The Best Entrepreneur I Know • Hacker News Board

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#21

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 1:23 AM UTC

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #19

meric wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problems of today are only due to the roles government was playing yesterday. The government only needs to do less and society will fix itself. The people are in prison only because of government in the first place. Felons are only restricted from working because of the government. The danger of saying it's the government's job is we as individuals begin to absolve ourselves of responsibility, because we start to…

> The government only needs to do less and society will fix itself. And by "fix itself" you mean it will shift even more wealth from the lower 75% to the top 1% - who will step in to fill the power void. "Money begets money, power begets power." Society is full of self-reinforcing feedback loops like that. You need a damping factor that prevents any single individual or corporation from amassing too much power.

[deleted]

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#22

Post by girvo » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 1:27 AM UTC

strukturedkaos wrote: post #9

SwellJoe wrote: post #8

I'm happy to see there's been a lot more discussion lately in Silicon Valley and entrepreneurial communities, in general, about the importance of role models who are people of color and women. This article only covers one side of that (not that it is less interesting or touching for not covering the other side)...the other side is that until white folks in our industry, or in other industries, are regularly seeing an…

Excellent points - raising awareness by sharing these type of experiences is part of the reason why I've finally begun to blog. It's important not only for people of color working in or aspiring to work in the tech industry, but also for the demographic that doesn't understand what it's like to be a black unicorn in a tech world. It raises the empathy levels of everyone involved.

> why I've finally begun to blog

I'm glad you did, and I'm looking forward to reading more!

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#23

Post by meric » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 1:44 AM UTC

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #19

meric wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problems of today are only due to the roles government was playing yesterday. The government only needs to do less and society will fix itself. The people are in prison only because of government in the first place. Felons are only restricted from working because of the government. The danger of saying it's the government's job is we as individuals begin to absolve ourselves of responsibility, because we start to…

> The government only needs to do less and society will fix itself. And by "fix itself" you mean it will shift even more wealth from the lower 75% to the top 1% - who will step in to fill the power void. "Money begets money, power begets power." Society is full of self-reinforcing feedback loops like that. You need a damping factor that prevents any single individual or corporation from amassing too much power.

Look above and you see the more rich and powerful stacked one after another, wealth and power increasing seemingly infinitely the higher you look.

Look below and you see the poor and powerless, stacked one after another, poverty and powerlessness infinitely desperate the lower you look.

Unless you're near the very top or the very bottom, at every level of this power ladder the view is the same.

"I recently asked a wealthy political donor why he was supporting Bill de Blasio and his attacks on the wealthy."

"Because inequality is a problem in New York," he said. "The rich have gotten their way for too long."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/10/...

Compared to the poor in developing and undeveloped countries where people earn $5 a day, your wealth and power relative to them might as well be the same as the wealth and power from 0.1% percenter relative to you. Them looking at you would feel the same as you (assuming $100,000 income) looking at a CEO making $5 million a year.

The only question is, with your wealth and power, how will you diffuse your power to reduce the world's inequality? If you can solve this problem, you can show the example for your family and close friends. If your family and close friends can solve this problem, so can your community, your neighbourhood, the rest of your city and nation.

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#24

Post by Florin_Andrei » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 2:18 AM UTC

meric wrote: post #23

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The government only needs to do less and society will fix itself. And by "fix itself" you mean it will shift even more wealth from the lower 75% to the top 1% - who will step in to fill the power void. "Money begets money, power begets power." Society is full of self-reinforcing feedback loops like that. You need a damping factor that prevents any single individual or corporation from amassing too much power.

Look above and you see the more rich and powerful stacked one after another, wealth and power increasing seemingly infinitely the higher you look. Look below and you see the poor and powerless, stacked one after another, poverty and powerlessness infinitely desperate the lower you look. Unless you're near the very top or the very bottom, at every level of this power ladder the view is the same. "I recently asked a we…

It's not a problem that can be solved by my "wealth and power" (both of which are in rather meager supply).

It's an issue of mentality. A society is what it is because its members share a set of assumptions, ideas, mentalities. The one-percenters get even more one-percent-y every year because we all hold certain "truths" to be "self-evident".

For starters, we need less individualism. I'm not saying less individual freedom, mind you.

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#25

Post by meric » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 2:35 AM UTC

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #24

meric wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look above and you see the more rich and powerful stacked one after another, wealth and power increasing seemingly infinitely the higher you look. Look below and you see the poor and powerless, stacked one after another, poverty and powerlessness infinitely desperate the lower you look. Unless you're near the very top or the very bottom, at every level of this power ladder the view is the same. "I recently asked a we…

It's not a problem that can be solved by my "wealth and power" (both of which are in rather meager supply). It's an issue of mentality. A society is what it is because its members share a set of assumptions, ideas, mentalities. The one-percenters get even more one-percent-y every year because we all hold certain "truths" to be "self-evident". For starters, we need less individualism. I'm not saying less individual fr…

> It's not a problem that can be solved by my "wealth and power" (both of which are in rather meager supply).

You have an observation shared with thousands of millionaires in NYC.

I'm helping my company setup a software development office in South Africa. It won't do much, but it'll provide half a dozen individuals with well paying jobs and diffuse some wealth we collect from Fortune 500 companies.

I'm also planning a trip to a developing country, paid for by that government, to deliver a class to local CS graduates there on how to become a contractors working with projects paying $50+ an hour. It won't do much but if I can help one or two individuals do this I'd be very happy. I was lucky when I traveled there for vacation, managed to talk to someone who works with the government's ministry of education.

I've only been working full time as a software engineer and formally graduated only last May and this is what I'm doing.

My wealth and power is likely more meagre than yours - but it is a lot less meagre than many others.

I hope one day you'll find your own way to help solve problems you see in this world, too.

> It's an issue of mentality.

I agree with you. See my reply to SwellJoe.

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#26

Post by yummyfajitas » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 4:00 AM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #8

I'm happy to see there's been a lot more discussion lately in Silicon Valley and entrepreneurial communities, in general, about the importance of role models who are people of color and women. This article only covers one side of that (not that it is less interesting or touching for not covering the other side)...the other side is that until white folks in our industry, or in other industries, are regularly seeing an…

There is a very straightforward way to mitigate the effect of biases. Make everything as algorithmic as possible and don't use biasing factors as inputs to the algorithms. This also fixes more biases than just the the ones with sympathetic victims - you'll hire both the woman and the ugly socially awkward guy with kickass github profiles.

Unintentional bias lives in the subjective and human parts of our procedures. The fewer decisions humans make, the less bias you see.

See also this blog post I wrote recently. Drivers I flag on the street explicitly and intentionally discriminate against me about 80% of the time. With Uber/Ola/Taxi4sure it's 0%. https://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2015/why_i_like_uber.html

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#27

Post by aceperry » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 5:08 AM UTC

Great article. Also brings up an aspect of the tech startup mentality that bothers me from time to time. From my reading of pg and ycombinator's focus on fast hockey stick like growth curves, it seems that you can easily dismiss/overlook small and steady businesses like Klippers which can perform very important roles in our lives.

I'm not criticizing pg and the ycombinator crowd, in fact I have much respect and admiration for what they're trying to achieve. But I think small businesses don't get the respect that they deserve.

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#28

Post by cglee » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 5:16 AM UTC

beat wrote: post #3

There's a lot more to entrepreneurship than the weird little bubble of software startups. Entrepreneurs are just people who take a chance in order to make a real difference. I grew up poor, and one of the hardest things about being poor is that there are so few role models for success. Except for teachers, I didn't know anyone educated. Except for the people my father worked for (and mostly hated), I didn't know anyo…

Software startups also tend to be very product-oriented and focus on global markets. But the most successful people I know (I don't know any billionares) run service-oriented small businesses and are focused on changing the neighborhood.

Changing your own 'hood is the first step to changing the world. There's not enough being said about serving your neighbors and getting to know your regulars on a first name basis.

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#29

Post by enigami » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 5:50 AM UTC

It's 8.30 am here and the first thing I read today is this inspirational article. People like Mr. Dennis lead by example and that inspires others.

Next time when you visit him, just pass on my Hug!!

Re: The Best Entrepreneur I Know

#30

Post by hueving » Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 5:52 AM UTC

iolothebard wrote: post #11

beat wrote: post #3

There's a lot more to entrepreneurship than the weird little bubble of software startups. Entrepreneurs are just people who take a chance in order to make a real difference. I grew up poor, and one of the hardest things about being poor is that there are so few role models for success. Except for teachers, I didn't know anyone educated. Except for the people my father worked for (and mostly hated), I didn't know anyo…

I wanted to be a cat burglar as a kid. In all the studying, learning, planning and risk assessment I realized it's easier and less risky to just go to college. That and stealing isn't really something to aspire to in life. Probably why I didn't stay in finance/accounting/banking. At least salesmen have to convince you of their lies, the money wonks just take it out of your account every month.

> the money wonks just take it out of your account every month.

With a statement like that it sounds like you lack some important critical thinking skills. Try to provide concrete examples of things rather than echoing standard claptrap.