7 ms·

Goodbye, Ivory Tower. Hello, Candy Store

83 points by gist 10y ago

gist 10y ago
> The same could be true for household goods, Mr. Weyl said. One possible situation: After you use your espresso machine for breakfast, a drone comes to pick it up, and you rent it out for the day. A most ridiculous example of 'anything is possible with technology'.
- cylinder 10y ago
  This is all so ridiculous. Easy to throw out fat salaries to do meaningless stuff all day when you're playing with funny money (everyone has to look busy to keep selling the story to investors). We haven't even figured out a way to get people from home to work quickly and efficiently in Silicon Valley but people are working on maximizing the earning potential of your coffee machine.
  - spoonie 10y ago
    We haven't even figured out a way to get people from home to work quickly and efficiently in Silicon Valley I'd say there is a rational reason for this. If the cost of living was lower in the SFBA, salaries would likely be lower. By creating remote working technology or attitudes, an engineer would almost be working towards lowering their own salary (effectively allowing their jobs to be intra-country-outsourced to lower cost of living areas).
    - stale2002 10y ago
      There are lots of engineers who would be willing to work towards decreasing cost of living, even if it decreases their salary. I certainly would. I don't really care if my salary goes down by 10 percent if I massively help make the world a better place.
      - alexmat 10y ago
        How about a 50% salary cut for a marginal improvement? Just curious at what point you care more about your own well being versus the well being of others.
        stale2002 10y ago
        It would actually be the opposite effect. If I found a way to cut developer costs in half I would become fabulously wealthy, not poor. Why wouldn't someone want to both become rich by putting devs out of a job and making the world better? Maybe due to misplaced loyalty, and so as to screw over the rest of society To Help a small rich group?
      - BerislavLopac 10y ago
        And there are lots of engineers for whom working remotely would increase their salary, however it decreased the cost for their employees. If anything, I'd say that (on a global scale) economic incentives are firmly on the side of solving the remote working problem rather then perpetuating it.
        spoonie 10y ago
        I don't disagree with the grandparent: there are people who would do it, but I think for engineers right now the incentives are aligned against it. And I agree with you, for employers it's definitely in their interests, they just need to get over the inertia of "bums in seats means work is getting done".
- nxzero 10y ago
  Anything is possible: "After you read the New York Times over breakfast, a drone comes to pick it up, and you resell it as a fire starter."
  - frou_dh 10y ago
    drone : service-economy :: pickaxe : gold-rush
    - dsr_ 10y ago
      I'm looking for X, in X : service-economy :: jeans : gold-rush Because it turned out that lots of people liked having tough, reliable pants that had been proven to work by people using them all the time, and later there was lots of room for diversification. There's not much profit in pickaxes once the gold-rush wears off.
      - ChrisLTD 10y ago
        The X was smart phones. Unfortunately, Apple and Samsung made all the money there.
      - vinceguidry 10y ago
        Jeans were an actual innovation, if you sold pickaxes in a gold rush, you were basically running a glorified 7-11. But getting rich selling jeans during a gold rush requires luck, you have to already have the skill to sew before you go out West. Otherwise you're just like every schmoe out there looking to get rich. If you get out there and realize there's big money to be made in jeans, then by the time you're ready to compete effectively the opportunity to generate outsized returns is already gone. The people who typically get rich during gold rushes already have 10 years of experience doing the thing they got rich doing, and they got there first. You need both foresight, the capability to be where you are needed when you're needed there and not after the big money has already been made, and luck, the happenstance of already having the skills that were needed. Foresight can be learned, but luck can't be controlled.
- YZF 10y ago
  For my Espresso machine it's going to be a Sikorsky CH-53 drone ;) These are heavy buggers.
  - di4na 10y ago
    Would a MCT-Nissan Roto-Drone work?
- mikeash 10y ago
  It's so stupid. Obviously you'd have the espresso machine in a central location and deliver the product by drone, not haul the machines around. Idiots!
  - ori_b 10y ago
    Why? Obviously, you'd have the drone be the coffee machine. The time between customers is spent brewing, and then it lands over your mug and squirts it in from its abdomen, like a giant coffee-from-abdomen spewing insect that flies from flower to flower.
jackfrodo 10y ago
>One study focuses on procrastination — a subject of great interest to behavioral economists — by looking at bookings. Are they last-minute? Made weeks or months in advance? Do booking habits change by age, gender or country of origin? Airbnb is already making tangible changes based on this kind of data. One example is using it to make predictions of demand, and then tell Airbnb hosts the optimal price that they should charge to maximize revenue and chances of being booked.
curuinor 10y ago
There was a man I knew who actually did quit Palantir to work at a literal candy store, actually (Rocket Fizz, which mainly sells soda but also candy). Interesting guy.
- dangrover 10y ago
  I have always wondered how that store on University can draw enough sales to have such prime real estate, figured it was a front for something else.
  - lnanek2 10y ago
    Pretty tough to not make money when you are selling pretty much sugar and water, highly marked up. Soda is incredibly profitable once you have a brand that sells.
    - Element_ 10y ago
      I remember once reading that investing in Monster Energy Drink stock 10 years ago produced a greater return than any of the FANG stocks.
  - daveFNbuck 10y ago
    It's an expensive candy shop surrounded by rich grown children.
- Waterluvian 10y ago
  Finally a use for Fizz Buzz!
dvillega 10y ago
Reminds me of physicists leaving academia to join financial companies.
- flamedoge 10y ago
  aren't they becoming "Data Scientists" now?
  - az0xff 10y ago
    That's also true, but you still see a ton of ex-academic physicists on Wall Street.
maverick_iceman 10y ago
Very clickbaity headline. I thought a professor has quit academia to open a real candy store
- zem 10y ago
  as a counterpoint, i got it immediately; it's a pretty common metaphor, and a clear parallel to "ivory tower" in the first bit. not clickbaity at all. (though i thought it was going to be about access to massive quantities of personal data, rather than simply better pay.)
- Magi604 10y ago
  Yup. The title of this post isn't even the same as the article headline. If I had read the "Silicon Valley" in the title, I probably wouldn't have clicked it.
boulos 10y ago
Aww, my product (Preemptible VMs) got ignored from this section: > A current market-design challenge for Amazon and Microsoft is their big cloud computing services. These digital services, for example, face a peak-load problem, much as electric utilities do. > How do you sell service at times when there is a risk some customers may be bumped off? Run an auction for what customers are willing to pay for interruptible service? Or offer set discounts for different levels of risk? Both Amazon and Microsoft are working on that now. Maybe we're boring because I fought (and won) for flat pricing instead of making this auction-based like Spot. We didn't ignore the economics though, auctions are a great thing for a fixed, exchangeable pie; much less clear for price elasticity, and an effectively infinitely scalable business.

83 points by gist 10y ago

gist 10y ago

> The same could be true for household goods, Mr. Weyl said. One possible situation: After you use your espresso machine for breakfast, a drone comes to pick it up, and you rent it out for the day. A most ridiculous example of 'anything is possible with technology'.

cylinder 10y ago
This is all so ridiculous. Easy to throw out fat salaries to do meaningless stuff all day when you're playing with funny money (everyone has to look busy to keep selling the story to investors). We haven't even figured out a way to get people from home to work quickly and efficiently in Silicon Valley but people are working on maximizing the earning potential of your coffee machine.
- spoonie 10y ago
  We haven't even figured out a way to get people from home to work quickly and efficiently in Silicon Valley I'd say there is a rational reason for this. If the cost of living was lower in the SFBA, salaries would likely be lower. By creating remote working technology or attitudes, an engineer would almost be working towards lowering their own salary (effectively allowing their jobs to be intra-country-outsourced to lower cost of living areas).
  - stale2002 10y ago
    There are lots of engineers who would be willing to work towards decreasing cost of living, even if it decreases their salary. I certainly would. I don't really care if my salary goes down by 10 percent if I massively help make the world a better place.
    - alexmat 10y ago
      How about a 50% salary cut for a marginal improvement? Just curious at what point you care more about your own well being versus the well being of others.
      - stale2002 10y ago
        It would actually be the opposite effect. If I found a way to cut developer costs in half I would become fabulously wealthy, not poor. Why wouldn't someone want to both become rich by putting devs out of a job and making the world better? Maybe due to misplaced loyalty, and so as to screw over the rest of society To Help a small rich group?
    - BerislavLopac 10y ago
      And there are lots of engineers for whom working remotely would increase their salary, however it decreased the cost for their employees. If anything, I'd say that (on a global scale) economic incentives are firmly on the side of solving the remote working problem rather then perpetuating it.
      - spoonie 10y ago
        I don't disagree with the grandparent: there are people who would do it, but I think for engineers right now the incentives are aligned against it. And I agree with you, for employers it's definitely in their interests, they just need to get over the inertia of "bums in seats means work is getting done".
nxzero 10y ago
Anything is possible: "After you read the New York Times over breakfast, a drone comes to pick it up, and you resell it as a fire starter."
- frou_dh 10y ago
  drone : service-economy :: pickaxe : gold-rush
  - dsr_ 10y ago
    I'm looking for X, in X : service-economy :: jeans : gold-rush Because it turned out that lots of people liked having tough, reliable pants that had been proven to work by people using them all the time, and later there was lots of room for diversification. There's not much profit in pickaxes once the gold-rush wears off.
    - ChrisLTD 10y ago
      The X was smart phones. Unfortunately, Apple and Samsung made all the money there.
    - vinceguidry 10y ago
      Jeans were an actual innovation, if you sold pickaxes in a gold rush, you were basically running a glorified 7-11. But getting rich selling jeans during a gold rush requires luck, you have to already have the skill to sew before you go out West. Otherwise you're just like every schmoe out there looking to get rich. If you get out there and realize there's big money to be made in jeans, then by the time you're ready to compete effectively the opportunity to generate outsized returns is already gone. The people who typically get rich during gold rushes already have 10 years of experience doing the thing they got rich doing, and they got there first. You need both foresight, the capability to be where you are needed when you're needed there and not after the big money has already been made, and luck, the happenstance of already having the skills that were needed. Foresight can be learned, but luck can't be controlled.
YZF 10y ago
For my Espresso machine it's going to be a Sikorsky CH-53 drone ;) These are heavy buggers.
- di4na 10y ago
  Would a MCT-Nissan Roto-Drone work?
mikeash 10y ago
It's so stupid. Obviously you'd have the espresso machine in a central location and deliver the product by drone, not haul the machines around. Idiots!
- ori_b 10y ago
  Why? Obviously, you'd have the drone be the coffee machine. The time between customers is spent brewing, and then it lands over your mug and squirts it in from its abdomen, like a giant coffee-from-abdomen spewing insect that flies from flower to flower.

jackfrodo 10y ago

>One study focuses on procrastination — a subject of great interest to behavioral economists — by looking at bookings. Are they last-minute? Made weeks or months in advance? Do booking habits change by age, gender or country of origin? Airbnb is already making tangible changes based on this kind of data. One example is using it to make predictions of demand, and then tell Airbnb hosts the optimal price that they should charge to maximize revenue and chances of being booked.

curuinor 10y ago

There was a man I knew who actually did quit Palantir to work at a literal candy store, actually (Rocket Fizz, which mainly sells soda but also candy). Interesting guy.

dangrover 10y ago
I have always wondered how that store on University can draw enough sales to have such prime real estate, figured it was a front for something else.
- lnanek2 10y ago
  Pretty tough to not make money when you are selling pretty much sugar and water, highly marked up. Soda is incredibly profitable once you have a brand that sells.
  - Element_ 10y ago
    I remember once reading that investing in Monster Energy Drink stock 10 years ago produced a greater return than any of the FANG stocks.
- daveFNbuck 10y ago
  It's an expensive candy shop surrounded by rich grown children.
Waterluvian 10y ago
Finally a use for Fizz Buzz!

dvillega 10y ago

Reminds me of physicists leaving academia to join financial companies.

flamedoge 10y ago
aren't they becoming "Data Scientists" now?
- az0xff 10y ago
  That's also true, but you still see a ton of ex-academic physicists on Wall Street.

maverick_iceman 10y ago

Very clickbaity headline. I thought a professor has quit academia to open a real candy store

zem 10y ago
as a counterpoint, i got it immediately; it's a pretty common metaphor, and a clear parallel to "ivory tower" in the first bit. not clickbaity at all. (though i thought it was going to be about access to massive quantities of personal data, rather than simply better pay.)
Magi604 10y ago
Yup. The title of this post isn't even the same as the article headline. If I had read the "Silicon Valley" in the title, I probably wouldn't have clicked it.

boulos 10y ago

Aww, my product (Preemptible VMs) got ignored from this section: > A current market-design challenge for Amazon and Microsoft is their big cloud computing services. These digital services, for example, face a peak-load problem, much as electric utilities do. > How do you sell service at times when there is a risk some customers may be bumped off? Run an auction for what customers are willing to pay for interruptible service? Or offer set discounts for different levels of risk? Both Amazon and Microsoft are working on that now. Maybe we're boring because I fought (and won) for flat pricing instead of making this auction-based like Spot. We didn't ignore the economics though, auctions are a great thing for a fixed, exchangeable pie; much less clear for price elasticity, and an effectively infinitely scalable business.