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benreesman 5 days ago

Only if that activist investor acts with decisiveness, vision, long-term goal orientation, and demonstrates consistently high-integrity behavior.

What has much more commonly produced good outcomes in such situations is robust public-private partnerships like the ones that produced the semiconductor industry in the first place. Run the list of innovations in strategically key technology and what will you find at one remove in every instance? The DoD, NASA, the Labs and ATT more broadly, the university system.

It's always a public/private partnership during periods of explosive value creation when the stakes are high, and it's always a private sector capture orgy during periods of extractive stagnation like the present.

Spooky23 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Bad news. We’re exploding NSF, NASA and many parts of DoD. Universities are uncertain as those acts are digested.

That era of American history has passed. Innovation gives way to consolidation and cronyism. Think Mussolini’s Italy.

avn2109 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

If you have any evidence for the claim that "many parts of DoD" are being exploded/defunded, it would be really interesting to see that. As far as I can see, just the opposite is true; the military industrial complex looks like it's increasing in size and scope.

Spooky23 4 days ago | parent [-]

The recent budget cut about 5% from the DoD research budget.

A lot of cash is going to be redeployed towards tilting at the windmill of domestic ballistic missile defense… while we’re watching a war in Ukraine where cheap drones are demonstrating that most major weapons platforms are functionally obsolete.

dreamcompiler 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Remember what finally happened to Mussolini?

benreesman 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

We've had crime season gilded ages before. We've had trusts and corruption before. I agree that on present course and heading we are not going to make it out of this one in anything like the position we're accustomed to, but it's not impossible and frankly it wouldn't even take that much.

Forums like HN full of senior technologists and future founders are disproportionately high impact. If the tone around here shifted a little to stop excusing what YC has become and start embracing how it all started?

Shit like that adds up. geohotz had that post a few weeks ago about this late capitalism internet shit, he was pretty deep in with the Effective Altruists and he got it together. I said at the time and I'll say again, you get a few more people like that to sober up? pmarca and lex and people? Maybe even pg?

Real change happens that way.

pwarner 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

berkshire hathaway