What a stupid idea

Post by abruzzi » Wed, May 01, 2013, 3:48 AM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #114

pfitzsimmons wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to be sure the magic ingredient in Youtube's success was not the idea of uploading and watching videos. Many people were working on video sharing at that time (myself included). Youtube's secret was that the founders were already successful entrepreneurs who were well connected to VC's. Thus they had access to the capital that allowed them to lose ungodly amounts of money in the quest for growth.

Well, they also had an impressively cavalier attitude to copyright. Which was a major advantage. But they also had excellent design sense. YouTube made uploading, viewing, and sharing content very, very easy. I did some consulting for a semi-competitor, so I paid a lot of attention to the market then. YouTube did a great job, which helped them get users, which surely didn't hurt with VCs. Also, Crunchbase says they t…

Post by hkyeti » Wed, May 01, 2013, 3:52 AM UTC

ruswick wrote: post #131

hkyeti wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course non profits and major breakthroughs in health, equality and development are important. But what's the point of life if you don't have art, joy, entertainment? If you love art, what makes enjoying beautiful fashion, destinations, decor, creations somehow lessened and put into a bucket of fetishism. My girlfriend loves Pinterest as a way to take a few minutes from her busy working schedule and relax and appre…

Because Pinterest is not a platform for publishing art. It is comprised primarily of products and feeds directly into the consumeristic culture that pervades society. Those that are not products are nonetheless incredibly succinct and are displayed in such large volume and quick succession as to trivialize any artistic value derived from them. A picture of a latte or a beach in the Bahamas might be "art," but a thous…

Post by ivanca » Wed, May 01, 2013, 3:56 AM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #104

Success is not validation of an idea and we should be ashamed to think so. Cigarettes are one of the most successful consumer products on earth. Inhaling a lungful of carcinogenic smoke several hundred times a day is undoubtedly a stupid idea. Tobacco has made a small number of people incomprehensibly rich, to the great detriment of humanity. Personally, I think nearly all of these 'social' startups are bad news. Not…

Post by mullingitover » Wed, May 01, 2013, 4:10 AM UTC

ruswick wrote: post #131

hkyeti wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course non profits and major breakthroughs in health, equality and development are important. But what's the point of life if you don't have art, joy, entertainment? If you love art, what makes enjoying beautiful fashion, destinations, decor, creations somehow lessened and put into a bucket of fetishism. My girlfriend loves Pinterest as a way to take a few minutes from her busy working schedule and relax and appre…

Because Pinterest is not a platform for publishing art. It is comprised primarily of products and feeds directly into the consumeristic culture that pervades society. Those that are not products are nonetheless incredibly succinct and are displayed in such large volume and quick succession as to trivialize any artistic value derived from them. A picture of a latte or a beach in the Bahamas might be "art," but a thous…

Post by mullingitover » Wed, May 01, 2013, 4:14 AM UTC

hobs wrote: post #95

nostromo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit uncharitable to call "I thought Pinterest and Vine were dumb" arrogance.

Yeah, I still think pintrest and vine are dumb, its just they have a lot of users. Just because you think something is dumb doesn't mean it isnt a viable business model. People sell virtual rubies to people building ruby houses all day every day, and that is dumb.