Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in • Hacker News Board

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#41

Post by nickff » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 10:29 PM UTC

coyotespike wrote: post #36

nickff wrote: post #4

This is an interesting premise, but I'm not sure that the pool of potential grant recipients will be a very good one. The problem that I foresee is that people working on these sorts of projects seem to fall into two broad categories: -People who don't want to work for someone else, but lack vision and exist on social proof. These people will be attracted to the grant funding, but unable to use it to create something…

The world is full of smart, curious, active people who are neither brilliant nor delusional. One problem we do have is that (in the States, especially), our culture is geared around individual careers. Meaning we don't have a supportive culture for people creating stuff on their own - or really a strong culture of forming small supportive teams. I do think the tech world (and, even if you really oppose it in general,…

I think that you're suggesting something like weego did in another comment, which seems like a worthy goal, but is a bit different from what the proposal seemed to outline (at least in my reading).

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#42

Post by hyperpallium2 » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 10:31 PM UTC

UBI will do this. Lots of freeloaders, but at pretty much the same cost as at present.

But it's instructive to look at communistic/socialistic states, which pretty much had this. Anecdotally, Joscha Bach talks about his father, being able to do his own thing in that environment, without needing it to be practical.

And perhaps that's the crucial thing: without incentives, ideas are not made practical, where they can make a difference. Did you ever notice that when some cool new mathematics is developed and applied to do something amazing, it turns out that the math had already been worked out by somebody else about two centuries ago - but that work had no effect on the breakthrough. It would have made no difference if it had never been done...

For me, who loves the idea of people being able to work on whatever inspires them, this is terrible news. I wonder if there's a way around it? Perhaps just better connecting previous work - "idea search", if you like (present academic "literature review" is evidently inadequate).

Perhaps a categorization system like Roget's or Dewey's, but for arbitrarily dimensional application of ideas, maybe somethig relational or like Hoogle for searching Haskell type signatures, which works surprisingly well, probably because types are general in terms of application. The semantic web doesn't seem to work well; too specific/concrete.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#43

Post by _jal » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 10:38 PM UTC

varelse wrote: post #32

bsedlm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sounds a lot like what VCs are already doing, except they're interested in business, not big breakthroughs

As someone just barely past past the affluence event horizon, VCs are now actively courting me to lead startups to develop their ideas or to invest in their funds. Previously, they just dismissed me as hella smart but clearly not leadership material (apparently net worth is an equivalent virtue signal to academic pedigree, who knew?). I am instead investing in myself and building skills orthogonal to what got me here…

I've had a similar experience. It is kinda satisfying to tell those folks thanks, but you simply don't have time for their call.

Valley VCs shop for very particular people, and behaviorally, are perfectly fine ignoring good ideas if the body in front of them (when young) didn't go to Stanford or (when older) doesn't care about some of the same things.

Just ignore them, they're increasingly unnecessary.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#44

Post by 5rest » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 10:41 PM UTC

Nice project!! Artists, traditional medicine practitioners, philosophers, social service volunteers, natural farmers, conservationists, and researchers in many obscure areas are people who come to mind while reading about Mothminds. A huge human social good potential remains untapped in these silent people. I hope Mothminds will be a catalyst in this effort.

Funding can move the needle and sustain them to some level. A greater need is yet not met like providing emotional support until they see light in their area. More tools to help them help us are unrealized wishes.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#45

Post by 5rest » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 10:49 PM UTC

tarkin2 wrote: post #37

I like the idea. I wonder how much "return" financial contributors would want. I'd suggest allowing financial contributors to split a set sum between recipients. I've often liked the idea "I'll contribute x amount to whatever, this is how I'll split it per month" and being able to do that easily.

Not all contributors look for returns. There are people who are willing to contribute to a cause instead of say buying a TV. We see such contributions on gofundme to help out people in need.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#46

Post by maydup-nem » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 10:57 PM UTC

I don't believe in work.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#47

Post by 13415 » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 10:57 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #16

13415 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is some pretty strong armchair folk psychology. I'd rather put the run-off-the-mill social Darwinist economics talk aside and focus on ways to evaluate a grant recipient's progress, with a positive attitude and helping them along the way. Startups also often fail, individual grants will not be different from that, and not everyone needs to be a brilliant genius to achieve something.

> ”Startups also often fail, individual grants will not be different from that, and not everyone needs to be a brilliant genius to achieve something.” I agree, but I’m trying to point out that this plan has an adverse selection problem coupled with some other issues.

Maybe you're right, it's difficult to judge from that web page. It depends a lot on how they intend to carry out the funding process and the web page doesn't say much about it. I assumed it's something like Patreon, which works well for some people, I've heard.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#48

Post by physicsgraph » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 11:00 PM UTC

koheripbal wrote: post #38

ok_dad wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For something like this, if you have a good idea, why not explain it and make the idea public so someone with more time can research it? You'll only lose the chance to make a big name for yourself, and if it pans out you'll still get some credit, and the human race will have advanced in knowledge. It's not like you're giving away a possible formula to nuclear fusion. What's the downside I'm not seeing?

I have tried that, but people online don't really have an open mind. I'll tell you right now... I feel like there is a way to model the 3n+1 system of equations (or really any such generalized system) using Godel numbering as a representation of each operation, as a prime number based programming language of nature, and then try to glean something from the output primes to see if there is something that predicts the…

I'm not sure I follow what you're proposing, but in case it is tangentially related to a project I work on, I'll describe what I did.

Write down every quantitative expression in Mathematical Physics. Assign a unique numerical ID to each expression. Identify the relations between each of the expressions to create a graph. Does that graph feature any patterns? Is there a path from any expression to every other expression?

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#49

Post by q1w2 » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 11:04 PM UTC

koheripbal wrote: post #38

ok_dad wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For something like this, if you have a good idea, why not explain it and make the idea public so someone with more time can research it? You'll only lose the chance to make a big name for yourself, and if it pans out you'll still get some credit, and the human race will have advanced in knowledge. It's not like you're giving away a possible formula to nuclear fusion. What's the downside I'm not seeing?

I have tried that, but people online don't really have an open mind. I'll tell you right now... I feel like there is a way to model the 3n+1 system of equations (or really any such generalized system) using Godel numbering as a representation of each operation, as a prime number based programming language of nature, and then try to glean something from the output primes to see if there is something that predicts the…

I tried to Google Collatz and Gödel to see if anyone's done any work like this, and all I found was a now-private Youtube video with the description "Reframing the Collatz Conjecture using Gödel numbering..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPQx1q9cfkU

...so maybe there's something to this line of research. I don't think this is a bad idea at all.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#50

Post by 5rest » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 11:08 PM UTC

weego wrote: post #9

nickff wrote: post #4

This is an interesting premise, but I'm not sure that the pool of potential grant recipients will be a very good one. The problem that I foresee is that people working on these sorts of projects seem to fall into two broad categories: -People who don't want to work for someone else, but lack vision and exist on social proof. These people will be attracted to the grant funding, but unable to use it to create something…

I 'run' my own micro arts fund providing support for people in MH communities that would like supplies or tools to help as part of their ongoing rehab or change of career as a way of getting back into a life that means something. The answer really is if you expect a measurable outcome from small-scale investing in people then don't do it, you're in the wrong space. If you view your investment as a path to the outcome…

I work in similar area. Giving them space and time to stream their creativity into some tangible artifact is the first step. This can be cash or a long chat on random topics. Some talented folks resign in their life due to day-to-day grind. They have to be reignited to tap into their creativity. It is mind-blowing to see simple tools, processes, and a little bit of encouragement can go a long way. Providing space and time for creativity is a good means to a better end - whatever the end may be.