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It's funny, the comments here reminded me to this other submission (from 2014): Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M https://news.

by pera 3y ago

It's funny, the comments here reminded me to this other submission (from 2014): Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7127938 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7127938 > $400M for a company I've never heard before is quite surprising > If the article is correct, they bought the team.

Barrin92 3y ago
Especially on HN it's pretty common for people to retroactively justify these kinds of decisions based on results, but it always reminds me of an article I read a few years ago (https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/western-elite-chinese-perspective/ https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/western-elite-chi...) "When I was an intern, in one of the training presentations, a senior banker told us to distinguish between the process and the results. He said that we should focus on the process, which we can control, rather than the result, which is subject to luck. And here at Goldman, he said, we don’t punish people for losing money for the right reason. I have always loved asking questions, so I asked him, was anyone ever punished for making money for the wrong reason?" Just like that old Dropbox comment that people love to bring up, you can make a gazillion dollars off a bad bet, and you can lose following a good strategy, that's the case everywhere probabilities are involved. Outcomes don't determine if the original evaluation was sound or not.
- pera 3y ago
  I agree and just to clarify: I don't think/know whether this startup will be successful or not, in fact I don't even know if buying DeepMind was a good investment for Google (financially speaking). I only mentioned it because the comments were very similar.
- talldatethrow 3y ago
  I've been around for a while and don't know of a famous dropbox comment? Curious to hear it if someone can answer. Thanks
  - wasimanitoba 3y ago
    it's this comment where the user suggests that dropbox will never be successful because it's "trivial": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26753850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26753850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

by pera 3y ago

Barrin92 3y ago

Especially on HN it's pretty common for people to retroactively justify these kinds of decisions based on results, but it always reminds me of an article I read a few years ago (https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/western-elite-chinese-perspective/ https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/western-elite-chi...) "When I was an intern, in one of the training presentations, a senior banker told us to distinguish between the process and the results. He said that we should focus on the process, which we can control, rather than the result, which is subject to luck. And here at Goldman, he said, we don’t punish people for losing money for the right reason. I have always loved asking questions, so I asked him, was anyone ever punished for making money for the wrong reason?" Just like that old Dropbox comment that people love to bring up, you can make a gazillion dollars off a bad bet, and you can lose following a good strategy, that's the case everywhere probabilities are involved. Outcomes don't determine if the original evaluation was sound or not.

pera 3y ago
I agree and just to clarify: I don't think/know whether this startup will be successful or not, in fact I don't even know if buying DeepMind was a good investment for Google (financially speaking). I only mentioned it because the comments were very similar.
talldatethrow 3y ago
I've been around for a while and don't know of a famous dropbox comment? Curious to hear it if someone can answer. Thanks
- wasimanitoba 3y ago
  it's this comment where the user suggests that dropbox will never be successful because it's "trivial": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26753850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26753850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224