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Matt Levine's comments on this yesterday [1] are comic genius: Presumably many local pizzeria owners have never heard of Masayoshi Son; presumably many more ju

Matt Levine's comments on this yesterday [1] are comic genius: Presumably many local pizzeria owners have never heard of Masayoshi Son; presumably many more just would never have thought “oh we’re actually a pizza tech company and we need hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital funding to scale.” But if you have the proper mindset, if you believe in yourself, if you are not a guy opening a pizza place but a founder who previously sold a tech company, if you hire a strategic and retail consultant, if you test out various combinations of “[giant tech company] of [broad category including pizza]” for the pitch, if you call your pizzeria “the Gigaranch” or “the Pizzaplex” rather than “Al’s Pizza & Subs,” and sure sure sure yes fine if you employ some robots to careen around town sloshing cheese around trucks, then maybe you can be the pizza proprietor to rake in Masayoshi Son’s millions. You craft a pitch calculated to convince Masayoshi Son that your pizza delivery business will change the world. You meet with Masayoshi Son. He convinces you that you will change the world. Now you are all believers, all in it together. He hands you piles of money. You go home and weep to your friends, “I am going to change the world.” The friends are like “wait what with the pizzas?” But it is too late for skepticism, you have the money, the robots are in the trucks, they are fanning out across town, the cheese is everywhere, they cannot turn back. [1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-14/robot-pizza-trucks-hit-some-bumps https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-14/robot-...

Aqueous 7y ago
this is one of those moments where i really, really feel like we are all characters living in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash
- ISL 7y ago
  It might be time for the Hiro we need. Still hands-down my favorite first-chapter of a book.
- frikk 7y ago
  It's truly too on the nose.
- pstuart 7y ago
  It's been years, but this prompts me to re-read it. Thanks!
- abhgh 7y ago
  Was going to just say this!
- snovv_crash 7y ago
  Pizza reference and all. That book (along with a lot of his other writing) has really influenced the way I see group social dynamics, and the way technology influences them.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Boston Dynamics’ Spot is even pretty darn close to Rat Things (minus the onboard nuclear reactor). Quite the timeline.
- xiphias2 7y ago
  Domino's pizza was one of the fastest growing big companies in the world with a 30 minutes guarantee. It's quite similar to the pizza chain in Snow Crash actually. I would say Snow Crash predicted it before it became so successful.
  - teachrdan 7y ago
    I think you may have it backwards. Domino's was well known for their 30-minute guarantee when Snow Crash was written in 1992. Indeed, Domino's was in the midst of a lawsuit regarding it while the book was being written; it resulted in a $78 million verdict against Domino's. [0] I give Stephenson credit for taking that guarantee to its logical extreme. And while I love the book, it's funny how basically none of the predictions in it came true. No computers that project images on eyeballs, no 'poon guns, no losers walking around scanning retinas with backpack-mounted lasers, and book features working payphone booths! 0. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/22/business/domino-s-ends-fast-pizza-pledge-after-big-award-to-crash-victim.html https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/22/business/domino-s-ends-fa...
    - ansible 7y ago
      > No computers that project images on eyeballs... Actually, we have something close to that now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiltfive/holographic-tabletop-gaming https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiltfive/holographic-ta... It doesn't use lasers though. The tech is basically working, and they're ramping up to production this year. And no, you can't just walk around arbitrarily, but you couldn't do that in the book either (you could walk out of range). Also, Stephenson didn't worry about just turning your back to the laser projector...
Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 7y ago
The quote really understates the sheer insanity of this all... Alex Garden cynically constructed a narrative for Masa Son that he [Garden] would change the world, and at the end of the meeting, _Son_ was the one convincing Garden that he’d change the world??!
- koolba 7y ago
  That’s pretty much the plot of the movie Inception.
nordsieck 7y ago
In hindsight, many failures seem ridiculous. But they're ridiculous in part because they failed. You could have written basically the same thing about Starbucks if it had failed. But it didn't. It went on to become one of the great success stories of the modern era.
- dcolkitt 7y ago
  I'm always reminded of how the founder of FedEx got a C+ on his project when he presented the idea for the company in his business school class.
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    He also saved the company by betting the last of the company reserves at a casino when they were near insolvency during the early days.
    - reitzensteinm 7y ago
      Someone claiming to be an early employee that wrote the first scheduling software showed up here a few years ago and said that story is BS, FWIW.
      - toomuchtodo 7y ago
        /u/graycat, although I’m unable to find any reference that the story is inaccurate from a quick HN and Google search. If you find it, feel free to reply with a link to correct me. Sidenote: epic thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9281466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9281466
        reitzensteinm 7y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5405903 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5405903
onetimemanytime 7y ago
Masayoshi Son has way too much money to handle. Fun Fact: He lost EVERY investment in the last bust, save for getting lucky with Alibaba.
0898 7y ago
He’s a really unusual blend of journalist and comic, isn’t he.

Aqueous 7y ago

this is one of those moments where i really, really feel like we are all characters living in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash

ISL 7y ago
It might be time for the Hiro we need. Still hands-down my favorite first-chapter of a book.
frikk 7y ago
It's truly too on the nose.
pstuart 7y ago
It's been years, but this prompts me to re-read it. Thanks!
abhgh 7y ago
Was going to just say this!
snovv_crash 7y ago
Pizza reference and all. That book (along with a lot of his other writing) has really influenced the way I see group social dynamics, and the way technology influences them.
toomuchtodo 7y ago
Boston Dynamics’ Spot is even pretty darn close to Rat Things (minus the onboard nuclear reactor). Quite the timeline.
xiphias2 7y ago
Domino's pizza was one of the fastest growing big companies in the world with a 30 minutes guarantee. It's quite similar to the pizza chain in Snow Crash actually. I would say Snow Crash predicted it before it became so successful.
- teachrdan 7y ago
  I think you may have it backwards. Domino's was well known for their 30-minute guarantee when Snow Crash was written in 1992. Indeed, Domino's was in the midst of a lawsuit regarding it while the book was being written; it resulted in a $78 million verdict against Domino's. [0] I give Stephenson credit for taking that guarantee to its logical extreme. And while I love the book, it's funny how basically none of the predictions in it came true. No computers that project images on eyeballs, no 'poon guns, no losers walking around scanning retinas with backpack-mounted lasers, and book features working payphone booths! 0. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/22/business/domino-s-ends-fast-pizza-pledge-after-big-award-to-crash-victim.html https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/22/business/domino-s-ends-fa...
  - ansible 7y ago
    > No computers that project images on eyeballs... Actually, we have something close to that now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiltfive/holographic-tabletop-gaming https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiltfive/holographic-ta... It doesn't use lasers though. The tech is basically working, and they're ramping up to production this year. And no, you can't just walk around arbitrarily, but you couldn't do that in the book either (you could walk out of range). Also, Stephenson didn't worry about just turning your back to the laser projector...

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 7y ago

The quote really understates the sheer insanity of this all... Alex Garden cynically constructed a narrative for Masa Son that he [Garden] would change the world, and at the end of the meeting, _Son_ was the one convincing Garden that he’d change the world??!

koolba 7y ago
That’s pretty much the plot of the movie Inception.

nordsieck 7y ago

In hindsight, many failures seem ridiculous. But they're ridiculous in part because they failed. You could have written basically the same thing about Starbucks if it had failed. But it didn't. It went on to become one of the great success stories of the modern era.

dcolkitt 7y ago
I'm always reminded of how the founder of FedEx got a C+ on his project when he presented the idea for the company in his business school class.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  He also saved the company by betting the last of the company reserves at a casino when they were near insolvency during the early days.
  - reitzensteinm 7y ago
    Someone claiming to be an early employee that wrote the first scheduling software showed up here a few years ago and said that story is BS, FWIW.
    - toomuchtodo 7y ago
      /u/graycat, although I’m unable to find any reference that the story is inaccurate from a quick HN and Google search. If you find it, feel free to reply with a link to correct me. Sidenote: epic thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9281466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9281466
      - reitzensteinm 7y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5405903 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5405903

onetimemanytime 7y ago

Masayoshi Son has way too much money to handle. Fun Fact: He lost EVERY investment in the last bust, save for getting lucky with Alibaba.

0898 7y ago

He’s a really unusual blend of journalist and comic, isn’t he.