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My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

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Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#201

Post by 221qqwe »

antisthenes wrote: post #185
aapl88889 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not remotely true. Petrol stations in Europe do not sell grass-fed beef, acai bowls and organic produce. They're like 7-11 not Whole Foods. The US has more variety by far.

> Petrol stations in Europe do not sell grass-fed beef, acai bowls and organic produce. Honestly can't tell if this is satire or not. To think that you can reduce the food argument to the availability of _grass fed beef_ at a gas station?

Well, they were responding to a claim that: "food you get in Whole Foods is at best similar to what you find in a petrol station in Europe"

which is quite absurd. I'm yet to find such gas station in any European country and I've been to at least half of them. Also Whole Foods seems to be quite a bit average even when compared to European supermarkets in most countries.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#202

Post by qwytw »

injb wrote: post #145
sneak wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High quality food delivery (at any time, but especially after 22:00). 24 hour pharmacies. 24 hour grocery stores. Air conditioning. Cheap gas. Road trips where you have a personal vehicle when you arrive. Hot water in 100% of all handwashing sinks. Urgent care centers. Whole Foods. You're 100% wrong about not needing air conditioning in Germany. Many of the last 45 days here have been above 24C. You're just used to b…

The food comment is frankly bizarre. The food you get in Whole Foods is at best similar to what you find in a petrol station in Europe. The US has the worst food in the developed world.

> The US has the worst food in the developed world.

How did you come to that conclusion? I mean are you talking about taste preferences or about the quality.

Because quality wise it seems that there is quite a bit more variability in the US than in some nicer European countries like France, Spain, Italy and some chains in Britain and other countries (EE OTH is not that great even when comparing to the US...) but in general you can find "high quality" food if you look for it.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#203

Post by randomdata »

alex_lav wrote: post #200
randomdata wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can't even remember what list/set/map whatever is called, how are you going to use them? Certainly not by dictating their names to my coworker. Why would I need to know their names? I suppose some languages require you to know their names in order to use built-in implementations, but lots of languages use other syntax – often void of natural language (e.g. [], {}, etc.) – to do the same. I eventually got the…

> Why would I need to know their names? Why would you need to _communicate about programming_? Because it's a core part of your job... > That's great if you have prioritized trivia Every interview question can be characterized as trivia if you squint hard enough.

> Why would you need to _communicate about programming_? Because it's a core part of your job...

Honestly, I am not sure I have personally ever had to communicate low level details like that with anyone else. The people I have talked pogromming with in my life have all be capable technologists, which allow us to discuss in high level detail. If a list is the right data structure for whatever high level problem we are trying to solve, it is assumed we know that and understand how to use it.

> Every interview question can be characterized as trivia if you squint hard enough.

Well, I suppose. And there isn't anything wrong with trivia per se. But at the same time it should not be surprising when someone doesn't have an answer. A lot of this stuff just isn't worth having in immediate memory – unless you enjoy trivia, in which case, cool!

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#204

Post by alex_lav »

randomdata wrote: post #203
alex_lav wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would I need to know their names? Why would you need to _communicate about programming_? Because it's a core part of your job... > That's great if you have prioritized trivia Every interview question can be characterized as trivia if you squint hard enough.

> Why would you need to _communicate about programming_? Because it's a core part of your job... Honestly, I am not sure I have personally ever had to communicate low level details like that with anyone else. The people I have talked pogromming with in my life have all be capable technologists, which allow us to discuss in high level detail. If a list is the right data structure for whatever high level problem we are…

> Honestly, I am not sure I have personally ever had to communicate low level details like that with anyone else. The people I have talked pogromming with in my life have all be capable technologists, which allow us to discuss in high level detail. If a list is the right data structure for whatever high level problem we are trying to solve, it is assumed we know that and understand how to use it

This feels like either hyperbole or extremely rare/almost impossible, but regardless for myself and those I hire, I believe it to be a core competency.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#205

Post by antisthenes »

221qqwe wrote: post #201
antisthenes wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Petrol stations in Europe do not sell grass-fed beef, acai bowls and organic produce. Honestly can't tell if this is satire or not. To think that you can reduce the food argument to the availability of _grass fed beef_ at a gas station?

Well, they were responding to a claim that: "food you get in Whole Foods is at best similar to what you find in a petrol station in Europe" which is quite absurd. I'm yet to find such gas station in any European country and I've been to at least half of them. Also Whole Foods seems to be quite a bit average even when compared to European supermarkets in most countries.

I don't think the best way to discount an absurd claim is to make an equally absurd set of claims.

But I can see that approaches to this may differ.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#206

Post by ouraf »

Tangential question: how hard it is to "buy back" the company shares from venture capital firms?

I've heard these "grow until you burst" stories some times, but no one ever told a good way of getting free from the VC without retaliation

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#207

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

novok wrote: post #197
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> High quality food delivery (at any time...) In the largest cities, perhaps. Don't try that in Santa Fe. For that matter, don't try it in Philadelphia, at least not after 23:00) > 24 hour [...] An unusual feature of western US grocery stores (not generally replicated in the midwest or east coast as a whole, though it is spreading). Not common in smaller cities or towns. 24 pharmacies are useful, but many large citie…

Walmart is effectively that for US camper travelers. Maybe not free water & electricity, but I don't think that is anywhere, you have to pay for that.

Many states and municipalities have banned overnight parking at Walmart. The idea that you can always do this is now more of a legend than reality.

Some states allow interstate rest areas to be used this way, but apart from a handful, that means dealing with the noise of tractor/trailer combos running their engines all night for heat or a/c (very unpleasant).

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#208

Post by game_the0ry »

alex_lav wrote: post #142
game_the0ry wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is too real in big corp as well as the VC funded start up world. A bunch of bourgeoisie over-educated idiots, usually with MBAs, who don't know how to do anything except take credit for work that other people do.

I worked at a startup that had The story ends as you'd expect, we all got laid off and the founder was shitty.

> I worked at a startup that had I could see this happening with AI.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#209

Post by SideQuark »

PhilipRoman wrote: post #180
SideQuark wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The poor in America are richer than the poor in just about any other country. The US poverty line is around the top 15% of world incomes, and that's pre tax transfers. Post tax transfers puts them much higher.

But is that before or after adjusting for cost of living?

After. It's PPP adjusted, as all good economists would do.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#210

Post by SideQuark »

croes wrote: post #98
jamesaurichs wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla creates American jobs for the poor to work in manufacturing SpaceX creates aspiration for the poor Google allows the poor to advertise their product to anyone in the world cheaply Facebook allows the poor to market their product to anyone in the world cheaply AirBnB allows the poor to live in an expensive city, cheaply Stripe allows the poor to sell their product to anyone in the world cheaply

And still people can't afford to buy house like their parents did. Maybe the problem isn't jobs but wealth distribution.

People are buying vastly bigger houses than their parents did. Adjusted for inflation, and most importantly, for square footage, median US housing costs are quite flat. Last I ran the numbers, per sq foot, prices are slightly lower than in the past.

Run them yourself, then check back.

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