5 ms·

An Open Challenge to Silicon Valley

35 points by bosshog 18y ago

pg 18y ago
Food prices are skyrocketing. The financial system is melting down. Energy, of course, is more and more toxic, and costly. These are the problems we're being challenged to solve? The first two appear to be random fluctuations-- possibly very bad ones, but due largely to speculation and chance. The third is something investors and founders are working on energetically right now.
- ovi256 18y ago
  The problems are clear though: create something that will make the variations you speak of (whatever their causes) rarer, slower and of lower magnitude. We have done it before (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Revolution) and we will do it time and time again, hopefully. The solutions, as usual, are hard to see. But if we do not work on the big problems, the hard problems, do we do valuable work?
- wumi 18y ago
  "So here's my challenge. If you're a revolutionary, then be one: put your money where your mouth is, and fix a big problem that changes the world for the better - if you really have the courage, the purpose, and the vision, that is." isn't that essentially saying: "be good"?
  - bosshog 18y ago
    He was the original "be good" writer, 2004-2008 B.P (Before Paul) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=site+bubblegeneration.com+evil&btnG=Search http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=site+b... http://www.bubblegeneration.com/2008/03/edge-principles-friendfeed-edition.cfm http://www.bubblegeneration.com/2008/03/edge-principles-frie...
  - maxwell 18y ago
    Or, "make something people need."
- startingup 18y ago
  They are not random fluctuations. Federal Reserve policy had a lot to do with both food prices & the financial system. Read libertarian economic literature to understand how the US and world economy have been fundamentally warped by the credit bubble unleashed by the Fed - LTCM debacle led to Nasdaq bubble, fighting the Nasdaq bust led to the housing bubble and so on. Even the start-up flip-it mindset in the valley has roots similar to the housing flip-it mindset everywhere.
Tichy 18y ago
"That is, when they're not too busy partying." Stopped reading there, that is just stupid. So people are supposed to feel guilty because they party now? My suggestion: stop breathing, that way you can save Co2 output of your country and aid the developing countries who will be the first victims of the climate change. Sorry that I can't express my anger in a more sophisticated way. I just think contrasting world problems with party pics is an incredibly cheap shot.
- stcredzero 18y ago
  What you're objecting to is a straw man. No one is requesting that you should become a monk. But maybe just a little more energy and resources directed towards global problems might be a more balanced position. There is even money to be earned in doing so. (The Grameen Bank is a good example. So is Dean Kamen's new distiller.) See Bjorn Lomborg's Ted Talk on cost/benefit in solving global problems! http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/62 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/62 And lastly, as Abbie Hoffman used to say: if someone ever says something to get your goat, they struck gold!
  - davidw 18y ago
    I read the article, but came away with a sense of "go fix big problems" and very little sense of what sort of thing he thinks people ought to be doing besides > rebuilding a flawed, false global economy: one which actively transfers wealth from the poor to the rich, from the sick to the healthy, from productivity to cronyism. which, frankly, sounds like a little bit more than I can handle at the moment. It also sounds "hand wavy" - it would help if he specified some details. In terms of actual poor people... it seems to me that the Chinese, for instance, are actually getting a lot wealthier these days. But that's happening due to their own opening up, and global trade, not because of some entrepreneur in SV.
    - stcredzero 18y ago
      Larry Brilliant talks about a web crawler constructed with modest resources that could find evidence of emerging pandemics faster than WHO. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/58 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/58 So there are things that us hackers could do. Another is a Java project for a low cost medical records database usable by hospitals in the 3rd world.
stcredzero 18y ago
A good Ted Talk to look at concerning this is Bjorn Lomborg's talk on cost/benefit and global priorities: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/62 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/62 It turns out there's a huge cost/benefit ratio to solving things like access to clean water, malnutrition, and disease. The cost of tackling problems like this is just a fraction of doing things like adopting the Kyoto protocol, and the potential for increasing the economic potential of many countries is very high.
subwindow 18y ago
The thing here is that big, immediate and obvious problems are almost never solved in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is good at two things: 1) Solving small problems 2) Solving big, lingering problems that most people don't even realize are problems. I work for a medical device startup that is hard at work trying to solve big, immediate and obvious problems (heart failure, hypertension) that kill millions of people a year. We're in Atlanta, not SV. Other medical device companies are in Boston, L.A., or even Minneapolis. None of them are in SV. I wonder why. SV really only does three startup industries well: Software, Computer Hardware, and Green tech. And even the third is pushing it. If you're looking for innovation outside of those three areas, you should look outside of Silicon Valley.
- menloparkbum 18y ago
  This is a great observation. In regards to point 2, a former coworker put it slightly differently: "I don't think trying to solve a problem is the best way to win big. You want to build something that CREATES problems nobody ever had before."
- neilc 18y ago
  On the contrary, there are quite a few medical device companies in Silicon Valley -- the other day, I was talking to a VC whose sole focus is on investing in medical devices, and he is located in the Valley for a reason. More broadly, there are also a lot of biotech startups in the Valley.
justindz 18y ago
If only widgets were edible.
1gor 18y ago
>rebuilding a flawed, false global economy: one which actively transfers wealth from the poor to the rich, from the sick to the healthy This is self-righteous 'leftist' moralizing of the worst kind. The global economy is not flawed. It is the way it is. Human interests, interaction, history and habits are stronger than any amateur Marxist can imagine. You think world is unfair? Probably. However, the pathetic attempts to seek high moral ground are futile. You have seen how One Laptop Per Child faired in real life. You should also remember that there are tons and tons of used computer equipment and especially mobile phones imported into Africa and other poor countries every day. This used equipment is imported for money and put to use immediately. Some of this technology is affecting how farmers in distant African villages are managing their harvest sales, for example. This is globalisation. It may sound humiliating (used clothes, used phones etc) but it is wonderful, vibrant, living global economic organism which will show some interesting emergent qualities in our lifetime. Who would imagine South East Asia growing the way it does today? You may see some surprises from Africa too. And no, it would be not because some guilt-ridden guy has shown us, the masses, what to do. Some of the worst damage to third world economies are done by Western donors. So, basically, my advice to the author: stop preaching the need to change this cruel world and go make something that people want to buy.
- startingup 18y ago
  I am a libertarian capitalist, and I agree there has been a government-inspired (Fed-inspired, really) transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Let's say you are a smart hacker and I offer you this "deal": you put in $15K, I will lend you $150-300K at very low interest rates, which you can invest as you see fit. The gains (minus the low interest paid) are yours, and in the meantime you can also charge me reasonable expenses. If you fail, you get to walk away, with no personal liability. Will you take this deal? That was the deal private equity, hedge funds got from the Fed & the banks (aided and abetted by the Fed). In good years, they took great money home. In bad times, many of them go bust, with no personal consequence to themselves. End result: societal transfer of wealth, from the poor/middle-class to the wealthy. This is not a consequence of a free market. The original sin is the easy credit, supplied to the financially well-connected.
mjnaus 18y ago
People moaning "I am just a tiny hacker" or "You should be directing this at people with money" are either lacking vision or are just not interested in making the world a better place but prefer chasing the mighty dollar. Which in it itself is fine, but then come out and be honest about it. There are tons of ways even individual hackers can put their skills to use while solving real world problems. No one is expecting you to solve the problems of world hunger or poverty but bitching "I can't" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Have a look at Kiva (kiva.org) for example. They did have a vision and they are doing a pretty damn good job making the world a better place by working on a real-world problem instead of finding a new and "revolutionary" way to figure out what your friends are doing right now. Gross of the people in the valley are probably to busy liking themselves and praising their good-for-nothing ideas to actually sit down and look at the world in a bit wider perspective. The world is bigger then the sub-reality that is Silicon Valley.
patrickg-zill 18y ago
Are we really "Dancing on the precipice of economic cataclysm" ?
- colortone 18y ago
  Yes Read the last 6 mos of Bubblegeneration for more details
jaybe 18y ago
well, for a start have a look here: www.betterplace.org and if you like it, register and give me your feedback at jbe (at) betterplace.org

35 points by bosshog 18y ago

pg 18y ago

Food prices are skyrocketing. The financial system is melting down. Energy, of course, is more and more toxic, and costly. These are the problems we're being challenged to solve? The first two appear to be random fluctuations-- possibly very bad ones, but due largely to speculation and chance. The third is something investors and founders are working on energetically right now.

ovi256 18y ago
The problems are clear though: create something that will make the variations you speak of (whatever their causes) rarer, slower and of lower magnitude. We have done it before (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Revolution) and we will do it time and time again, hopefully. The solutions, as usual, are hard to see. But if we do not work on the big problems, the hard problems, do we do valuable work?
wumi 18y ago
"So here's my challenge. If you're a revolutionary, then be one: put your money where your mouth is, and fix a big problem that changes the world for the better - if you really have the courage, the purpose, and the vision, that is." isn't that essentially saying: "be good"?
- bosshog 18y ago
  He was the original "be good" writer, 2004-2008 B.P (Before Paul) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=site+bubblegeneration.com+evil&btnG=Search http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=site+b... http://www.bubblegeneration.com/2008/03/edge-principles-friendfeed-edition.cfm http://www.bubblegeneration.com/2008/03/edge-principles-frie...
- maxwell 18y ago
  Or, "make something people need."
startingup 18y ago
They are not random fluctuations. Federal Reserve policy had a lot to do with both food prices & the financial system. Read libertarian economic literature to understand how the US and world economy have been fundamentally warped by the credit bubble unleashed by the Fed - LTCM debacle led to Nasdaq bubble, fighting the Nasdaq bust led to the housing bubble and so on. Even the start-up flip-it mindset in the valley has roots similar to the housing flip-it mindset everywhere.

Tichy 18y ago

"That is, when they're not too busy partying." Stopped reading there, that is just stupid. So people are supposed to feel guilty because they party now? My suggestion: stop breathing, that way you can save Co2 output of your country and aid the developing countries who will be the first victims of the climate change. Sorry that I can't express my anger in a more sophisticated way. I just think contrasting world problems with party pics is an incredibly cheap shot.

stcredzero 18y ago
What you're objecting to is a straw man. No one is requesting that you should become a monk. But maybe just a little more energy and resources directed towards global problems might be a more balanced position. There is even money to be earned in doing so. (The Grameen Bank is a good example. So is Dean Kamen's new distiller.) See Bjorn Lomborg's Ted Talk on cost/benefit in solving global problems! http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/62 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/62 And lastly, as Abbie Hoffman used to say: if someone ever says something to get your goat, they struck gold!
- davidw 18y ago
  I read the article, but came away with a sense of "go fix big problems" and very little sense of what sort of thing he thinks people ought to be doing besides > rebuilding a flawed, false global economy: one which actively transfers wealth from the poor to the rich, from the sick to the healthy, from productivity to cronyism. which, frankly, sounds like a little bit more than I can handle at the moment. It also sounds "hand wavy" - it would help if he specified some details. In terms of actual poor people... it seems to me that the Chinese, for instance, are actually getting a lot wealthier these days. But that's happening due to their own opening up, and global trade, not because of some entrepreneur in SV.
  - stcredzero 18y ago
    Larry Brilliant talks about a web crawler constructed with modest resources that could find evidence of emerging pandemics faster than WHO. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/58 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/58 So there are things that us hackers could do. Another is a Java project for a low cost medical records database usable by hospitals in the 3rd world.

stcredzero 18y ago

A good Ted Talk to look at concerning this is Bjorn Lomborg's talk on cost/benefit and global priorities: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/62 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/62 It turns out there's a huge cost/benefit ratio to solving things like access to clean water, malnutrition, and disease. The cost of tackling problems like this is just a fraction of doing things like adopting the Kyoto protocol, and the potential for increasing the economic potential of many countries is very high.

subwindow 18y ago

The thing here is that big, immediate and obvious problems are almost never solved in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is good at two things: 1) Solving small problems 2) Solving big, lingering problems that most people don't even realize are problems. I work for a medical device startup that is hard at work trying to solve big, immediate and obvious problems (heart failure, hypertension) that kill millions of people a year. We're in Atlanta, not SV. Other medical device companies are in Boston, L.A., or even Minneapolis. None of them are in SV. I wonder why. SV really only does three startup industries well: Software, Computer Hardware, and Green tech. And even the third is pushing it. If you're looking for innovation outside of those three areas, you should look outside of Silicon Valley.

menloparkbum 18y ago
This is a great observation. In regards to point 2, a former coworker put it slightly differently: "I don't think trying to solve a problem is the best way to win big. You want to build something that CREATES problems nobody ever had before."
neilc 18y ago
On the contrary, there are quite a few medical device companies in Silicon Valley -- the other day, I was talking to a VC whose sole focus is on investing in medical devices, and he is located in the Valley for a reason. More broadly, there are also a lot of biotech startups in the Valley.

justindz 18y ago

If only widgets were edible.

1gor 18y ago

>rebuilding a flawed, false global economy: one which actively transfers wealth from the poor to the rich, from the sick to the healthy This is self-righteous 'leftist' moralizing of the worst kind. The global economy is not flawed. It is the way it is. Human interests, interaction, history and habits are stronger than any amateur Marxist can imagine. You think world is unfair? Probably. However, the pathetic attempts to seek high moral ground are futile. You have seen how One Laptop Per Child faired in real life. You should also remember that there are tons and tons of used computer equipment and especially mobile phones imported into Africa and other poor countries every day. This used equipment is imported for money and put to use immediately. Some of this technology is affecting how farmers in distant African villages are managing their harvest sales, for example. This is globalisation. It may sound humiliating (used clothes, used phones etc) but it is wonderful, vibrant, living global economic organism which will show some interesting emergent qualities in our lifetime. Who would imagine South East Asia growing the way it does today? You may see some surprises from Africa too. And no, it would be not because some guilt-ridden guy has shown us, the masses, what to do. Some of the worst damage to third world economies are done by Western donors. So, basically, my advice to the author: stop preaching the need to change this cruel world and go make something that people want to buy.

startingup 18y ago
I am a libertarian capitalist, and I agree there has been a government-inspired (Fed-inspired, really) transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Let's say you are a smart hacker and I offer you this "deal": you put in $15K, I will lend you $150-300K at very low interest rates, which you can invest as you see fit. The gains (minus the low interest paid) are yours, and in the meantime you can also charge me reasonable expenses. If you fail, you get to walk away, with no personal liability. Will you take this deal? That was the deal private equity, hedge funds got from the Fed & the banks (aided and abetted by the Fed). In good years, they took great money home. In bad times, many of them go bust, with no personal consequence to themselves. End result: societal transfer of wealth, from the poor/middle-class to the wealthy. This is not a consequence of a free market. The original sin is the easy credit, supplied to the financially well-connected.

mjnaus 18y ago

People moaning "I am just a tiny hacker" or "You should be directing this at people with money" are either lacking vision or are just not interested in making the world a better place but prefer chasing the mighty dollar. Which in it itself is fine, but then come out and be honest about it. There are tons of ways even individual hackers can put their skills to use while solving real world problems. No one is expecting you to solve the problems of world hunger or poverty but bitching "I can't" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Have a look at Kiva (kiva.org) for example. They did have a vision and they are doing a pretty damn good job making the world a better place by working on a real-world problem instead of finding a new and "revolutionary" way to figure out what your friends are doing right now. Gross of the people in the valley are probably to busy liking themselves and praising their good-for-nothing ideas to actually sit down and look at the world in a bit wider perspective. The world is bigger then the sub-reality that is Silicon Valley.

patrickg-zill 18y ago

Are we really "Dancing on the precipice of economic cataclysm" ?

colortone 18y ago
Yes Read the last 6 mos of Bubblegeneration for more details

jaybe 18y ago

well, for a start have a look here: www.betterplace.org and if you like it, register and give me your feedback at jbe (at) betterplace.org