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If you want to try working on unfashionable problems, one of the best places to look is fields that people think have already been fully explored: essays, Lisp,

by lquist 7y ago

If you want to try working on unfashionable problems, one of the best places to look is fields that people think have already been fully explored: essays, Lisp, venture funding – you may notice a pattern here. Do people really think the fields of essays, LISP or venture funding are fully explored?

gkoberger 7y ago
I think so? They’re all expanding, of course... but none have really changed that much over the past few decades. There’s a ton more VCs than there were a decade ago, but has it really changed as a field? People tweak the formula a bit, but we haven’t seen a shift in the same way YC shifted things. To a lesser extent, pg was one of the first “tech essayists” (now it’s a genre, http://waitwho.is http://waitwho.is). I don’t think pg is saying they’re being ignored, but rather that there’s a sense of “yup we figured it out, let’s just iterate slowly on it”. (I will say I can think of much better examples, but I don’t blame pg for picking the three examples that sum up his entire career. He picked those three things when nobody else cared.)
- leppr 7y ago
  Cryptocurrency ICOs showed venture funding could be innovated on way more fundamentally than "tweaking a formula". The simple ICO model may arguably have been largely misused, but it kickstarted a lot of promising research and experimentation[1]. [1]: e.g. https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/10/24/gitcoin.html https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/10/24/gitcoin.html, https://www.zfnd.org/blog/dev-fund-guidance-and-timeline https://www.zfnd.org/blog/dev-fund-guidance-and-timeline
travisjungroth 7y ago
Mmm, no. Which is why I really don’t get this post. The advice seems to boil down to something like : “don’t work on something fashionable! Do something like VC funding with a twist, or your own take on essays!” (which seems to be very fashionable).
- Lammy 7y ago
  He's praising himself. Those are three areas _he_ explored.
jdminhbg 7y ago
I think the meaning is that they were at one time, namely, the time he got started on them.
diehunde 7y ago
I was wondering the same. I get the message from the post but I don't think the examples are good.

by lquist 7y ago

gkoberger 7y ago

I think so? They’re all expanding, of course... but none have really changed that much over the past few decades. There’s a ton more VCs than there were a decade ago, but has it really changed as a field? People tweak the formula a bit, but we haven’t seen a shift in the same way YC shifted things. To a lesser extent, pg was one of the first “tech essayists” (now it’s a genre, http://waitwho.is http://waitwho.is). I don’t think pg is saying they’re being ignored, but rather that there’s a sense of “yup we figured it out, let’s just iterate slowly on it”. (I will say I can think of much better examples, but I don’t blame pg for picking the three examples that sum up his entire career. He picked those three things when nobody else cared.)

leppr 7y ago
Cryptocurrency ICOs showed venture funding could be innovated on way more fundamentally than "tweaking a formula". The simple ICO model may arguably have been largely misused, but it kickstarted a lot of promising research and experimentation[1]. [1]: e.g. https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/10/24/gitcoin.html https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/10/24/gitcoin.html, https://www.zfnd.org/blog/dev-fund-guidance-and-timeline https://www.zfnd.org/blog/dev-fund-guidance-and-timeline

travisjungroth 7y ago

Mmm, no. Which is why I really don’t get this post. The advice seems to boil down to something like : “don’t work on something fashionable! Do something like VC funding with a twist, or your own take on essays!” (which seems to be very fashionable).

Lammy 7y ago
He's praising himself. Those are three areas _he_ explored.

jdminhbg 7y ago

I think the meaning is that they were at one time, namely, the time he got started on them.

diehunde 7y ago

I was wondering the same. I get the message from the post but I don't think the examples are good.