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Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

geohot.github.io

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Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#141

Post by trick-or-treat »

Finbel wrote: post #19
choeger wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? If "others with AI" deliver what you consume, it should also make it easier to deliver more than you consume because what you consume becomes cheaper. Maybe a part of the anxiety is the realization that much if what was delivered by well-paid people before AI is actually not something the very same people want to consume?

Problem is that "others with AI" aren't producing what I consume, i.e food, heat, clothing, housing and health care. They're just producing what I produce, i.e software.

I produce software too but I starting producing food recently. I feel like it really takes edge off my AI-related anxiety. (I also realize I'm more rural than most of HN).

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#143

Post by crimsoneer »

zozbot234 wrote: post #117
DeepSeaTortoise wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can never just use existing resources as long as those end up in places they're no longer accessible to the market anymore. Cash just about never sits just around as long as whoever holds onto it has no current need for extremely liquid assets. Like insurances. I doubt that the ratio of cash that ends up bound up that way to the one that doesn't changes a lot overall. The real problem to UBI is governments creati…

> The real problem to UBI is governments creating income via debt, IMO. The national debt is just a hidden tax on future generations. You're stealing resources from the future (by selling claims to them in advance, that's what national debt is) and spending them in the present. It's justifiable in extreme cases like a war (or perhaps for massive public investments that can't be funded within the existing budget - whi…

This is like suggesting no business should ever borrow to invest.

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#144

Post by solstice »

> The trick is not to play zero sum games. This is what I have been saying the whole time. Go create value for others and don’t worry about the returns. If you create more value than you consume, you are welcome in any well operating community.

Reminds me of Manfred Macx' attitude in the novel Accelerando by Charlie Stross

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#145

Post by bravetraveler »

shaman1 wrote: post #88
avaer wrote: post #40

It's easy to create value for others and not worry about returns when you have enough money to not worry. Unfortunately for most people, there's plenty of companies willing to take the returns and leave you paycheck to paycheck. That's literally what they are optimized to do. I don't even disagree with the ideal, but I think a prerequisite step to this philosophy is UBI.

https://geohot.github.io/blog/jekyll/update/2026/02/27/the-i... from the same author

Also: https://geohot.github.io//blog/jekyll/update/2025/02/19/nobo...

Apparently if we, the poorer ones, win the war of attrition, the problematic ones that own everything will resign to golf. Or something. Getting financial planning from a lottery winner.

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#146

Post by zelphirkalt »

georgehotz wrote: post #23
franciscop wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think e.g. the AI/LLM boom is all rent seeking? Do you think there's no positive value for the world on the recently announced e.g. MacBook Neo and that it's purely a monopolistic activity? Those are 2 clear recent examples of big players making massive benefits for the world, and I'm okay if they get X% of that value as company valuation.

Not at all. OpenAI / Anthropic are producing tons of surplus value right now! Not to mention how great the Chinese open source LLMs are. And Apple's hardware division has always been fine. Apple's 30% tax for payments in apps is the ultimate rent seeking example though. Want to install your own apps, lol you can't. And if big AI companies follow in the steps of Google/Facebook it's bad for everyone. Let's recognize i…

How should we prevent it, considering the huge financial incentives they have to go exactly that?

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#148

Post by mihaic »

I've always found something profoundly deceiving about all these "just create value posts", as if absolutely everyone could simply by some hard work actually create significant value for others.

The barrier to being able to add any value along the supply chain is shriking daily, meaning that very few people can actually add value.

The people that have managed to get on top of the system by these mean rarely aknowledge that their methods don't scale, which is a terribly irresponsible and ultimately narcissistic way to use their ideological influence.

If you give advice to a group, it should either scale to most of the group or aknowledge up front it's exceptionalistic.

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#149

Post by zozbot234 »

crimsoneer wrote: post #143
zozbot234 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The real problem to UBI is governments creating income via debt, IMO. The national debt is just a hidden tax on future generations. You're stealing resources from the future (by selling claims to them in advance, that's what national debt is) and spending them in the present. It's justifiable in extreme cases like a war (or perhaps for massive public investments that can't be funded within the existing budget - whi…

This is like suggesting no business should ever borrow to invest.

If your business can't self-fund the investment, borrowing is justified. But if you're earning revenue that allows you to self-fund, why borrow? You're just incurring extra costs.
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