5 ms·

It makes me happy to see that people are venturing out and building something that takes longer and has a higher failure rate that web apps/software.

manigandham 8y ago
People have been doing that for a very long time. This isn't new.
icelancer 8y ago
The man who gets the most press in the tech community is trying to launch rockets to Mars and build electric supercars and networks that cost ludicrous amounts of money. Whether you think these ideas are any good or not, people are doing large things in our society. It ain't all web apps.
- djsumdog 8y ago
  He did start with web apps though (PayPal).
  - tim333 8y ago
    Well, zip2 then x.com then PayPal. Also sold some program when he was 12 pre the web. Here's some video of him after the zip2 sale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHKT3yxYvDQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHKT3yxYvDQ
    - SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
      That was adorable. Coincidentally he completely totaled that car on Sand Hill Road with Peter Thiel on a trip to a meeting at Sequoia Capital[0]. [0] https://www.inverse.com/article/26369-elon-musk-peter-thiel-story-mclaren-f1-paypal-tesla https://www.inverse.com/article/26369-elon-musk-peter-thiel-...
- agumonkey 8y ago
  YIL about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_West_Field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_West_Field
boxcardavin 8y ago
Yes, nothing is more depressing than listening to the a16z podcasts where they're discussing the minutiae of well-established b2b saas strategies for capturing long tail revenue. Shit, let's build some robots instead.
- ganzuul 8y ago
  This is why I quit IT to become a machinist. Now seeing how starved manufacturing is for talent, I suspect IT 'easy' money is a huge brain-drain on society.
  - heedspin 8y ago
    The world can use more smart IT individuals. 7 years ago I left silicon valley and moved to Raleigh, NC. It was part of our grand plan to move all the extended family back to the same area. As part of this move I became involved with a couple manufacturing companies. I couldn't help but start helping with their IT set ups. I built some web apps to provide access to information locked up in their horrible ERP/MRP systems. 7 years later and these folks still call me a hero. Some simple web apps made a significant improvement to their productivity. What I did was not rocket science. But it required spending time to understand the business, their workflow, and the bottlenecks. The solutions were simple after all that time was spent. The work ended up being very rewarding. There were no project managers, so I was full stack from the metal to the end user. It was also not bogged down by scaleability / uptime concerns. If something crashes, my user base is something like 30 people. I deploy with an ssh and git pull. Anywho, I hope you get my point. I'd love to help Elon throw someone at Mars and he's my hero on many levels. But your simple IT skills could make you something of a small pond Elon for lots of non silicon valley people.
    - FrojoS 8y ago
      > What I did was not rocket science. Exactly. You don’t need a 4-10 year degree in CS to solve them. However, actual rocket science and other hard engineering disciplines is where educated talent is needed. Yet, the salary and startup opportunities are so much worse, that many mechanical and electrical engineers end up working in IT, consulting etc. You don’t build rockets, airplanes, cars or energy plants for the money

manigandham 8y ago

People have been doing that for a very long time. This isn't new.

icelancer 8y ago

The man who gets the most press in the tech community is trying to launch rockets to Mars and build electric supercars and networks that cost ludicrous amounts of money. Whether you think these ideas are any good or not, people are doing large things in our society. It ain't all web apps.

djsumdog 8y ago
He did start with web apps though (PayPal).
- tim333 8y ago
  Well, zip2 then x.com then PayPal. Also sold some program when he was 12 pre the web. Here's some video of him after the zip2 sale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHKT3yxYvDQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHKT3yxYvDQ
  - SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
    That was adorable. Coincidentally he completely totaled that car on Sand Hill Road with Peter Thiel on a trip to a meeting at Sequoia Capital[0]. [0] https://www.inverse.com/article/26369-elon-musk-peter-thiel-story-mclaren-f1-paypal-tesla https://www.inverse.com/article/26369-elon-musk-peter-thiel-...
agumonkey 8y ago
YIL about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_West_Field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_West_Field

boxcardavin 8y ago

Yes, nothing is more depressing than listening to the a16z podcasts where they're discussing the minutiae of well-established b2b saas strategies for capturing long tail revenue. Shit, let's build some robots instead.

ganzuul 8y ago
This is why I quit IT to become a machinist. Now seeing how starved manufacturing is for talent, I suspect IT 'easy' money is a huge brain-drain on society.
- heedspin 8y ago
  The world can use more smart IT individuals. 7 years ago I left silicon valley and moved to Raleigh, NC. It was part of our grand plan to move all the extended family back to the same area. As part of this move I became involved with a couple manufacturing companies. I couldn't help but start helping with their IT set ups. I built some web apps to provide access to information locked up in their horrible ERP/MRP systems. 7 years later and these folks still call me a hero. Some simple web apps made a significant improvement to their productivity. What I did was not rocket science. But it required spending time to understand the business, their workflow, and the bottlenecks. The solutions were simple after all that time was spent. The work ended up being very rewarding. There were no project managers, so I was full stack from the metal to the end user. It was also not bogged down by scaleability / uptime concerns. If something crashes, my user base is something like 30 people. I deploy with an ssh and git pull. Anywho, I hope you get my point. I'd love to help Elon throw someone at Mars and he's my hero on many levels. But your simple IT skills could make you something of a small pond Elon for lots of non silicon valley people.
  - FrojoS 8y ago
    > What I did was not rocket science. Exactly. You don’t need a 4-10 year degree in CS to solve them. However, actual rocket science and other hard engineering disciplines is where educated talent is needed. Yet, the salary and startup opportunities are so much worse, that many mechanical and electrical engineers end up working in IT, consulting etc. You don’t build rockets, airplanes, cars or energy plants for the money