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What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

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Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#151

Post by rayiner »

emin_gun_sirer wrote: post #142
rayiner wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Oakleys, the beach, the looking off to the side. It's not any one thing, it's the totality of the circumstances.

For the record: not Oakleys, not at a beach, but yes, looking to the side. If we're done picking on looks and personal issues, something I tried to avoid very carefully in the article, perhaps we can focus on content and ideas?

Not picking on anybody. From your pic you look like a brogrammer who codes by day, and slays on the LES bar circuit by night.

Or am I missing the sense in which we're using "bro" here?

Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#152

Post by defen »

peripetylabs wrote: post #146
pan69 wrote: post #16

This is my (pessimistic) take on this Summly thing. I think the following scenario happened: 15 year old kid does something with computers and for some reason the press is all over it. Some smart investors thinks; "hey, I can use this to make money". They invest money into this 15 year old which gives him more press coverage. Wait a few years and the investor gets his buddies at Yahoo to buy it for a substantial amou…

That was my thought exactly, this story sounded like an investor bailout.

Summly had tons of investors, who put in a grand total of $1.5 million. If they needed to be bailed out of that, they shouldn't have been investing in the first place.

Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#153

Post by alanh »

thom wrote: post #93
api wrote: post #74

What this really underscores is that conventional capitalism provides little incentive for fundamental innovation. All this stuff we're gluing together is the product of state-funded research, mostly from the cold war era. DARPANet, the web (CERN), DARPA research on "augmented human intelligence," etc. Stuff like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY (I bet you thought Xerox PARC invented that stuff, right? Or…

CHAIRMAN: Yes, and, and, and the wheel. What about this wheel thingy? Sounds a terribly interesting project to me. MARKETING GIRL: Er, yeah, well we’re having a little, er, difficulty here… FORD: Difficulty?! It’s the single simplest machine in the entire universe! MARKETING GIRL: Well alright mister wise guy, if you’re so clever you tell us what colour it should be! FORD: Oh Mighty Zarquon! Has no-one done anything?

For those who don’t recognize this, it is a quote from the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxay [1]. The context is: Ford is an (intelligent) hitch-hiker and CHAIRMAN and MARKETING GIRL are parts of the "useless third" of the population of Golgafrincham (basically, middle managers and the like), who were exiled from the planet entirely. (Perceived sexism attributable to Douglas Adams and/or the fact this was a radio broadcast, so everyone has an assigned gender)

[1]: http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/THHGTTG/THHGTTGradio6.htm

Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#154

Post by DilipJ »

rollo_tommasi wrote: post #89
api wrote: post #74

What this really underscores is that conventional capitalism provides little incentive for fundamental innovation. All this stuff we're gluing together is the product of state-funded research, mostly from the cold war era. DARPANet, the web (CERN), DARPA research on "augmented human intelligence," etc. Stuff like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY (I bet you thought Xerox PARC invented that stuff, right? Or…

If those PhD are really so smart, they should have had the foresight to be born to Morgan Stanley executives, like the Summly kid.

that's not really fair to the kid. All of us are born with advantages that others lack. Every person living in America has access to wealth and connections that the average African can only dream of. That shouldn't take away from anyone's success here or diminish any of our accomplishments

Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#155

Post by vingt-2 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #46

" But it's critical to keep tabs on the ratio known as 'glue versus thought.' Sure, both imply progress and both are necessary. But the former is eminently mundane, replaceable, and outsource-able. The latter is typically what gives a company its edge, what is generally regarded as a competitive advantage. " I am in finance. I am glue. I take existing people, things (read: capital), and ideas and bolt them together.…

I think the point of the OP is not that glue is not an essential part of a product. It is that when you start making things exclusively out of glue, then the all "glue and thought" ultimately worthless.

Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#156

Post by nitrogen »

DilipJ wrote: post #154
rollo_tommasi wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If those PhD are really so smart, they should have had the foresight to be born to Morgan Stanley executives, like the Summly kid.

that's not really fair to the kid. All of us are born with advantages that others lack. Every person living in America has access to wealth and connections that the average African can only dream of. That shouldn't take away from anyone's success here or diminish any of our accomplishments

The "appeal to Africa" fallacy: comparing one's problems to problems that are worse does absolutely nothing to address either set of problems.

Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#157

Post by devcpp »

bitcartel wrote: post #36
pan69 wrote: post #16

This is my (pessimistic) take on this Summly thing. I think the following scenario happened: 15 year old kid does something with computers and for some reason the press is all over it. Some smart investors thinks; "hey, I can use this to make money". They invest money into this 15 year old which gives him more press coverage. Wait a few years and the investor gets his buddies at Yahoo to buy it for a substantial amou…

Surely you mean Ka-Shing ;-) The first investor was Horizons Ventures, the investment arm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, who put in $300k.

Mr. Ka-Shing himself, sure. He oversees every single investment his firm makes. I totally believe this.

Besides, we don't know Ka-Shing isn't reading TechCrunch all day.

Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#158

Post by [deleted] »

nitrogen wrote: post #156
DilipJ wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's not really fair to the kid. All of us are born with advantages that others lack. Every person living in America has access to wealth and connections that the average African can only dream of. That shouldn't take away from anyone's success here or diminish any of our accomplishments

The "appeal to Africa" fallacy: comparing one's problems to problems that are worse does absolutely nothing to address either set of problems.

[deleted]

Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#159

Post by notaddicted »

api wrote: post #74

What this really underscores is that conventional capitalism provides little incentive for fundamental innovation. All this stuff we're gluing together is the product of state-funded research, mostly from the cold war era. DARPANet, the web (CERN), DARPA research on "augmented human intelligence," etc. Stuff like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY (I bet you thought Xerox PARC invented that stuff, right? Or…

If you aren't satisfied with the way the government is being run, is it a failure of Representative Democracy? You can petition your representative. If you still aren't satisfied you can cast your vote for another representative.

If you aren't satisfied with the way your capital is being allocated, is it a failure of Capitalism? You can petition your board members. If still aren't satisfied you can vote for new board members in the next election. If you still aren't satisfied you can sell -- in Yahoo's case many shareholders have chosen this option since Microsoft's $31/share offer. If you want to allocate other people's capital, see previous paragraph.

Leaving aside the notion of justice, since it is a Difficult Philosophical Issue ♪, to me the only thing that this underscores is that Yahoo is a poor allocator of capital.

♪ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equality/#PriEquJus

Re: What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

#160

Post by dsfasfasf »

rollo_tommasi wrote: post #89
api wrote: post #74

What this really underscores is that conventional capitalism provides little incentive for fundamental innovation. All this stuff we're gluing together is the product of state-funded research, mostly from the cold war era. DARPANet, the web (CERN), DARPA research on "augmented human intelligence," etc. Stuff like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY (I bet you thought Xerox PARC invented that stuff, right? Or…

If those PhD are really so smart, they should have had the foresight to be born to Morgan Stanley executives, like the Summly kid.

Because I'm feeling a bit (just a tiny bit, I feel I'm almost beyond that) envious I almost want to celebrate your comment. Although there is a lot of true into this we have to admit that even kids born into riches are not that much more likely to be a world success. Because unless you have the will/desire to succeed you probably won't get that far. (Going to an ivy league school and working a nice cushy job is not enough in my book)

Granted, some people have been put closer to the finish line then most of us but I rather not take that as an excuse to explain away my lack of success.

p.s. I grew up in NYC to a working class poor immigrant family. The fact that I grew up in NYC is all the head start I needed. So far I've made to graduate school. There is still a long road ahead. No use complaining about which family I was born into.

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