4 ms·

The irony of comparing Andreeson and Buffet and claiming they have completely opposing investment theses is pretty hilarious. They both have the exact same app

by CPLX 4y ago

The irony of comparing Andreeson and Buffet and claiming they have completely opposing investment theses is pretty hilarious. They both have the exact same approach, which is to seek companies that have or will create monopoly effects in their markets, using dominance of a market segment to raise prices and extract rents. Same investment strategy that’s made basically every vast fortune since we invented the cotton gin.

TimPC 4y ago
So they have the same strategy in the sense that absolutely everyone who ever made money had one strategy and they have a different strategy in a way that is useful and informative? I’d label that different rather than same.
- CPLX 4y ago
  Most people have a different strategy, which involves producing a product or service of value. Megalomaniacal monopolists such as these two seek to extract monopoly rents by cornering markets. Their differences with each other are trivial, and the contrast between them and nearly everyone else in the normal business world is stark. They are robber barons, it’s not some new and exciting story, it’s a tiny class of humans, there’s only a few dozen at any given time. > the term was typically applied to businessmen who purportedly used exploitative practices to amass their wealth.[2] These practices included exerting control over natural resources, influencing high levels of government, paying subsistence wages, squashing competition by acquiring their competitors to create monopolies and raise prices, and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors. Sound familiar? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist)
refurb 4y ago
If you're extracting rents then you're not creating any economic value. One look at the GDP tells me that's not true.

by CPLX 4y ago

TimPC 4y ago

So they have the same strategy in the sense that absolutely everyone who ever made money had one strategy and they have a different strategy in a way that is useful and informative? I’d label that different rather than same.

CPLX 4y ago
Most people have a different strategy, which involves producing a product or service of value. Megalomaniacal monopolists such as these two seek to extract monopoly rents by cornering markets. Their differences with each other are trivial, and the contrast between them and nearly everyone else in the normal business world is stark. They are robber barons, it’s not some new and exciting story, it’s a tiny class of humans, there’s only a few dozen at any given time. > the term was typically applied to businessmen who purportedly used exploitative practices to amass their wealth.[2] These practices included exerting control over natural resources, influencing high levels of government, paying subsistence wages, squashing competition by acquiring their competitors to create monopolies and raise prices, and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors. Sound familiar? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist)

refurb 4y ago

If you're extracting rents then you're not creating any economic value. One look at the GDP tells me that's not true.