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If you missed it, Paul Graham tweeted about this earlier today: "A lot of these tactics are mistaken, but they show China cares about startups in a way the US

If you missed it, Paul Graham tweeted about this earlier today: "A lot of these tactics are mistaken, but they show China cares about startups in a way the US does not."[0] "China is doing to the US what the US did to Britain in the 19th century: growing their economy while we waste money on our empire."[1] [0] https://twitter.com/paulg/status/772343525199474688 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/772343525199474688 [1] https://twitter.com/paulg/status/772344187995947008 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/772344187995947008

ganwar 10y ago
That second tweet is pure gold. Buut... It's just so difficult. Isn't it? The lure of that grand empire that we had. :/
- Bjorkbat 10y ago
  Ironically it seems that China is trying to do a little empire-building of its own. They're still a long-ways away from playing globo-cop, but all that island-building in the South China Sea is pretty telling. They're also doing a lot of infrastructure investment in Africa.
  - sremani 10y ago
    Why are Software Development world has such a naive world view? Why are we not a bit more enlightened about Nation-States and nature of power? I really do not know. As a person who enjoys Geopolitical articles and newsletters, I find HN discussions on Geopolitics range from naive to nauseating.
gjdjcjdnxnvjd 10y ago
But honestly, why should we care about PG's brand of web startups? Yes, we're told that they're desireable for vague, inscrutable reasons, but if you dig any deeper than that you'll find that they're at best performing market arbitrage based on better information, and at worst destroying value. Look at Uber. They're hemorrhaging money all so that they can artificially lower wages and run their competitors out of business before ultimately going belly-up from their unsustainable business model. And they're considered a success story.

ganwar 10y ago

That second tweet is pure gold. Buut... It's just so difficult. Isn't it? The lure of that grand empire that we had. :/

Bjorkbat 10y ago
Ironically it seems that China is trying to do a little empire-building of its own. They're still a long-ways away from playing globo-cop, but all that island-building in the South China Sea is pretty telling. They're also doing a lot of infrastructure investment in Africa.
- sremani 10y ago
  Why are Software Development world has such a naive world view? Why are we not a bit more enlightened about Nation-States and nature of power? I really do not know. As a person who enjoys Geopolitical articles and newsletters, I find HN discussions on Geopolitics range from naive to nauseating.

gjdjcjdnxnvjd 10y ago

But honestly, why should we care about PG's brand of web startups? Yes, we're told that they're desireable for vague, inscrutable reasons, but if you dig any deeper than that you'll find that they're at best performing market arbitrage based on better information, and at worst destroying value. Look at Uber. They're hemorrhaging money all so that they can artificially lower wages and run their competitors out of business before ultimately going belly-up from their unsustainable business model. And they're considered a success story.