Why the Fuck? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why the Fuck?

#91

Post by CodeMage » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 12:56 AM UTC

glesica wrote: post #37

To launch a Facebook clone you sign up for Heroku or AWS, push some Rails code, and start promoting yourself. To launch a medical device you spend years cutting through regulation and red tape, negotiating with and marketing to an industry that is probably threatened by your existence and will do its best to stop you. Screw up at Facebook, you get yelled at on Twitter and your share price dips for a few days. Screw u…

Besides, creating Facebook clones is sexier. At this moment, your content is rated lower than @benihana's scathing criticism of @raganwald's outrageous assumption that saving lives is somehow nobler than squeezing out yet another social app-turd.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#92

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 12:56 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Why the Fuck?

#93

Post by azernik » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 12:57 AM UTC

lindowe wrote: post #14

There are a lot of interesting startups right now in the mobile health space, but it is a significantly more difficult space to operate in. It takes years to get FDA approval for new medical devices, the healthcare industry is beholden to several large industry players, and the culture of medicine is resistant to rapid innovation. I understand and echo your frustration that silicon valley often only pays lip service…

As an example, Glooko makes a mobile version of a glucose logbook that reads data straight from a sampling device - useful, but not earthshaking. But to go from that data to automatic reminders and advice about managing glucose levels - what raganwald wishes existed - would require a much more stringent level of approval from the FDA.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#94

Post by mdda » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 12:57 AM UTC

untog wrote: post #69

"Reginald Braithwaite is a software developer at Leanpub, where he and his colleagues take the friction out of writing and selling books" Why the fuck are the greatest minds of our generation toiling away on a book publishing platform? Oh, right, because you think it's important. Guess what- we all have different opinions. Is book publishing more important than dating? Before you laugh, think about it- finding someon…

Upvoted because it makes for an interesting discussion, which is what HN is for. An upvote doesn't mean agreement, it means (AFAICR) 'worth having on the site'.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#95

Post by _delirium » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 12:58 AM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #47

cynicalkane wrote: post #15

Bad incentives. Maybe smart people don't care about money all that much, but they want their lives to not suck, their effort to not feel wasted, their identity not wrapped up in the service of dysfunction and politics. There are not many places where you can better humanity for a living and live the life such a person deserves, and it is not the job of humans to sacrifice themselves for no reward. That's why people w…

Is there any indication that education needs geniuses? Does it substantially improve innovation? When America was world dominant in innovation, were its geniuses in academia, or industry?

> When America was world dominant in innovation, were its geniuses in academia, or industry?

Good question. How I'd answer for the 1940s-60s depends heavily on what you consider the status of research labs that were outside academia, but rather academic in terms of personnel, style, and management: the national labs, the NSA, the Manhattan Project, Bell Labs, etc.

If that's included as honorary academia, I would feel comfortable saying that "academia" (or perhaps "academia-plus") had most of the geniuses of that era.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#96

Post by kylebrown » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 12:58 AM UTC

Diabetes is just another first-world problem.

What about the millions of children dying of preventable diseases in the third-world?

Re: Why the Fuck?

#97

Post by noonespecial » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 12:59 AM UTC

Is it possible that one activity doesn't necessarily preclude the other?

Perhaps society is already running at its "cure diabetes hull-speed". What is everyone else to do? Sit around and cheer them on... hey that gives me an idea for this social app...

Re: Why the Fuck?

#98

Post by berlinbrown » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 12:59 AM UTC

benihana wrote: post #58

Oh goodie, another arrogant whine by raganwald where he can't understand why the greatest minds (implying people writing code are somehow the greatest minds) aren't doing what he thinks is important. This post makes two incorrect assumptions. First, that the things he derides (Google automating targeted content, Facebook introducing new search features that are tangential to their current features, Apple changing for…

There are many fallacies with the argument that the greatest minds are at the googleplex. Google does hire some smart people and probably engineer for engineer, they probably stack up better than the averages across the US.

But, great people do great things. They don't necessarily work at google. And they don't necessarily advertise.

Who are the people that wrote the software that put the Mars Rover on Mars? What about the people that work on reddit? I am using Ubuntu12. What about the work that went into that?

Re: Why the Fuck?

#99

Post by rquantz » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 12:59 AM UTC

pud wrote: post #61

benihana wrote: post #58

Oh goodie, another arrogant whine by raganwald where he can't understand why the greatest minds (implying people writing code are somehow the greatest minds) aren't doing what he thinks is important. This post makes two incorrect assumptions. First, that the things he derides (Google automating targeted content, Facebook introducing new search features that are tangential to their current features, Apple changing for…

This post makes a third incorrect assumption too. That the "greatest minds of our generation" work at Google, Facebook and Apple.

I could be mistaken, but I think that line is a reference to an interview with Jeff Hammerbacher:

Hammerbacher looked around Silicon Valley at companies like his own, Google (GOOG), and Twitter, and saw his peers wasting their talents. "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads," he says. "That sucks."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b42250609...

Which, I hope not coincidentally, echoes Allen Ginsberg's Howl.

Re: Why the Fuck?

#100

Post by will_brown » Mon, Jan 21, 2013, 1:00 AM UTC

As it relates to developing pharmaceuticals and medical devices they generally require FDA approval. Please watch "Burzynski Movie: Cancer is Serious Business" it is about a Dr. who patented non-toxic cancer treatments that have better "survivor" rates than surgery+chemo on many types of cancer and it has even treated certain brain cancers in children that have never been successfully treated by current treatments. The Movie documents the FDA's continued harassment of the Dr. on behalf of big pharmaceutical companies, including multiple criminal charges that the Dr. was always acquitted for. Included is footage of Congressional hearing about this matter and a direct question to the FDA Director as to why the Dr.'s applications for FDA trials were repeatedly denied when his treatments had cured certain childhood brain cancers, and the response was he never had and never will approve applications unless they are from big pharmaceutical companies.

The best minds are busy preventing the best minds from taking a piece their pie (ie. Google protecting its market share), for the best minds to be busy making a difference (this is simultaneously why none of us have privacy on the internet, we cannot enjoy an internet experience without a bombardment of adds and why cure of diabetes is not the focus but rather treatment.