Original H4D comments from 2015 when steve blank started this:
Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
11–20 of 63 posts
Re: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You must be new to tech. Feel free to peruse my profile and websites to get a sense of my contributions and career trajectory over the past few decades, in software and in bluegrass music, if you for whatever reason seriously think that's germane to the discussion.
Steve Blank has been doing H4D for a decade now
Of course, and it's been discussed on HN several times, but I can't recall seeing that students were being taught "how to sell to the [DoD/DoW]"; I'm pretty sure that's new (whether it was part of the course I have no idea, but I don't recall it being part of any materials or discussions).
Re: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
#13Please, it’s War now, now defense.
Re: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
#14Wow, I thought this was satire for a second. This is a level of shamelessness that I'm really surprised Stanford (or anyone involved) can tolerate being associated with. > Department of War Directory – This year the students had access to a Department of War Directory – essentially a phonebook of ~5,700 names of “Who buys in the Dept of War?” The directory includes a tutorial on how the DoW buys and the various acqui…
I believe the quip associated with this is "don't hate the player, hate the game."
War is where the money is. The government of this country has decided that you make money by going to war and you don't make money by not going to war. It's also decided that having money is mandatory. So if you want to succeed you'll go to war.
Re: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Steve Blank has been doing H4D for a decade now
Of course, and it's been discussed on HN several times, but I can't recall seeing that students were being taught "how to sell to the [DoD/DoW]"; I'm pretty sure that's new (whether it was part of the course I have no idea, but I don't recall it being part of any materials or discussions).
Every tech company that can is selling war machines to the DoW because that's where most of the country's money is - that and stock markets.
Re: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also problems Ukrainian defense needs to solve, and that the Canadian military is trying to solve. This is everyone's problem. It's also biased towards defense use.
Sure, I think anyone can appreciate that. But this program appears to just treat war like it's some perfectly normal thing, rather than the most undesirable aspect of humanity which we're hoping to finally bring to an end so can we enjoy an age of peace amidst the internet. This page literally presents war as if it's a profit vector rather than a societal ill - something that antiwar activists have been claiming is t…
> But this program appears to just treat war like it's some perfectly normal thing, rather than the most undesirable aspect of humanity which we're hoping to finally bring to an end so can we enjoy an age of peace amidst the internet.
War has existed for all of human history.
Why do you think humans today are special and will eliminate war?
The only acceptable answer is: you want hope.
Re: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
#17Please, it’s War now, now defense.
Most of the problems seem defense oriented
Re: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Steve Blank has been doing H4D for a decade now
Of course, and it's been discussed on HN several times, but I can't recall seeing that students were being taught "how to sell to the [DoD/DoW]"; I'm pretty sure that's new (whether it was part of the course I have no idea, but I don't recall it being part of any materials or discussions).
That’s literally the whole point of the course if you read the original intent of the course it was to change the acquisitions approach of Silicon Valley to match or influence the way the Department of defense does acquisitions and they’ve been extremely successful in capturing the Department of defense as you can see
Re: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also problems Ukrainian defense needs to solve, and that the Canadian military is trying to solve. This is everyone's problem. It's also biased towards defense use.
Sure, I think anyone can appreciate that. But this program appears to just treat war like it's some perfectly normal thing, rather than the most undesirable aspect of humanity which we're hoping to finally bring to an end so can we enjoy an age of peace amidst the internet. This page literally presents war as if it's a profit vector rather than a societal ill - something that antiwar activists have been claiming is t…
Someone is going to try and kill you with a drone swarm, so no matter how detestable you find it, I think it’s good that there’s people that are thinking of ways to stop that.
Re: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, I think anyone can appreciate that. But this program appears to just treat war like it's some perfectly normal thing, rather than the most undesirable aspect of humanity which we're hoping to finally bring to an end so can we enjoy an age of peace amidst the internet. This page literally presents war as if it's a profit vector rather than a societal ill - something that antiwar activists have been claiming is t…
> But this program appears to just treat war like it's some perfectly normal thing, rather than the most undesirable aspect of humanity which we're hoping to finally bring to an end so can we enjoy an age of peace amidst the internet. War has existed for all of human history. Why do you think humans today are special and will eliminate war? The only acceptable answer is: you want hope.
> Why do you think humans today are special and will eliminate war?
Isn't this _the entire point_ of the internet? To evolve beyond states and boundaries and warfare as a way of making decisions about resource allocation?
It strikes me as very short-sighted to decline to act as a generation on this matter. Humans today (or lets say, in these next few centuries) _are_ special; we have arrived at an evolutionary milestone with the birth of a new organism that does seem capable of lasting peace.