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What Happens Next Will Amaze You

idlewords.com

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Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#41

Post by coldtea »

hliyan wrote: post #35
buffoon wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with him. Billionaires are prescriptive. "I will solve this problem". It doesn't hurt to ask what problems need solving. Ultimately this just isn't altruism but it is promoted as whilst people are in deep shit all around him. I'm not really sure what my point is but I suspect it is a new form of hypocrisy.

There's truth in that, but in Musk's case, he's already done a great deal for the world with Tesla and SpaceX. If Mars is what he wants to do with the rest of his money, that is his choice. Certainly better than what certain other billionaires are doing with theirs.

Huh? What have SpaceX and Tesla done "for the world"? Provide rich people with electric sports cars?

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#42

Post by gadders »

a_bonobo wrote: post #26
oldmanjay wrote: post #10

I only sort of get it. What does the idea of reining in advertisers run amok have to do with accepting socialism as the one true government? The connection seems tenuous.

To quote: >But we expect that people will trust us to reinvent their world with software even though we can't make our own city livable. Where does it propose "socialism as the one true government"? >I would urge you to get back in touch with this side of yourselves, climb in the longboats, and impose modern, egalitarian, Scandinavian-style social democracy on the rest of us at the point of a sword.

I think you answered your own question there.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#43

Post by vlehto »

phaer wrote: post #31
shadowmint wrote: post #24

Oh really? Damn those crazy fools wasting their millions making electric cars into a reality and trying to get to Mars. We should just spend that money on like... I dunno. Better park benches or something. That'll solve everything. I'm so tired of this shit. Aren't you tired of this shit? Yes I am. There are systemic problems causing the issues in San Francisco; what's your solution to that problem? The only thing I…

> We should just spend that money on like... I dunno. Better park benches or something. That'll solve everything. How about ending hunger worldwide? It's mostly a distribution problem nowadays. Or what about providing things like sanitation, electricity or some form of education for each and everyone on this planet? I guess what I want to say is that there are much, much more elemental things to spend your money on t…

>How about ending hunger worldwide? It's mostly a distribution problem nowadays.

It's also incentives problem if you are not all in communist. If you simply send food from Europe to Africa, it disincentives food production in Africa. Which causes unemployment and hinders economic growth with it. And it also causes huge security of supply problem and might cause starvation if something happens to the shipping.

My best idea is to turn foreign aid into basic income. If you would send dollar/day/person to everybody in Africa, this would make African agriculture more profitable than ever before, security of supply would be good and hunger would end. Inflation would rise too, but with so much good money in circulation you would see booming private sector in no time despite this.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#44

Post by dagw »

coldtea wrote: post #41
hliyan wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's truth in that, but in Musk's case, he's already done a great deal for the world with Tesla and SpaceX. If Mars is what he wants to do with the rest of his money, that is his choice. Certainly better than what certain other billionaires are doing with theirs.

Huh? What have SpaceX and Tesla done "for the world"? Provide rich people with electric sports cars?

Tesla has shown that electric cars can be both viable and cool. Even if if Tesla itself remains a niche car, Tesla should get the credit if/when in the future electric cars become the norm.

In addition Tesla is betting big on making better batteries. If they can pull that off then that will end up being their true legacy with the whole car thing becoming a neat historical footnote.

As for SpaceX they'll go down in history as pioneers of commercial space flight and wherever future commercial companies decide to take us, they'll all point back at SpaceX as the company that first showed that it could be done.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#45

Post by _delirium »

TorKlingberg wrote: post #25
pja wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, the URL alone is enough to tell you that it’s probably worth reading.

I assume you are familiar with idlewords.com since before?

It's the blog of Maciej Cegłowski, somewhat famous in certain circles for running successful one-man business Pinboard [1]. His blog posts end up on here pretty often too [2].

[1] http://pinboard.in/

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=idlewords.com&sort=byPopularit...

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#46

Post by rl3 »

>I've also met people on the YouTube ads team, and they hate their lives and want to die.

Maybe those informational widgets that pop up when you Google suicide-related terms didn't actually arise from a sense of humanity or civic duty, but from a desire to reduce employee turnover in their ad divisions. /s

Macabre humor aside, I actually wonder if there's any organizations out there funding ads targeted at suicidal individuals. Search terms can only go so far, and ad networks have the ability to gain a far more complete picture. You'd almost think it's something ad networks would partner up on pro bono.

Moreover, it's not hard to imagine imperfect targeting being beneficial, e.g. a family member being alerted to a loved one's state of mind via receiving the ads themselves. Obviously there's quite a few ways such a scheme could backfire or otherwise have adverse effects, though it is interesting to contemplate.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#47

Post by LoSboccacc »

barrkel wrote: post #19

I must have missed the bit where how this simpler new world will get rid of ad-clicking bots is explained.

it's fine, pay per click sucks anyway. They will just move to the renting space model that is being used (and proven to work) in billboards.

advertisement revenue and ads ROI calculations predates internet by a fair margin

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#48

Post by majani »

mozumder wrote: post #2

The correct answer is to never use programmatic ads. Ever. If you own a site, just curate a set of ads on your site that actually enhances your sites appeal. A fashion site should have matching fashion ads. A tech site should have matching tech ads. A local site should have matching local ads. Reach out to advertisers to get these ads. Never use an algorithm. You, as an editor, should be better than the algorithms. A…

That would work for an independently wealthy individual blogger. Otherwise for a blog with a sales team with aspirational dreams, when the Flash SSD advertiser expresses interest in advertising, he'll go for the deal to make his commission. As the owner of the blog, you block enough such deals, and you'll have yourself a never ending sales exodus

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#49

Post by gozo »

dagw wrote: post #44
coldtea wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? What have SpaceX and Tesla done "for the world"? Provide rich people with electric sports cars?

Tesla has shown that electric cars can be both viable and cool. Even if if Tesla itself remains a niche car, Tesla should get the credit if/when in the future electric cars become the norm. In addition Tesla is betting big on making better batteries. If they can pull that off then that will end up being their true legacy with the whole car thing becoming a neat historical footnote. As for SpaceX they'll go down in hi…

Well. If SpaceX succeeds in its goal of making putting things in space significantly cheaper, they could enable a lot of nasty things like weapons in space, global surveillance systems, increased use of military drones etc.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#50

Post by dagw »

gozo wrote: post #49
dagw wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla has shown that electric cars can be both viable and cool. Even if if Tesla itself remains a niche car, Tesla should get the credit if/when in the future electric cars become the norm. In addition Tesla is betting big on making better batteries. If they can pull that off then that will end up being their true legacy with the whole car thing becoming a neat historical footnote. As for SpaceX they'll go down in hi…

Well. If SpaceX succeeds in its goal of making putting things in space significantly cheaper, they could enable a lot of nasty things like weapons in space, global surveillance systems, increased use of military drones etc.

The reason the military is or isn't putting weapons in space has nothing to do with launch costs.
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