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It’s Time to Build

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Re: It’s Time to Build

#761

Post by idoby »

> we’ve been doing education research that’s never reached practical deployment for 50 years since; why not build a lot more great K-12 schools using everything we now know?

Because in 2020, education is credentialism. Every one of my friends who approached or was approached by a VC was asked: did you go to a good school? Do people up the chain like you? Show us references from professors and supervisors! This is not some big player hiring a manager-executive, I'm talking about investors whose job is to identify left-field potential and take risks.

You can't create Harvard 2.0 if your measure of success is having attended Harvard 1.0, and Harvard 1.0 is under no pressure to change or adapt.

Even the best VCs won't invest in socially inept dropouts anymore. The next Steve Jobs isn't building something in his parents' garage, because nobody believes in his ability to sell computers. He doesn't have an MBA from Wharton; he isn't a Stanford PhD. Thiel's "just don't fuck it up" just can't happen in 2020, except maybe by Thiel himself (or Weinstein, who is slowly waking up to this truth).

If anything, crises might force VCs to take risks again. Let the flood of easy M&As run dry and the dam dismantled!

Re: It’s Time to Build

#762

Post by cryptica »

>> The right must fight hard against crony capitalism, regulatory capture, ossified oligopolies, risk-inducing offshoring, and investor-friendly buybacks

Wow I never thought I'd see this on a blog of Andreessen Horowitz. I was starting to think that nobody cared about value creation anymore.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#764

Post by dennis_jeeves »

oxymoron wrote: post #70

I'm in the process of reading _Why Nation Fails_. The central thesis is that the rich and poor countries are separated by inclusive vs extractive institutions. The extractive institutions are characterised by elites that attempt to defend their own wealth and status by maintaining the status quo and resisting the creative destruction that may threaten that position. It seems to resonate a bit here, when Marc speaks o…

>Point being, why not write simpler laws and regulations and leave it to the courts to interpret what adheres to the spirit of it?

This will _never_ happen. The vast majority of people are too intellectually challenged to see the benefit of simplicity. The earlier someone understand this fundamental fact about the vast majority of people, the earlier they can probably channelize efforts in the right direction ( what ever that might be), rather than hopelessly toil to make laws simpler. Democracy=tyranny of the masses.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#765

Post by harryh »

MattGaiser wrote: post #358
harryh wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber, Dropbox, AirBnB, Slack, Pinterest. Long term un-profitable venture backed software companies are practically a cliche at this point.

They are not long term unprofitable for the VCs. Those companies have been through rounds and rounds of growth which has brought in other investors (i.e. who VCs can sell to if they desire). What about the company that would need to labour for 5 years before they get the MVP out the door?

What about the company that would need to labour for 5 years before they get the MVP out the door?

Magic Leap.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#766

Post by huntertwo »

roenxi wrote: post #758
etrabroline wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>GOP put party win before a nation by agreeing to nominate an unfit individual for office. They failed as gatekeepers. Trump won the primary because he took positions that closely follow the article being discussed here, anti-war, anti-outsourcing (additionally he took an anti-immigration position) while all of the other 18 GOP candidates had the same pro-war, pro-free trade, pro-immigration positions that the party…

> but that would mean ending the middle eastern wars Do you want the terrorists to win? >:| It is a remarkable bellweather of US politics that despite being a relatively peaceful polity the voting public have been unable to drag the country out of a permanent state of expensive and wasteful war. I think both Trump and Obama campaigned as pro-peace candidates so it is a presumably a popular position with voters. US fo…

> US foreign policy is almost inexplicable when it comes to war. The death, destruction and raising a generation Middle Easterners with excellent motivation to hate America seems like a foolish long term strategy. It also doesn't look profitable.

Not for the U.S., not for its citizens, but for a certain set of people the constant war is very profitable. And I think you'll find that those that profit from war have considerable influence over the foreign policy that keeps us in constant war.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#767

Post by megavolcano »

It's time to build - but yet most of us are legally mandated to stay home and NOT build.

"I'm from the government, I'm here to help" - inspiring confidence in nobody since forever.

Regulatory capture is the biggest problem stifling innovation today. The government needs to get the hell out of our way and let us get back to work.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#768

Post by Eridrus »

jahaja wrote: post #423
tekdude wrote: post #388

Regulatory capture is indeed a major underlying cause of a lot of the issues, but who will actually do the political work to fight against it? Someone spent money to capture the regulations in the first place, through lobbying and campaign donations. Who will spend the money to lobby and donate for the cause of undoing that? The "builders"? No, their focus and limited capital is spent on whatever it is they are worki…

> Regulatory capture is indeed a major underlying cause of a lot of the issues How is it even possible to isolate capitalism from regulatory capture? Capital accumulation inherently creates power and influence, so regulatory capture is surely just the perfectly logical second phase?

This isn't just a big business problem, there is plenty of regulatory capture on behalf of other interest groups (eg doctors keep the supply of new doctors low).

There is no enduring structural answer to this problem, it is fundamental to democracy.

The only answers are to struggle for our goals in the political and cultural arenas to hope to marginally improve the situation.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#769

Post by rezz »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #184
rezz wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using an example where an outcome (weight gain) is completely driven by an individual’s (in)action (consuming more energy than expending) is probably not the best argument for opposing a “try harder” approach to living. Yes it’s never been easier to eat like shit and have hobbies that require no movement, but the opposite is also true.

Would you say the same when talking about drug addiction, rather than just weight gain? Would it matter to drug addiction rates, if there were cheap Fast Drug stores all across the country, akin to fast food stores? I think it's quite clear that here it makes zero sense to just say 'try to resist taking these ubiquitous drugs which give short-term satisfaction' as a policy measure. You'd need to treat it as a public…

To what end do we put the onus of an individuals poor decisions on “policy measures”. Should we put a tax on minutes playing video games? Should we reinstate prohibition?

It’s dangerous to equate someone choosing to “get fries with that” in the same vein as a chemical addiction to drugs.

Re: It’s Time to Build

#770

Post by petra »

Jommi wrote: post #400
tekdude wrote: post #388

Regulatory capture is indeed a major underlying cause of a lot of the issues, but who will actually do the political work to fight against it? Someone spent money to capture the regulations in the first place, through lobbying and campaign donations. Who will spend the money to lobby and donate for the cause of undoing that? The "builders"? No, their focus and limited capital is spent on whatever it is they are worki…

This is a great comment, and hopefully I could add some real life example around this, esp with 1) and 2). Uber did this in Europe. Uber pushed, fought and introduced gig-economy employment laws in every country it has operated in EU, specifically around taxi and for hire transport regulation. Uber employed a huge amount of legal and PR counsel to achieve this, with massive lobbying funding. And what has happened? It…

Uber only did it because their investors really believed they could capture the market.

Most situations are not like that.

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