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Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]
- newyankee 8y agoAs much brilliant as Vinod Khosla is, i always think about him as the billionare who blocked public beaches
- ronilan 8y agoHe chose his own biography title: “Khosla, Gatekeeper”
- jamesblonde 8y agoThe society that lets you get away with it is also culpable.
- unknownkadath 8y agoNo offense intended, but that's kind of blaming the victim on a whole other level.
- dqpb 8y agoI think blaming the victim is cruel in the case where the victim is powerless to defend themselves. But in the case where the victim simply failed to defend and fight for themselves I think it's important to criticize them.
- unknownkadath 8y agoIn what way have the victims failed to fight for themselves? The beach access issue is kind of a thing all up and down the California coast.
- dqpb 8y agoMy comment was specifically about the "don't blame the victim" thought-terminating-cliche. I'm not up to speed on the specifics of California coast access.
- quxbar 8y agoPretty sure that's what Jack the Ripper said to himself.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 8y agoEven if that were true (it ain't), society isn't "letting him get away with it." It's processing the issue through the legal system, which unfortunately takes time.
- jamesblonde 8y agoI would not say unfortunately, i would say that it has become that way to reflect power interests. I am a surfer so i feel for the affected...
- subway 8y agoWorse than just letting him get away with it, we're still promoting his ideals by giving him a platform. Shame on Vinod, and shame on YC/Sam.
- AlexandrB 8y agoYup. Judging by his recent actions Vinod Khosla believes that you build the future by getting enmeshed in costly litigation with government agencies over access to public property.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- chasing 8y agohttp://davidlansing.com/an-irish-joke/ http://davidlansing.com/an-irish-joke/
- sajid 8y agoThe signal to noise ratio in this video is extremely high.
- davidw 8y agoThat goes for a lot of videos, TBH. Lots of introductions, jokes, uhms, ahs and other junk, and you can't even search them to look for, say, a thing you're interested in.
- adpirz 8y agoThink OP meant lots of signal, ie, not much fluff.
- davidw 8y agoAh, ok. Still, I'd vastly prefer a transcript.
- saurabh20n 8y ago90% of the page at the bottom is the transcript. Right below the audio file is the time annotated transcript as well. Might have been added after you opened it: should recheck.
- WhompingWindows 8y agoThis was the exact reason I stopped listening to NDT's Star Talk. Wayyy too many mediocre jokes, intros, outros, how's it goings, what's ups, wayyy too little science.
- hoaw 8y agoIt is supposed to be like that. It is entertainment made for a broader audience. And it is also fairly "cheap" to make. If you want more science you can buy his books or watch cosmos (a new one is coming this year). Or you can "graduate" and go read more specific material. Someday someone might figure out how to make more specific content for a lot of people, but it mostly hasn't happened yet.
- StreamBright 8y agoI am not sure how relevant the view of these billionaires when: - they did it exactly once - we know from studies that these people are nondeterministicly getting rich[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610395/if-youre-so-smart-why-arent-you-rich-turns-out-its-just-chance/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610395/if-youre-so-smart-...
- toufiqbarhamov 8y agoOne view is that paying close attention to someone, praising their acumen and acting like they know the secrets to the universe, is essentially a kind of sycophantic behavior. Like most such behavior the goal isn’t emulation of behavior to emulate result, but to gain favor. Powerful, successful people like to build mythologies, and have a habit of rewarding people who flatter that myth, and punishing those who don’t. So when a lot of people stand in awe of someone who holds the purse strings to their dreams, it pays to really consider their motives. For the average person buying a “How I Made My First Billion” book, it’s just that they’re unaware of anything, but the myth. Since the myth is being propagated by very smart and successful people, it’s that much more convincing to them. In turn the myth makes getting investment and ‘airtime’ easier, which feeds back into success. The mistake people make is thinking that Fake It Till You Make It ends at success, truthfully it only ramps up then. Edit: This isn’t to say that the likes of Altman, Gates and others are not genuinely intelligent and capable, just that the magnitude of their success isn’t something you can reliably copy, or that beyond their core competence, they have any special insight. Yet the myth tends to extend far beyond that, and I think unjustifiably, although understandably so.
- ryanmercer 8y agoIn regards to that article: >If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance. Someone in the industry, someone with considerable influence, someone active on this very forum, once told me when asked what their secret was "I worry it's been more luck than skill". At the time my immediate thought was "bullshit, you had to have busted your ass but your background also had to have had great influence but hey fine, don't tell me". But as time has passed, much reflection, looking at their peers I now fully believe it. It was largely luck. While the individual had an interesting idea which started their journey towards success, they've had fortunate event/connection after fortunate event/connection that have allowed them to get where they are today. That has allowed them to be doing what they want to do, pursuing what they want to be pursuing, working towards a goal that they want more than anything else. I'd say 10% idea, 20% work ethic, 70% luck. Wish I had some luck (and maybe the ability to pass some hindsight of my personal life back to a much younger me so I'd have gotten a degree, avoided my personal bankruptcy and thus been in a much better position to actually get opportunities but alas).
- thinkcontext 8y agoI'm surprised he's still considered relevant given how spectacularly his cellulosic ethanol companies failed, taking probably hundred of $M's in investor and government money with them. http://fortune.com/kior-vinod-khosla-clean-tech http://fortune.com/kior-vinod-khosla-clean-tech edit: fixed the link
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- CaptainJustin 8y agoThat page seems to be down. Google cache version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Src7CXmCo04J:fortune.com/kior-vinod-khosla-clean-tech/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=za http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Src7CXm...
- jonas21 8y agoWhy? Anyone who makes investments in new technologies can expect some of them to work out poorly.
- thinkcontext 8y agoThis was more than one in a portfolio of investments that didn't work out. He was feted on TED and other venues and hailed as a greentech prophet for making grand pronouncements about how ethanol from wood chips was going to crush oil on a very short timeline. In addition to all the investor money, he secured substantial federal and state money for his projects. But his technology could not do what he promised, see the article talk about misleading statements about yield he talked about publicly vs what was actually happening. And to this day no non-corn ethanol company in the US has been able to be economic even with huge incentives.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
- ProAm 8y agoThis is the public beach lawsuit guy right?
- 1024core 8y agoYes, he's the dick who blocked access to a much beloved public beach. I honestly feel that we should not be giving him a platform. As techies, if we start boycotting this cunt, then maybe he'll learn a lesson that bad behavior has consequences. But, sadly, in our community, $$$ rules. He has the $$$. So he'll get the platform, regardless of how much of an asshole he is. No different than Trump, really.
- rhacker 8y agoYour comment among about 5 others have made a difference. I decided not to watch, and also upvote everyone that mentioned this issue.
- jhayward 8y agoThere are several comments here about Khosla and his efforts to convert public right of way to private property on the California Coast. It's fair to ask, "why is this relevant to a video of his views on the future (tech)?" It's relevant because the beach controversy shows that the future that Kohsla wants to create is inimicable to the future that I want to see. He sees a big-L libertarian future, where the strong eat the weak, wealth is the sole source of power, and the wealthy act with a large degree of impunity. So at best, I would watch with that in mind and have to critique everything he says to pick apart when he is trying to advance that view, vs observations and ideas that are not tied to it. In this case, I haven't bothered. There are others I can listen to for insight.
- iaabtpbtpnn 8y agoStrongly agreed. I don't even think I could work for a startup funded by Khosla Ventures.
- mud_dauber 8y agoAlso strongly agreed.
- q845712 8y agoI logged into my HN account for the first time in months just to upvote and add my agreement
- heyjudy 8y agoWhen capitalists push humanity to the brink of collapse out of primarily short-term self-interest to expand their largess beyond material success in their domains that it cannibalizes public commonwealth and corrupts governments to add to ill-gotten gains, while people are so poor that they camp on highway on-ramps in San Jose, they're plotting their own course to the next Reign of Terror by unfairly gaming government and rigging the system to their own ends, instead of the advancement of humanity. After all: what rational and sane person wants to live in a poor or dystopian country? Why not build up a country with a carbon sequestration moonshot than seek to deregulate in regulatory capture and destroy the commonwealth? To sum up: a person whose goals are solely money by any and all means is therefore a criminal: antisocial and unconcerned with others.
- thrillgore 8y agoI'm not going to give Vinod any thought or consideration until he stops his seizure of public lands.
- 1024core 8y agoMy comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18866778 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18866778 got downvoted and flagged because I called out Khosla's selfish and boorish behavior. Apparently calling a spade a spade doesn't sit well with some of the hive mind here.
- reitzensteinm 8y agoAs somebody that agrees with you on the issue, your comment was down voted (not by me) because it was aggressive and rambling.
- 1024core 8y agoPossibly. But this case really touched a nerve when I heard about it when the whole saga started. Here we are, a community that often cares about the rest of the world; we provide shit-tons of free labor to the world at large; most hackers I know have a good heart; many of us give away products that we could really be charging for; etc. etc. And this guy has absolutely no decency to share and be a good citizen! He's been suing anybody who disagrees with him, throwing his money at lawyers and just dragging the process along. He has benefited from the labors of others over the years (SunOS was based on BSD, for instance). But he continues to be a jerk. BTW: this is not his first rodeo. 20+ years ago (memory is fuzzy, so apologies in advance) there was drought in the Bay Area. There were water use restrictions, and watering your lawns was forbidden/aggressively discouraged. But who in the Valley was the #1 consumer of water, using millions of gallons to water his precious lawns? Vinod Fucking Khosla.
- netvarun 8y agoI think it's a tired meme - just like the 'Stephen (Wolfram) The Braggadocio' meme. It starts getting quite annoying after a while. Especially in the latter case since Stephen blogs quite a bit and lot of his articles do trend on HN. Repeatedly pointing out, hmm, their 'flaws', just detracts from the actual subject matter. And btw, I did enjoy this talk and likewise most of Stephen's blog posts/writings. [Only exception when such a comment would be warranted is when Stephen talks about humility ;)]
- tomlock 8y agoI find it hard to take Altman seriously as a well-reasoned thinker after his comments on political correctness which were intermeshed with him praising China's approach to the topic.
- TACIXAT 8y agoContext on his comments? Edit: http://blog.samaltman.com/e-pur-si-muove http://blog.samaltman.com/e-pur-si-muove I don't see anything awful in here. There are absolutely people in the bay area who wish to silence other opinions. I'm a pretty liberal person and this place is ridiculous.
- tomlock 8y agoThere are literally arms of the government in China that wish to silence other opinions. If Altman feels comfortable in China it is only because he is divorced from the context there.
- oth001 8y agoInteresting how all comments which voice reasonable criticism of Vinod get deleted...
- metildaa 8y agoYCombinator bans people left and right here on Hacker News for even the most tame calling out of VC Techbros for their criminal behavior. Stay safe! The site operators of HN are off the chain, and hate discourse on this genre of topic. Probably has something to do with YCombinator also being a VC.
- oth001 8y agoI'm sure it does. I thought it was an interesting talk nonetheless.
- ilrwbwrkhv 8y agoi have never heard about him. he sounds like those indian gurus and scammers. who says "my great analogy". sam altman is so much clearer in his videos, why is he interviewing this guy?
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- dangero 8y agoThey talk in detail about how at many well known startups, the early employees went on to start their own companies, which indicates that they were good early hires because they were great entrepreneurial thinkers. It seems highly likely to me that the reason so many of the first employees started their own companies later is because they got a great exit and didn't need a regular job after that. In addition the experience of being an early employee at a unicorn startup probably teaches you a lot about how to build something similar again.
- joelbondurant 8y agoParty at Martin's beach when Vinod dies!