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Flipping the coin on survivor-ship bias here, I worked at a start up for 4 years that was going to "change the world". Came out with experience in all sorts of

Flipping the coin on survivor-ship bias here, I worked at a start up for 4 years that was going to "change the world". Came out with experience in all sorts of problems solved, projects implemented, customers reached, hell I even have some equity(not that it's worth much). I was young and wanted to work on problems I thought would have high impact, shit they did have large impact. Yet when I left finally as a jack of all and a master of none. I essentially had to start completely over.

thaumasiotes 7y ago
> I was young and wanted to work on problems I thought would have high impact, shit they did have large impact. I read something to the effect that post-WWII, the British government decided the future was in three technologies: nuclear power, aviation, and computers. So they set out to make sure the UK took its rightful place as master of the future, slanting policy heavily towards those ideas. And wow, they were three for three on predictions. But somehow the place of the UK in those technologies isn't quite what they would have hoped.
- pjc50 7y ago
  I'd be interested in seeing where you read that, because they absolutely failed to do anything useful about it almost all of the time. And at the expense of the rocket program too.
  - Tehdasi 7y ago
    Dunno about the government, but ARM and Rolls Royce have certainly done very well in their given fields. Curiously they are parts suppliers, not whole product manufacturers.
    - pjc50 7y ago
      RR are only alive because they're strategically important enough to warrant being bailed out several times. They were nationalised in the 70s, and looks like they're in trouble again: https://bdaily.co.uk/articles/2018/06/14/government-has-to-intervene-loss-making-rolls-royce-to-slash-4600-jobs https://bdaily.co.uk/articles/2018/06/14/government-has-to-i... ARM are one of the few fully homegrown tech success stories, along with Racal/Vodafone. Unfortunately the UK has a history of "technologically successful but economically unviable" projects, and isn't able to take advantage of the startup logic where investors cover the losses.

thaumasiotes 7y ago

> I was young and wanted to work on problems I thought would have high impact, shit they did have large impact. I read something to the effect that post-WWII, the British government decided the future was in three technologies: nuclear power, aviation, and computers. So they set out to make sure the UK took its rightful place as master of the future, slanting policy heavily towards those ideas. And wow, they were three for three on predictions. But somehow the place of the UK in those technologies isn't quite what they would have hoped.

pjc50 7y ago
I'd be interested in seeing where you read that, because they absolutely failed to do anything useful about it almost all of the time. And at the expense of the rocket program too.
- Tehdasi 7y ago
  Dunno about the government, but ARM and Rolls Royce have certainly done very well in their given fields. Curiously they are parts suppliers, not whole product manufacturers.
  - pjc50 7y ago
    RR are only alive because they're strategically important enough to warrant being bailed out several times. They were nationalised in the 70s, and looks like they're in trouble again: https://bdaily.co.uk/articles/2018/06/14/government-has-to-intervene-loss-making-rolls-royce-to-slash-4600-jobs https://bdaily.co.uk/articles/2018/06/14/government-has-to-i... ARM are one of the few fully homegrown tech success stories, along with Racal/Vodafone. Unfortunately the UK has a history of "technologically successful but economically unviable" projects, and isn't able to take advantage of the startup logic where investors cover the losses.