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I know to exist in the VC world you have to buy into insane shit and convince yourself you believe it is the next best thing, but this just seems so ludicrous t

I know to exist in the VC world you have to buy into insane shit and convince yourself you believe it is the next best thing, but this just seems so ludicrous to me. I don't understand it at all.

ahMath8 4y ago
People with enough money sit and imagine all day tend to develop delusions of grandeur; see the various flavors of tribal wise men in history. Not so bad in and of itself, it’s when individual’s delusions of self worth infect others and drag us along with. Daily work should focus on tending to human biological needs and telling the delusional to mumble their gibberish in a corner aside from that. I feel zero obligation to validate PG or Musk or the rest. Just people. Each one of billions. Their figurative identities as wealthy members of society is due to conformity to politically correct spoken tradition, not an indication they’re almighty.
hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
"the difficulty with finding truly transformative, great ideas is that they look pretty similar to bad ideas in the early stages" is one of pg's central theses that I couldn't disagree with more strongly, and the only conclusion I can come to is that pg's hubris is blinding him. I don't think it's so much that you can't tell the difference between crazy bad and crazy good ideas in the early stages, it's that you're asking the wrong people. pg loves to quote the mythos that AirBnB was such a "crazy" idea early on that big VCs couldn't see the potential. But even in the early years, I don't think AirBnB was a big leap at all. Couchsurfing was already big, and platforms like HomeAway/VRBO had received huge funding rounds. pg was just asking the wrong VCs - not surprising that a bunch of rich old guys would be put off staying in someone's guestroom. Indeed, my understanding is that the first investor to really see value in AirBnB was very familiar with the vacation rental space. In my opinion, the startups that were wildly successful weren't so much because they had "out there" ideas, but because their execution was unparalleled. Dropbox, Stripe, Figma, AirBnB, etc. just came out with products that were a delight to use when you first tried them in ways their competitors weren't. Trying to be introspective, I think the event that most surprised me and seemed "crazy" was the election of Donald Trump in 2016. But again, I think i was just asking the wrong people. My circle of college-educated urbanites was basically unaware of the depth of some of the discontent with the status quo that Trump tapped into.
- Jasper_ 4y ago
  agreed, but on AirBnB, AirBnB was huge because it was cheaper than a hotel, they could ignore zoning laws, and it was meant to be for more personal & honest experiences. it's now far more expensive than a hotel, governments are restricting AirBnB subletting after complaints now, and the experiences are far more sterile with scams more common. the complaints from the peanut gallery was always "this will work until it doesn't anymore", just like Uber, and that's exactly what's happening, it's crashing down now.
II2II 4y ago
We live in a world of stuff that was once viewed as insane shit, yet ended up to be the next best thing. Sometimes the stuff was insane shit at the time, the technology failed because it could not be ready at the time, yet we still ended up with something useful in the long run. None of this is to say that all of those crazy ideas, or even any given crazy idea, will work out in the long run. The thing is, we cannot know until that time has come and gone.
nmfisher 4y ago
That was my original reaction to Twitch, too. Who in their right mind would pay to watch someone else play a video game? It was ludicrous to me (and to some extent, it still is). I'd make a terrible VC.
- roflyear 4y ago
  Well, Twitch at least gives value, which is entertainment. I can't begin to be a devil's advocate for Mighty.

I know to exist in the VC world you have to buy into insane shit and convince yourself you believe it is the next best thing, but this just seems so ludicrous to me. I don't understand it at all.

ahMath8 4y ago

People with enough money sit and imagine all day tend to develop delusions of grandeur; see the various flavors of tribal wise men in history. Not so bad in and of itself, it’s when individual’s delusions of self worth infect others and drag us along with. Daily work should focus on tending to human biological needs and telling the delusional to mumble their gibberish in a corner aside from that. I feel zero obligation to validate PG or Musk or the rest. Just people. Each one of billions. Their figurative identities as wealthy members of society is due to conformity to politically correct spoken tradition, not an indication they’re almighty.

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago

"the difficulty with finding truly transformative, great ideas is that they look pretty similar to bad ideas in the early stages" is one of pg's central theses that I couldn't disagree with more strongly, and the only conclusion I can come to is that pg's hubris is blinding him. I don't think it's so much that you can't tell the difference between crazy bad and crazy good ideas in the early stages, it's that you're asking the wrong people. pg loves to quote the mythos that AirBnB was such a "crazy" idea early on that big VCs couldn't see the potential. But even in the early years, I don't think AirBnB was a big leap at all. Couchsurfing was already big, and platforms like HomeAway/VRBO had received huge funding rounds. pg was just asking the wrong VCs - not surprising that a bunch of rich old guys would be put off staying in someone's guestroom. Indeed, my understanding is that the first investor to really see value in AirBnB was very familiar with the vacation rental space. In my opinion, the startups that were wildly successful weren't so much because they had "out there" ideas, but because their execution was unparalleled. Dropbox, Stripe, Figma, AirBnB, etc. just came out with products that were a delight to use when you first tried them in ways their competitors weren't. Trying to be introspective, I think the event that most surprised me and seemed "crazy" was the election of Donald Trump in 2016. But again, I think i was just asking the wrong people. My circle of college-educated urbanites was basically unaware of the depth of some of the discontent with the status quo that Trump tapped into.

Jasper_ 4y ago
agreed, but on AirBnB, AirBnB was huge because it was cheaper than a hotel, they could ignore zoning laws, and it was meant to be for more personal & honest experiences. it's now far more expensive than a hotel, governments are restricting AirBnB subletting after complaints now, and the experiences are far more sterile with scams more common. the complaints from the peanut gallery was always "this will work until it doesn't anymore", just like Uber, and that's exactly what's happening, it's crashing down now.

II2II 4y ago

We live in a world of stuff that was once viewed as insane shit, yet ended up to be the next best thing. Sometimes the stuff was insane shit at the time, the technology failed because it could not be ready at the time, yet we still ended up with something useful in the long run. None of this is to say that all of those crazy ideas, or even any given crazy idea, will work out in the long run. The thing is, we cannot know until that time has come and gone.

nmfisher 4y ago

That was my original reaction to Twitch, too. Who in their right mind would pay to watch someone else play a video game? It was ludicrous to me (and to some extent, it still is). I'd make a terrible VC.

roflyear 4y ago
Well, Twitch at least gives value, which is entertainment. I can't begin to be a devil's advocate for Mighty.