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Sure, I'll try... but will probably ramble as I try to put a finger on it. People matter. Community matters. Relationships matter. Family matters. Helping peop

Sure, I'll try... but will probably ramble as I try to put a finger on it. People matter. Community matters. Relationships matter. Family matters. Helping people who ask for help matters. Small businesses that provide a livelihood in the context of relationships matters. My neighbors, my street condition, my local stores matter. Work and paychecks matter. I guess one way to say it may be things that don't scale matter. Suffering is normal. Health problems stink. I love when medicine can help people. Most health problems seem to be difficult and medicine sometimes can help, but sometimes can't. Putting people on the moon matters. Putting a tesla in space doesn't matter. Fortune 500 companies don't matter. The stock market doesn't matter. Fake videos don't matter. More concretely on the list, taking "Education" as an example: "Scalable solutions in these areas should now be doable thanks to advances in brain science and technologies such as smart home devices, wearables, and mobile." My immediate thought: No way tech helps more than 3%. Education is "solved", just _very_ difficult to do. Quality families with quality teachers and a good professional support structure (esp for disabilities etc...). Overall as I looked at ycombinators list, Job's quote comes to mind: "The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and this stuff doesn’t change the world. It really doesn’t. That’s going to break people’s hearts. I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much – if at all."

cryptoz 9y ago
You have some interesting points, but I want to mention some things where your perspective doesn't make sense to me. I am a tech focused city-dweller for what it matters. > Putting people on the moon matters. Putting a tesla in space doesn't matter. Wait, what? The USA didn't just launch people to the moon in one go. They also hauled up hunks of useless metal first. It's a step. SpaceX is going to be colonizing Mars with new families and new biology and a new chapter in multi-planet life. Do you not think that matters? > Fake videos don't matter. Sure they do, especially at scale. We are currently witnessing the large-scale attempts at altering American's realities by forceful propaganda from foreign countries. I've been told by the moderators here not to call out any specific countries, but Americans and others are reading false text with false attribution to their rural neighbors and they are getting confused. This helped enable a culture of hate and racism that is rising in the US, and this is not a stable or okay thing. Fake video will accelerate that enormously if not combatted - this stuff really matters, especially if your focus in life is community, family, love, people, and real things of that nature.
greglindahl 9y ago
> Putting a tesla in space doesn't matter. Second-guessing a choice of test payload for a new, risky rocket design definitely doesn't matter. Cheaper and better weather and communications satellites, that matters.

cryptoz 9y ago

You have some interesting points, but I want to mention some things where your perspective doesn't make sense to me. I am a tech focused city-dweller for what it matters. > Putting people on the moon matters. Putting a tesla in space doesn't matter. Wait, what? The USA didn't just launch people to the moon in one go. They also hauled up hunks of useless metal first. It's a step. SpaceX is going to be colonizing Mars with new families and new biology and a new chapter in multi-planet life. Do you not think that matters? > Fake videos don't matter. Sure they do, especially at scale. We are currently witnessing the large-scale attempts at altering American's realities by forceful propaganda from foreign countries. I've been told by the moderators here not to call out any specific countries, but Americans and others are reading false text with false attribution to their rural neighbors and they are getting confused. This helped enable a culture of hate and racism that is rising in the US, and this is not a stable or okay thing. Fake video will accelerate that enormously if not combatted - this stuff really matters, especially if your focus in life is community, family, love, people, and real things of that nature.

greglindahl 9y ago

> Putting a tesla in space doesn't matter. Second-guessing a choice of test payload for a new, risky rocket design definitely doesn't matter. Cheaper and better weather and communications satellites, that matters.