61–70 of 146 posts
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on what problem your solving. If you want the oldest 10% of the population not to die in poverty that's actually fairly easy to solve. In you want ~0.00% deaths from starvation that's also easy to solve. However it's cheaper to provide basic heathcare to everyone than it is to provide top quality heathcare to the elderly. Reducing drug use to some significantly lower level is very possible, ending it is not.…
>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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually no. I'm making the software that did not previously exist. Others down the road can then use it to produce better performing products. Passive aggressive word games aside, you really can't compare "reducing the global need for oil" to "snapchat for cats".
> Passive aggressive word games aside, you really can't compare "reducing the global need for oil" to "snapchat for cats". Actually. By reducing the consumption of oil, it becomes cheaper to travel and people will travel more... increasing the consumption of oil. Game word in point: You might be having the opposing effect of what you think :D
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
The building of cheap houses isn't the problem. Who maintains them? Who enforces the code? Who insures them? Who is liable for them? These are things that "SV" sometimes ignores. That's why these are bigger problems.
The regulations aren't hard. Simply put down your JavaScript framework of the week and go out to do real work that effects change. Prepare to work long days and not get rich, but make people's lives better.
But people won't, and that's SVs problem.
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'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 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.
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 reality of being a person of average means.
> Right now, entrepreneurs are trying to fix things that aren’t broken. And we can all name a lot of things that are broken: healthcare, education, homelessness and poverty, food waste, climate change… need I continue? I'm kinda apprehensive of what would happen if SV got a hold of these problems and tried to "solve" them.
The solution is not startups. The solution is people organizing for better government policy (single payer healthcare, etc).
Full disclosure: I interviewed with the USDS but declined the job offer.
If you want to work on big, meaningful problems, here are some compelling options.
Do you think our government is broken? Join Nava (a new type of government contractor working on helping the VA fix its backlog and helping CMS move our healthcare system toward value-based-care) or 18F (a new agency within the government).
Want to save lives? There's Syapse (precision medicine to cure cancer), Clover (building a Medicare Advantage health insurance company from scratch), Omada Health (diabetes prevention through behavior change), or Grail or Freenome (liquid biopsy).
Even well-known startups are helping to solve important problems: think about the impact of Uber and Lyft on drunk driving, or of Airbnb on foreclosures. It wasn't a coincidence Airbnb was founded in the middle of a housing crisis.
I don't know green tech well, but surely somebody here will have good suggestions on what technologists can do about the environment.
Every one of those entrepreneurs and VCs are working on something they believe in. Making themselves rich(er). That's all there is to it.
If our economic system as we know it is no longer capable of delivering innovation, then something is seriously wrong and we should be reevaluating why we are still using that system.
You understand that this sounds like the insane ramblings of a mad man?
Why do you think our economic systems mains focus should be innovation? As opposed to stability, and constant flow or work and money?
And you want us to reevaluate ditching this system? Wow.
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…
The reason they are able to make money is because they created value that people are voluntarily willing to hand over money for. It is not stealing.
If you don't think what they created has value, don't buy it.