Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

qz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 76 posts

Re: What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

#31

Post by larrys »

pstuart wrote: post #6

He was in the right place at the right time and now he's rich. And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. Cheaper labor? How about a more effective labor force? Ugh.

"And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now"

While I almost always tend to lean in the direction you are taking I will add this one point.

Once somebody is successful as Marc has been they end up moving in different circles then the rest of us do. As a result they have access to information that people living on Main street doing It work don't have. So they have a different perspective that is sometimes worth listening to.

That said my problem is when people who have achieved something (say a singer or a musician) starts to spout off and be taken seriously about something they know nothing about.

Re: What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

#32

Post by rhizome »

smokeyj wrote: post #21
pstuart wrote: post #6

He was in the right place at the right time and now he's rich. And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. Cheaper labor? How about a more effective labor force? Ugh.

> And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. Attacking his character doesn't make your false dichotomy any more palatable. Why not have cheaper labor and a more effective labor force?

"Cheap, good, fast: pick three?"

Re: What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

#33

Post by rhizome »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #25
e40 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was in the right place at the right time and now he's rich. And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. This. A small percentage of people that make it big can duplicate that success. I've only met one such person in my life and he was the most dangerous business person I ever knew. Dangerous because he walked that line between legal/illegal and ethica…

>A small percentage of people that make it big can duplicate that success. And Andreesen is one of them. He's one of the few entrepreneurs who has created two billion dollar companies, and now is running one of the most highly regarded venture capital operations. He's a mile a minute, super smart, and his accomplishments aren't so surprising after watching him speak: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/author/marc_andreessen

He's one of the few entrepreneurs who has created two billion dollar companies

This is a highly rosy take on history.

Re: What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

#34

Post by larrys »

e40 wrote: post #18
pstuart wrote: post #6

He was in the right place at the right time and now he's rich. And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. Cheaper labor? How about a more effective labor force? Ugh.

He was in the right place at the right time and now he's rich. And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. This. A small percentage of people that make it big can duplicate that success. I've only met one such person in my life and he was the most dangerous business person I ever knew. Dangerous because he walked that line between legal/illegal and ethica…

" I just couldn't make some of those decisions"

You are 100% correct (from my years of business interactions) about this.

There are people that I have observed in business who have no problem making promises and booking more business then they know they can deliver in order to make quota or get deposits etc. Much of this play directly into someone's success. Whether they can "sleep at night" given the decisions that they make. Nobody is 100% honest or 100% a thief. Some people are better at rationalizing their actions then others. Different upbringing different hard knocks. Or just a thief perhaps. Where someone falls on that line definitely (once again from my many years of observation) can determine the success that follows.

Importantly, much of these stories are never told. People only focus on the end results and success of those people.

Re: What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

#35

Post by pg »

pstuart wrote: post #6

He was in the right place at the right time and now he's rich. And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. Cheaper labor? How about a more effective labor force? Ugh.

You are so mistaken that I wince for your sake reading this comment.

The reason I listen to Marc is that he's among the smartest people in the startup community.

Re: What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

#37

Post by larrys »

pg wrote: post #35
pstuart wrote: post #6

He was in the right place at the right time and now he's rich. And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. Cheaper labor? How about a more effective labor force? Ugh.

You are so mistaken that I wince for your sake reading this comment. The reason I listen to Marc is that he's among the smartest people in the startup community.

"You are so mistaken that I wince"

"The reason I listen to Marc is that he's among the smartest people"

That's the reason you listen to Marc.

Certainly you aren't claiming that there are many others (for example the writers or people in the media) that pay attention to him (and broadcast what he says) for the reasons the parent is mentioning.

Re: What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

#38

Post by sami36 »

pstuart wrote: post #6

He was in the right place at the right time and now he's rich. And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. Cheaper labor? How about a more effective labor force? Ugh.

He wrote Netscape. literally inventing the modern browser. What did you do with your life ?

Re: What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

#39

Post by sharedliberty »

simonh wrote: post #20
eor wrote: post #4

Either the author or Andreesen completely misunderstands or misrepresents the concept of network neutrality. Network neutrality doesn't mean users don't pay for the bandwidth they consume. It means they pay the same price for that bandwidth regardless of what it's used for.

Exactly. The telcos want to charge Youtube (and others) more money for a faster connection to me, but I already paid for my connection to be fast. Those aren't Youtube's bits coming to me over the wire though, they are mine. I paid for them, both in money to the telco for my connection through them, and to Youtube with my attention to their ads.

Well, but other subscribers paid as much as you but may not be using Youtube as heavily. When they do use Youtube, they want that fast connection, but in aggregate they use less capacity because they are less frequent users. Charging Youtube is one way to account for this difference in usage. Charging consumers based on aggregate usage (like mobile carriers now do) would be another way.

Re: What Marc Andreessen said to Quartz that made us sit up and listen

#40

Post by gojomo »

pstuart wrote: post #6

He was in the right place at the right time and now he's rich. And that's the only reason why anybody is listening to him now, certainly not for anything else he's done. Cheaper labor? How about a more effective labor force? Ugh.

Oh, really, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was, in 1992-93, the blessed 'right place' showering unearned success on anyone nearby?

Or perhaps it was that Andreesen (HN username: pmarca) and his Mosaic collaborators helped make it into the right place with their perceptive, opportunistic actions?

Also, has everyone else at those same places and times since, achieved the same investment results and current vantage point into the whole industry?

Or perhaps instead Andreesen continued to assemble a portfolio of more hits than misses, and an ever-larger network of quality collaborators?

This piss-on-success/noone-earned-or-knows-anything attitude is toxic and it saddens me that at two hours old it was the top comment on this submission.

I'll value the opinions coming from Andreesen's 20-year track record, and deep involvement in some of the signature businesses of our times, over those of bitter comment-thread potshot-takers. If he says labor costs in the US are a business problem, it's got a lot more credibility than a disapproving 'ugh' grunt from someone who offers negative judgement without any argument/support.

Post reply on HN