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How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

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Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#71

Post by Ma8ee »

gortok wrote: post #40
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> startup world is just a massive pump and dump scheme, and so it moves from field to field finding the next hotness But we retain the solutions that work. A slime mold tries a bunch of useless paths in a maze before it finds the right one. Then it trims and reinforces. Most start-ups failing isn't a sure sign of wasted work.

You can save minutes of talking to folks through Months of work and tens of thousands of people-hours building something people don't want or need. You can save months of research by spending years of work and hundreds of thousands of people-hours building something that doesn't work.

That reminds me of a note on the door I saw in a research department: “A month in the lab saves you an hour in the library.”

Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#72

Post by chankstein38 »

function_seven wrote: post #46
foreigner wrote: post #45

The important thing to understand here is that you shouldn't write on a latex balloon with a Sharpie. It works well for a while, but when the balloon inevitably pops or deflates, the Sharpie ink will re-liquify and get all over the place. Then you will learn the meaning of the phrase "indelible on porous surfaces".

Everything you just wrote has made me understand that I should write on a balloon with a Sharpie. This sounds fun. Thanks.

Cover that bad boy top to bottom for a real octopus-reaction-like experience!

Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#73

Post by Modified3019 »

foreigner wrote: post #45

The important thing to understand here is that you shouldn't write on a latex balloon with a Sharpie. It works well for a while, but when the balloon inevitably pops or deflates, the Sharpie ink will re-liquify and get all over the place. Then you will learn the meaning of the phrase "indelible on porous surfaces".

It should be noted, there are a variety of chemicals that will dissolve and carry away the ink from most things if you look for it. Of note, rubbing alcohol and paper towels work well.

Likewise, the paint markers which I make use of are easily removed by rubbing alcohol.

Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#74

Post by iancmceachern »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #52
gortok wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can save minutes of talking to folks through Months of work and tens of thousands of people-hours building something people don't want or need. You can save months of research by spending years of work and hundreds of thousands of people-hours building something that doesn't work.

> You can save minutes of talking to folks You're describing focus groups. They have a mixed history in product development.

It's exactly the opposite, they're essential and certainly do not have a "mixed history".

Every product you interact with at the grocery store, every movie, most music, and most products in our modern life go through this process.

It's called user focused design.

Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#75

Post by burnished »

jonny_eh wrote: post #59
bmitc wrote: post #21

It's not just AI startups. It's almost all of them. The startup world is just a massive pump and dump scheme, and so it moves from field to field finding the next hotness. Self-driving cars, VR, EVs, AI, and so on. People soon realize that you can't just take a bunch of hipster tech employees and suddenly create non-solutions that need to have problems created for them to even be solutions, much less choosing extreme…

Nothing proved the emperor has no clothes better than the crypto trend.

Well at least it gave many of us the opportunity to practice asking 'in simple terms whats the core value of your proposition?'

Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#76

Post by throwaway4pp24 »

WalterSear wrote: post #32
candiddevmike wrote: post #12

The weird thing with AI startups is the funding is kind of smoke and mirrors. So much of the funding is tied up in NVDA, MSFT, GOOGL, or AMZN incentives that the actual cash value is... murky. May be hard to pay salaries with GPU credits.

GPU credits are certainly paying salaries at NVDA. https://justdario.com/2024/05/no-nvidia-is-only-one-piece-of...

[flagged]

Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#77

Post by vintermann »

gortok wrote: post #40
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> startup world is just a massive pump and dump scheme, and so it moves from field to field finding the next hotness But we retain the solutions that work. A slime mold tries a bunch of useless paths in a maze before it finds the right one. Then it trims and reinforces. Most start-ups failing isn't a sure sign of wasted work.

You can save minutes of talking to folks through Months of work and tens of thousands of people-hours building something people don't want or need. You can save months of research by spending years of work and hundreds of thousands of people-hours building something that doesn't work.

Yes, many business ideas I see are of the type "That would be a great idea if you could make it work, but given how much easier it is to fool people into thinking you have made it work, than to actually make it work, the odds aren't good".

And if you're a rich investor willing to bet on a lot of such things hoping to make it back on of the few that work, well, you just made that ratio even more lopsided.

Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#78

Post by burnished »

danielodievich wrote: post #55

SMBC is a treasure, just like XKCD. Zach's and Kelly's books are quite nicely, some like Soonish are just good accessible futurism/science reading, their comic collections are excellent, and they aren't afraid to offend. For example, I was part of their initial Kickstarter for The Holy Bible: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness https://hivemill.com/products/pocket-bible and now I have a much-easier-to-get-through…

His rendition of Beowulf is frankly incredible.

Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#79

Post by carterklein13 »

bmitc wrote: post #21

It's not just AI startups. It's almost all of them. The startup world is just a massive pump and dump scheme, and so it moves from field to field finding the next hotness. Self-driving cars, VR, EVs, AI, and so on. People soon realize that you can't just take a bunch of hipster tech employees and suddenly create non-solutions that need to have problems created for them to even be solutions, much less choosing extreme…

I personally think this will be one of the biggest "what the hell were we thinking" ideas to come out of the still-developing hangover of the 2013-2023 startup space. From my perspective, the once-startups that are now big companies are the ones who focused ONLY on solving a real and immediate problem with happy, motivated employees. Every industry has inefficiencies to improve upon. Most employees want normal hours, a 401K, some benefits, and clear performance reviews. There's still a ton of work to do at cool-but-not-the-absolute-cutting-edge startups.

Re: How much money we can raise for transparently idiotic startups?

#80

Post by dustingetz »

BobbyJo wrote: post #57
bmitc wrote: post #21

It's not just AI startups. It's almost all of them. The startup world is just a massive pump and dump scheme, and so it moves from field to field finding the next hotness. Self-driving cars, VR, EVs, AI, and so on. People soon realize that you can't just take a bunch of hipster tech employees and suddenly create non-solutions that need to have problems created for them to even be solutions, much less choosing extreme…

This is simply not true. Most startup founders are genuinely trying to build something that has value to the economy, and therefore society. Most fail early, most of what's left fails later, but some go on to be real, profitable, businesses. That's how it works outside of the startup world too. Most restaurants, clothing stores, car repair shops, etc. go out of business after just a few years, while a few move on to…

> Most startup founders are genuinely trying to build something that has value to the economy, and therefore society.

there is an unlabeled selection bias missing here, and in that bias we find everything

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