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I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

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Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#111

Post by otempomores »

pascalxus wrote: post #42
shruubi wrote: post #17

As someone who is outside of SF looking in, to me the whole startup culture there seems utterly insane. To me, it seems as though there is some kind of reality distortion field that convinces us all that no matter what we is being worked on or created, it is in some way world changing or "disruptive", despite how stupid it is, or how viable a market there is for what is being made. The funny thing is, organizations t…

Entrepreneurs and companies that get started are utterly desparate for solvable problems to solve. The ideas may seem "stupid" to you, but that's only because biggest problems have way too many barriers to entry and are typically guarded by rent seeking government lobbying legislation. Take homelessness. I'm sure there's a technical way to build housing for cheap enough to get people back into houses. But, the govern…

That very same goverment invented resource scarcity to stop people from having houses even if they could afford them..

Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#112

Post by [deleted] »

wtbob wrote: post #63
M_Grey wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Going to Mars is easy, colonizing Mars is a pipe dream. I can't tell you how much I appreciate hearing this position from someone on this site. I've tried to make that argument here and elsewhere, and it's met with an almost religious fury. I really appreciate that I'm not alone in my intense skepticism of this "colonies on Mars: coming soon!" nonsense. I'll believe it when we've solved, or at least even begun to ad…

The oceans are orders of magnitude more hospitable to mankind & human life than is Mars, and yet we have, to my knowledge, absolutely no undersea colonies. The idea that we'll colonise Mars before we colonise the oceans (a full three-quarters of the globe) is, simply, insane .

[deleted]

Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#113

Post by eli_gottlieb »

sp527 wrote: post #66
refurb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all about people who've seen how absurdly rich you can get, and want a piece of that. That about sums it up. If people suddenly became rich through farming, you'd see people flocking to the mid-west. A lot of people claim a higher calling or passion for tech, but it's mostly just dollar signs in their eyes.

I had a passion for tech. Then it was beaten out of me by large, successful tech companies. Some day, the majority of us who are relegated to inane, shitty work will wake up and acknowledge that. So what do you do when you are a capable programmer who isn't rich enough to work on something challenging/interesting/meaningful like electric cars or rockets? Maximize expected value. That's not immoral. That's the shitty…

Fuck passion. There are people who work passionlessly on revolutionary things. Accomplish something you care about, sure, but supporting yourself and a family is also worth caring about.

Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#114

Post by NoGravitas »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #75
Animats wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It doesn't work in high cost of living areas without government subsidies; them the breaks of capitalism. I'm not against giving drug users a safe place to use with a roof over their head, as long as they're not a danger to others; I would like to see dedicated social, mental health, and addiction counseling services provided for those who want the help. How do we make land less valuable? That's the question. Where y…

You can't make land less valuable, because it's scarce, and some locations really are better than others. That said, you can make sure that the extra value of particular locations is captured by the community, rather than by speculators and rentiers generally. The standard method of doing so is the [Land Value Tax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax).

Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#115

Post by throwaway2016a »

shruubi wrote: post #17

As someone who is outside of SF looking in, to me the whole startup culture there seems utterly insane. To me, it seems as though there is some kind of reality distortion field that convinces us all that no matter what we is being worked on or created, it is in some way world changing or "disruptive", despite how stupid it is, or how viable a market there is for what is being made. The funny thing is, organizations t…

New England is depressingly the opposite. I've seen actual world changing ideas (think curing major disease or advanced robotics) get less attention and funding than a photo sharing app would in SV.

Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#116

Post by eli_gottlieb »

candiodari wrote: post #83
dash2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" any solution to a problem that is not a Nash-equilibrium cannot be implemented." This is empirically false. For example, voluntary contributions to a public good are not a Nash equilibrium, but we observe substantial contributions in experiments with real humans. It's also weird to argue this and then argue against govt intervention. If you don't think non-Nash solutions to public goods problems such as global warm…

Just because people try, on occasion, to fight a Nash equilibrium does not mean they can win. Hell, I bet people do that by mistake. Often even. Only if they win would it actually mean something. Call me when donations (or government policy) end poverty, for instance.

Social Security basically ended extreme "living on cat-food" poverty among the elderly.

Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#117

Post by radicsge »

ec109685 wrote: post #96
lucaspiller wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter and Facebook may have value in dollar signs (OK maybe not Twitter right now), but I'd really question how much value they have provided to society as a whole. It seems like all Facebook wants to do is built an ecosystem, lock you in it, and milk you for data they can sell to advertisers.

Seriously? A billion+ people use Facebook products, many hundreds of millions very happily.

Yet if facebook would disappear, nothing would be lost. Somebody would overtake the position in no time. This is not true for real value added companies.

Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#118

Post by radicsge »

M_Grey wrote: post #23
shruubi wrote: post #17

As someone who is outside of SF looking in, to me the whole startup culture there seems utterly insane. To me, it seems as though there is some kind of reality distortion field that convinces us all that no matter what we is being worked on or created, it is in some way world changing or "disruptive", despite how stupid it is, or how viable a market there is for what is being made. The funny thing is, organizations t…

It's all about people who've seen how absurdly rich you can get, and want a piece of that. That's all there is to it. The rest is window dressing and empty words to facilitate an IPO, selling the company, or hitting that lucky lottery win in some other way. When it inevitably, eventually implodes, nothing of lasting value will be lost.

It's not necessarily bad, but as "with great power comes great responsibility" is not followed here, is the real problem.

If you are lucky and became incredible reach you should give back to the world. And not just the 0.1% to have media coverage (like facebook did when their cheating got out)...

Apple once were the biggest company, yet i dont know anything that would shine any good light on that company... Their last notable act was that their blackmailed the EU..

Thats why i hope no company will overgrow the countries...

Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#119

Post by toomuchtodo »

NoGravitas wrote: post #114
toomuchtodo wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't work in high cost of living areas without government subsidies; them the breaks of capitalism. I'm not against giving drug users a safe place to use with a roof over their head, as long as they're not a danger to others; I would like to see dedicated social, mental health, and addiction counseling services provided for those who want the help. How do we make land less valuable? That's the question. Where y…

You can't make land less valuable, because it's scarce, and some locations really are better than others. That said, you can make sure that the extra value of particular locations is captured by the community, rather than by speculators and rentiers generally. The standard method of doing so is the [Land Value Tax]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax ).

This describes better what I'd advocate for. Thank you.

Re: I’m Done Pretending SF Tech Is Visionary

#120

Post by aianus »

collyw wrote: post #99
derricgilling wrote: post #91

Startups are not easy and there is only so much bandwidth. Many startups ideas can be visionary since it's a pain that the founder dealt with either in real life or as a developer. Is it right to call Uber less visionary than a company focused on solving healthcare or to keep Moore's going forward? There can be both technical and business innovation. Uber (and especially it's initial black car service) may have seeme…

>but now Uber solves real problems such as mobilizing senior citizens that don't have a license or reducing drunk driving. Taxis existed before Uber.

Taxis are 2.5x to 4x (if you pool) more expensive than Uber where I live.

Uber definitely changed the economics of dropping in to visit your grandkids or using a DD vs driving drunk vs ride sharing.

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