| ▲ | epistasis 2 days ago |
| While I'm somewhat sympathetic to this view, there's another angle here too. The largesse of investment on a vague idea means that lots of other ideas get funding, incidentally. Every VC pitch is about some ground-breaking tech or unassailable moat that will be built around a massive SAM; in reality early traction is all about solving that annoying and stupid problem your customers hate doing but that you can do for them. The disconnect between the extraordinary pitch and the mundane shipped solution is the core of so much business. That same disconnect also means that a lot of real and good problems will be solved with money that was meant for AGI but ends up developing other, good technology. My biggest fear is that we are not investing in the basic, atoms-based tech that we need in the US to not be left behind in the cheap energy future: batteries, solar, and wind is being gutted right now due to chaotic government behavior, the actions of madmen that are incapable of understanding the economy today, much less where tech will take it in 5-10 years. We are also underinvesting in basics like housing, or construction tech. Hopefully some of the AI money goes to fixing those gaping holes in the country's capital allocation. |
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| ▲ | nicoburns 2 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| It would be much better if we invested in meaningful things directly. So much time and effort is being put into making things AI shaped for investors. The elephant in the room is that capital would likely be better directed if it was less concentrated. |
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| ▲ | signatoremo 2 days ago | parent [-] | | If a million families each has a $1,000 to invest in new business, how would you envision the money to be invested collectively? what would be the process? | | |
| ▲ | nicoburns 2 days ago | parent [-] | | The money would distributed mostly as people purchasing things rather than as upfront investment (although it's far from unheard of for startup capital to come from people's local communities where those communities have the resources to enable this). It would be harder to start a business, but easier to maintain a sustainable business model built on actual demand. |
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| ▲ | gorpy7 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| it’s peculiar because i love to use chat gpt to fill my knowledge gaps as i work through solutions to building and energy problems that i want to solve. i wonder how many people are doing something similar and, although i haven’t* read through all the comments, i doubt much is being said let alone giving credence to that simple but potentially profound idea. learning amplified. |
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| ▲ | thaumasiotes 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| > Every VC pitch is about some ground-breaking tech or unassailable moat that will be built around a massive SAM A surface-to-air missile? As funny as that would be, maybe you should define your terms before you try to use them. |
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| ▲ | epistasis 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | The reply defining terms from busterarm was flagged, so I'm repeating them here: > TAM or Total Available Market is the total market demand for a product or service. SAM or Serviceable Available Market is the segment of the TAM targeted by your products and services which is within your geographical reach. SOM or Serviceable Obtainable Market is the portion of SAM that you can capture. | |
| ▲ | busterarm 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | [flagged] | | |
| ▲ | Philpax 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Hacker News may be hosted as part of the Y Combinator website, but as the name suggests, the primary audience is hackers, not entrepreneurs. Your answer is good, but could have done without the condescension. | | |
| ▲ | janalsncm 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Reading the original context, missiles don’t even make sense. I agree condescension isn’t helpful though. | | | |
| ▲ | busterarm 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | [flagged] | | |
| ▲ | Philpax 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | By all means; I also work at a start-up. That doesn't mean that everyone here does, or is interested in doing so, or will have the necessary background. All I ask of you is to present information in the spirit of the XKCD 10,000: https://xkcd.com/1053/ | | | |
| ▲ | esseph 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > most of us are hackers employed at startups Bold claim, should we do a poll? How long should we let it run for, a week, two weeks? | | |
| ▲ | esseph 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Or you're not interested in finding out and just downvote, cool, cool. |
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| ▲ | MyOutfitIsVague 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Been here for years (across many different accounts), and this is the first time I've heard of these terms. I am here for programming content, not business. | | |
| ▲ | busterarm 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Why should I expect anyone who openly admits to having multiple accounts on the site in clear opposition to the site rules to have any level of awareness? I'm sure dang will come and ding me for this one, but I'm sitting here having my points undermined by literal sockpuppets. | | |
| ▲ | MyOutfitIsVague a day ago | parent | next [-] | | I never have more than one account at a time. I can get addicted to social media, like everybody else, and sometimes I find that I'm wasting way too much time talking on HN (and sometimes having arguments). I also dislike a permanent backlog of everything that I've ever said being attached to me. When I feel this way, and when I feel like noprocrast isn't doing a good enough job modulating my addictive tendencies, I retire my account (locking myself out of it intentionally) and take a few months away, usually eventually making another account. You're being needlessly aggressive and making some uncalled-for assumptions. | |
| ▲ | jibal 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Weird ad hominem flex. And "across" doesn't imply multiple accounts at once. People who register with their company email may be forced to create a new account when they leave the company (perhaps with sudden and unexpected loss of access to the account). Here's the actual guideline (not rule): "Throwaway accounts are ok for sensitive information, but please don't create accounts routinely. HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to." People have commented both appreciating your clear definitions and calling you out for the condescension, with a perfect xkcd suggesting an attitude change. It's up to you how you react to such feedback. |
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| ▲ | _carbyau_ 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Your definitions provided immediate clarity. Thank you! |
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