thing.

VC is the type of grassroots investment that still can be called "investment" in the economic sense. Ie. you're not looking for immediate returns so any money pumped into startups by VC firms helps the economy whether or not it yields anything.

The VC scene in the US will help your recovery since VCs will still be putting money into the system (albeit at lower valuations) meanwhile in Canada it'll completely dry up.

And again, this isn't the type of "investing" where you're super concerned about paper losses like, say, the stock market.

Also software does count as an economic investment, the same as infrastructure.

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#182

Post by throwawaylinux » Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 2:51 AM UTC

Mikeb85 wrote: post #181

throwawaylinux wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well this started by talking about investment (e.g., from VC) in the software sector which carries very little infrastructure, so I don't know what you're talking about now. That may explain why you were saying costs are very high when wages are typically far below the US, you don't seem to have been talking about the same thing.

VC is the type of grassroots investment that still can be called "investment" in the economic sense. Ie. you're not looking for immediate returns so any money pumped into startups by VC firms helps the economy whether or not it yields anything. The VC scene in the US will help your recovery since VCs will still be putting money into the system (albeit at lower valuations) meanwhile in Canada it'll completely dry up.…

> VC is the type of grassroots investment that still can be called "investment" in the economic sense. Ie. you're not looking for immediate returns so any money pumped into startups by VC firms helps the economy whether or not it yields anything.

Are you making up this as you go along? VCs absolutely look for returns and they're much less patient than what you would call a long term investor. If they don't see returns on investment from growing equity, they'll can it.

> The VC scene in the US will help your recovery since VCs will still be putting money into the system (albeit at lower valuations) meanwhile in Canada it'll completely dry up.

We're talking about the effect of investment fleeing due to the downturn though. In absolute terms, the amount of investment leaving USA is far larger because the investment in Canada tech companies is so small.

> And again, this isn't the type of "investing" where you're super concerned about paper losses like, say, the stock market.

Now you're definitely making things up. That's the only thing tech startup VCs care about. They don't even care if they know it's a sham, so long as they'll be able to cash out and leave someone else holding the bag.

> Also software does count as an economic investment, the same as infrastructure.

You've lost me. Tech startups create very little in the way of long term valuable assets like infrastructure. In any case it doesn't matter what kind of strange way you like to classify these things, doesn't change what they are.

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#183

Post by bmc7505 » Sat, Oct 08, 2022, 12:32 AM UTC

mardifoufs wrote: post #175

bmc7505 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Montreal still is a AI powerhouse. Most of the same people who were here ten years ago still are, and still working on the same research topics, just with less flashy PR. https://youtube.com/watch?v=LVXkISpbq2k

Yeah if anything I think the ecosystem is healthier. More established corporations have moved in, and the startups that pop up are usually more legitimate. (Though I think MILA is kind of losing some of its lustre, both in terms of research output and quality. I guess it might just be that my friends there are mostly doing RL or cognitive research, which I both find to be pretty... unpractical? They give me a 1980s A…

Interesting. Not disagreeing with you, but just out of curiosity, are there any other reasons why you believe research quality has declined at Mila specifically, outside the broader trend that progress in deep learning is starting to slow, and besides your opinion that RL/CogSci research are dead ends?