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I'd add that these successes only happen in markets that are so stagnant and moribund that they're easy to disrupt. Hotel and especially taxis strike me as thos

• huffmsa 6y ago
  Correct. Taxi logistics had been stagnant for a long time. Human dispatchers and operators. Farming is constantly improving yields and optimizing. It might look stagnant to outsiders but it's a meat grinder. In one of my college classes, all of the "business" majors looked down on the farm kid who'd show up to class with blood on his boots during hunting season. Then he'd give presentation after presentation / example of how his farm is using GPS coordinated UAVs to survey the crops and drive the tractors, and all sorts of other technology deployments that the kids in boat shoes had zero comprehension of.
  • reaperducer 6y ago
    Taxi logistics had been stagnant for a long time. Human dispatchers and operators. Taxis in Chicago had an app even before Uber and Lyft. I think it was called Halo, or something like that.
• freeopinion 6y ago
  I don't disagree with your comment in general. But, just like everywhere else, ag is a very wide umbrella. There are niches which are ripe. For instance, it is telling that you can drill deep into the earth, pump a liquid to the surface, process it, transport it a significant distance to an expensive port, pump it into giant floating tankers, sail those around the world, suck the payload back out and pipe it to additional processing plants, pipe it across a continent, refine it into relatively finished product, pipe it hundreds of more miles to a depot, pump it into tankers, transport it to underground tanks, then pump it back up to sell to customers. You can imagine how much a product would cost per gallon. Then, as a customer, walk inside to pay for the product you just pumped and snag a gallon of milk. Guess which gallon is more expensive? Put the milk back on the shelf and drive to your neighbour's house. Walk around to the back porch where they sell their milk out of an old fridge. Um, no, they don't sell it. That would be illegal. They just happen to have a fridge full of milk that people keep stealing. But the thieves have a conscience. They keep stuffing money into the tin can next to the fridge. Because in the U.S. it is legal to sell a product with a big label that says, "WARNING: THIS PRODUCT WILL KILL YOU." Unless that product is milk. Plenty of people have figured out how to sell milk cheaper than gasoline. But they are restricted by regulation. You may well agree with the protections those regulations provide. But it might also look to you like the same problem as taxi cartels.
  • a_c_s 6y ago
    Right, but that isn't a conspiracy but rather because raw milk is risky: research says 1 in 6 people who drink it get sick, and of those who do 20% had serious complications. https://www.livescience.com/41883-raw-milk-1-in-6-get-sick.html https://www.livescience.com/41883-raw-milk-1-in-6-get-sick.h...
    • mpfundstein 6y ago
      right. we all know how "reliable" those studies are...
    • freeopinion 6y ago
      As opposed to, say, cigarettes? Which are legal. Your link does not actually support your claim that 1 in 6 people who drink raw milk get sick from drinking the milk. If anything, it indicates that only 1 in 6 drinkers get sick at all. There doesn't seem to be a control group (or any real kind of science here), but if 1 in 3 people who don't drink raw milk get sick this might merit some follow-up studies. Perhaps raw milk lowers your risk of illness. It would be silly to make a statement either way from the information contained in your link.
  • reaperducer 6y ago
    Guess which gallon is more expensive? Around here, they're about the same. So I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
    • thu2111 6y ago
      Really? His point is that milking cows is easier than oil extraction and refining.
      • freeopinion 6y ago
        Cows are not without their own costs. But it does seem that it might just be possible to find some room for disruption here.