5 ms·

Inequality and the Sergey Brin Effect

33 points by prakash 18y ago

zandorg 18y ago
I have read most it, so I hope I'm accurate as to its meaning. But Sergey Brin is an outlier, because as an immigrant he started a tech company. The only other example of this I can think of, is Max Levchin of Paypal, etc. I don't see a guy with a lemonade truck as being as profitable as Sergey. Another point is, those lemonade trucks will be expenses, and most of the lemonade profits will go to those loan costs. Sergey started off with a low-spend company.
- 13ren 18y ago
  Andy Grove
- mhartl 18y ago
  They picked Brin because he is famous, but he's meant to represent all winning "players" (those who play in economic tournaments with winner-take-most outcomes), not just those who become billionaires.
- ojbyrne 18y ago
  I'm actually another example of an immigrant founding a tech company (though I've moved and traveled so much I have a hard time thinking of myself as an immigrant as opposed to a "world citizen"). I'm an immigrant to Canada, and eventually (and temporarily) an immigrant to the US. My non-immigrant partners decided to push me out and have since demonstrated their complete lack of creativity and drive. Though they're great at manipulation.
  - nihilocrat 18y ago
    I'd argue that you have a leg up being an immigrant. When American tech workers think of "immigrant" it is very probable they interpret that as "some guy who is better than me, works longer hours, requires less pay, and has no capacity for laziness or stupidity thanks to his brainy robot genes, who is going to steal my job". Americans, on average, are honestly probably lazier, less educated, and demand higher pay than their foreign-born counterparts, but I am pulling that out of my ass so feel free to cry foul on me.
    - ojbyrne 18y ago
      I've mostly lived a first world life, so I think I'm just as susceptible to laziness and complacency. I think I do have some slight advantage just because I've seen the world (and not just as a tourist - I've lived for extended periods of time in Europe, Asia and North America).
- wheels 18y ago
  Jerry Yang, Ruppert Murdoch, Shai Agassi, Miguel de Icaza, Loic Lemur, ... Paul Graham. :-) ...and that's just off the top of my head.
  - wheels 18y ago
    Also just noticed that Trevor from YC is an immigrant (though, admittedly, from Canada) -- so 50% of the YC co-founders immigrated to the US.
pavelludiq 18y ago
Sergey Brin and Britney Spierce are in the same category? I didn't know that.
ojbyrne 18y ago
"There is also another factor at work. A trend is underway in America for marriage to be increasingly “assortative.” That means children of well-educated parents tend to marry one another and the children of less educated parents tend to marry one another. This was less the case a few generations ago. For example, sociologists Christine Schwartz of the University of Wisconsin and Robert Mare of UCLA found that beginning in the early 1970s there was a striking “decline in the odds that those with very low levels of education marry up." I'd be curious to see if someone has connected this to the rise of the Neo-cons. They're all about classism.
- menloparkbum 18y ago
  This is interesting. From life experience (over-educated liberal parents, 4 years in Cambridge, MA, 1 year in Berkeley), the "left-wing" is as class oriented as the neo-cons (that is, if you can define "class" via degrees granted). I've been on the hook to marry someone with at least a master's degree since I turned 25.
  - ojbyrne 18y ago
    A master's degree is slightly different from a master's degree from a "good school." I've also been pushed to associate with well-educated people, but not necessarily from schools with high tuitions.
    - menloparkbum 18y ago
      I guess that is my experience, also. One of the reasons I left Cambridge was because I found the snobbery alien and slightly revolting. People who go to Philips Andover and then onto Harvard may be liberal in their politics but are very neo-con in their classism, even if they didn't start out that way. I don't remember what essay it was, but I vaguely remember PG writing about people in Boston trying to become "Thurston Howell III" and this unfortunately transfered over to much of Cambridge.
      - ojbyrne 18y ago
jyothi 18y ago
Two generations ago, a couple married to share production. Today, they choose one another because they have similar tastes in consumption.
joestrickler 18y ago
http://www.paulgraham.com/inequality.html http://www.paulgraham.com/inequality.html

33 points by prakash 18y ago

I have read most it, so I hope I'm accurate as to its meaning. But Sergey Brin is an outlier, because as an immigrant he started a tech company. The only other example of this I can think of, is Max Levchin of Paypal, etc. I don't see a guy with a lemonade truck as being as profitable as Sergey. Another point is, those lemonade trucks will be expenses, and most of the lemonade profits will go to those loan costs. Sergey started off with a low-spend company.

13ren 18y ago
Andy Grove
mhartl 18y ago
They picked Brin because he is famous, but he's meant to represent all winning "players" (those who play in economic tournaments with winner-take-most outcomes), not just those who become billionaires.
ojbyrne 18y ago
I'm actually another example of an immigrant founding a tech company (though I've moved and traveled so much I have a hard time thinking of myself as an immigrant as opposed to a "world citizen"). I'm an immigrant to Canada, and eventually (and temporarily) an immigrant to the US. My non-immigrant partners decided to push me out and have since demonstrated their complete lack of creativity and drive. Though they're great at manipulation.
- nihilocrat 18y ago
  I'd argue that you have a leg up being an immigrant. When American tech workers think of "immigrant" it is very probable they interpret that as "some guy who is better than me, works longer hours, requires less pay, and has no capacity for laziness or stupidity thanks to his brainy robot genes, who is going to steal my job". Americans, on average, are honestly probably lazier, less educated, and demand higher pay than their foreign-born counterparts, but I am pulling that out of my ass so feel free to cry foul on me.
  - ojbyrne 18y ago
    I've mostly lived a first world life, so I think I'm just as susceptible to laziness and complacency. I think I do have some slight advantage just because I've seen the world (and not just as a tourist - I've lived for extended periods of time in Europe, Asia and North America).
wheels 18y ago
Jerry Yang, Ruppert Murdoch, Shai Agassi, Miguel de Icaza, Loic Lemur, ... Paul Graham. :-) ...and that's just off the top of my head.
- wheels 18y ago
  Also just noticed that Trevor from YC is an immigrant (though, admittedly, from Canada) -- so 50% of the YC co-founders immigrated to the US.

pavelludiq 18y ago

Sergey Brin and Britney Spierce are in the same category? I didn't know that.

ojbyrne 18y ago

"There is also another factor at work. A trend is underway in America for marriage to be increasingly “assortative.” That means children of well-educated parents tend to marry one another and the children of less educated parents tend to marry one another. This was less the case a few generations ago. For example, sociologists Christine Schwartz of the University of Wisconsin and Robert Mare of UCLA found that beginning in the early 1970s there was a striking “decline in the odds that those with very low levels of education marry up." I'd be curious to see if someone has connected this to the rise of the Neo-cons. They're all about classism.

menloparkbum 18y ago
This is interesting. From life experience (over-educated liberal parents, 4 years in Cambridge, MA, 1 year in Berkeley), the "left-wing" is as class oriented as the neo-cons (that is, if you can define "class" via degrees granted). I've been on the hook to marry someone with at least a master's degree since I turned 25.
- ojbyrne 18y ago
  A master's degree is slightly different from a master's degree from a "good school." I've also been pushed to associate with well-educated people, but not necessarily from schools with high tuitions.
  - menloparkbum 18y ago
    I guess that is my experience, also. One of the reasons I left Cambridge was because I found the snobbery alien and slightly revolting. People who go to Philips Andover and then onto Harvard may be liberal in their politics but are very neo-con in their classism, even if they didn't start out that way. I don't remember what essay it was, but I vaguely remember PG writing about people in Boston trying to become "Thurston Howell III" and this unfortunately transfered over to much of Cambridge.
    - ojbyrne 18y ago

jyothi 18y ago

Two generations ago, a couple married to share production. Today, they choose one another because they have similar tastes in consumption.

joestrickler 18y ago

http://www.paulgraham.com/inequality.html http://www.paulgraham.com/inequality.html