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Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

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Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sad that when I open a thread the first comment I see is cheap cynicism that comes close to trolling, and the replies are even worse. Look at all the stuff this generation of workers have built in big tech — the amazing devices in all areas of the market, the progress in electric cars, the massive scale in compute infrastructure that enables most smaller companies to easily spin up entire regions rather than run thei…

Nah, I think the good and bad aspects should be judged separately, we shouldn't be giving these companies a free pass for the infrastructure contributions they made -- you know which bad regime was also good at building motorways -- I'm grateful for google search and for maps, Facebook and some of the other stuff not so much.

Godwin's law in action.

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get a VPS for like $5/month. So you can save near enough hundreds of dollars a month.

I don’t think cloud cost is anywhere near as much as the cost to build a semi-decent HA/DR system and the devops process around it. Every minute the site is down it’s real monetary loss for most startups. It also takes time and energy away from building features. I have done both bare metal and cloud in two different startups. (This assumes you can’t afford to lose data or be offline for extended periods of time). He…

The hundreds of dollars a month was quoting the comment I was replying to.

The underlying point I made that is being ignored is that 99.9% of start ups never need any of the stuff you are talking about. And hundreds of dollars a month is a large amount of money for them.

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, I think the good and bad aspects should be judged separately, we shouldn't be giving these companies a free pass for the infrastructure contributions they made -- you know which bad regime was also good at building motorways -- I'm grateful for google search and for maps, Facebook and some of the other stuff not so much.

Godwin's law in action.

Fallacy fallacy :)

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I think most startups would save money and time by keeping it simple until they really need more. Having done this several times I can definitively say given my experience it's best to start in the cloud with a cloud native architecture. I can run a fully containerized application in ECS or EKS for a few hundred bucks a month. Why would I incur all the costs and limitations of a VPS or even worse a server I hav…

It seems like such a waste of time and complexity for a knob that only a tiny, tiny fraction of startups will ever have to turn.

I think of cloud platforms as less complex than managing your own systems. It's trivial to go from zero to functional product on GCP or AWS, and it's honestly not very expensive to get started either. GCP and AWS very clearly subsidize costs for early-stage startups in an effort to lock them in. A tiny startup might have a cloud hosting cost of 3 figures a year until they really take off.

And when your product does take off, scaling is often trivial.

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#155
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what writing is on the wall, exactly, for Amazon? AWS powers the internet. Apple uses it for cloud services, for cryin' out loud -- the largest AWS customer in fact. AWS has more market share than all of its competitors combined . Where is this writing you're speaking of?

But where is AWSs moat? It's not enough to have all of the customers. Customers are fleeting and will leave if they get a BBO (bigger, better offer). If you scrap together an AWS migration tool that can pull databases, instances, and lambdas off of AWS and mirror them in your cloud, for less money, you'll probably attract a lot of customers.

That sounds like just basic guesswork on your part. Replicating their infrastructure is not the trivial challenge you suggest.

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes both ways. If you win the lottery starting a company at the right time, are you really the best mind of the generation or just lucky?

Somebody in a garage today is working on a business that will be worth billions within 5 years, and we'll all kick ourselves with "why didn't we think of that!"

Right, but for everyone of those people, there are 1,000 other people just as smart also working on good ideas that are going nowhere fast.

I'm not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing or neither.

But I think the "why didn't I think of that guy" is mostly luck.

Lots of people are smart and work hard and don't really get anywhere.

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#157

Good. The best minds of a generation have wasted their talents figuring out how to best maximize media addiction and serve ads for Facebook and Google. Let’s hope a new generation engages in more socially productive endeavors.

Yes, they should be starting their own companies that do the same things, but for [blank]

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, I think the good and bad aspects should be judged separately, we shouldn't be giving these companies a free pass for the infrastructure contributions they made -- you know which bad regime was also good at building motorways -- I'm grateful for google search and for maps, Facebook and some of the other stuff not so much.

The Holocaust absurdly outweighs the Autobahn, the Nazis were the worst people in history. The net result of big tech has been relatively good (for the average person’s material conditions, the jury’s still out on psychological effects but regardless of anything, it’s not even comparable to the Nazis).

now equate tech executives to specific Nazis - circle complete!

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you had an interesting observation but it’s not clear to me. Can you state it more plainly? What kind of organization? I have also noticed FBers have a certain kind of personality. Vaguely utopian but removed from reality with a heavy emphasis on hedonism.

Sorry for sounding cryptic, it is hard to pin down exactly, but I somehow see Zuckerberg himself kind of like that; maybe someone who likes technical problems, but sees human relations in a kind of formulaic way, and oblivious to ethical consequences of technical work, not interested in the classics or humanities.

This sounds mildly apologetic for someone who lacks basic empathy, or is just a giant dick.

Smart, Fun and Nice: there are LOTS of people who have all three; don't settle for less!

Re: Tech layoffs are feeding a new startup surge

#160

Good. The best minds of a generation have wasted their talents figuring out how to best maximize media addiction and serve ads for Facebook and Google. Let’s hope a new generation engages in more socially productive endeavors.

Sad that when I open a thread the first comment I see is cheap cynicism that comes close to trolling, and the replies are even worse. Look at all the stuff this generation of workers have built in big tech — the amazing devices in all areas of the market, the progress in electric cars, the massive scale in compute infrastructure that enables most smaller companies to easily spin up entire regions rather than run thei…

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