3 ms·

Maybe it’s just me, but the idea of starting a company that exists 1,000 years into the future is much more exciting than building a startup in a trendy industr

Maybe it’s just me, but the idea of starting a company that exists 1,000 years into the future is much more exciting than building a startup in a trendy industry, getting acquired for big bucks, and never being heard of again.

blitzar 2y ago
Its just you.
teddyh 2y ago
Of those two, of course one is preferrable. But. Either you have a company which does everything and anything, or you have a company which depends on solving a particular problem or set of problem. If your company solves a particular problem, the company depends on that problem persisting. I’d rather the problem be eliminated at some time by future developments, making the company defunct, rather than hoping for a 1000 year-old company. Hoping for a 1000 year-old company which solves one problem is really the same as hoping for humanity to keep having that specific problem for a 1000 years.
- keiferski 2y ago
  I think that’s a false dichotomy. Most of these old companies are addressing basic human activities, not problems. Unless you thinking eating good food and staying in hotels are problems that ought to be solved? Most entertainment business are also not solving problems, and yet manage to be extremely successful businesses. See: Disney, Pokémon, video game companies, etc.
  - teddyh 2y ago
    Yes, you’re right. (There’s also the “oldest profession”.) But I’d still like to think that many of these actually are problems to be solved, rather than unalterable facts of life. Look what happened to, for instance, secretaries. Or “computers” – i.e. the profession. Regarding entertainment, I don’t see how companies providing entertainment is an absolute necessity; people can be entertained by each other’s company, and have been for most of history and pre-history. Furthermore, the examples you give all rely heavily on copyright for their business models, a purely legal concept without a guaranteed future. If I had to bet on any entertainment company to survive for 1000 years, I would pick one which does things which can not be copied, like live performances, perhaps at specific historically important locations.
    - fsloth 2y ago
      ”Problems to be solved” is a narrow view of the mechanism of providing goods and services. Is food a problem? Clothes? Housing? Historically societies that have lacked markets in these (grow your own food, make your own clothes etc) are not something I would call as aspirational models for our current civilization.
      - ikekkdcjkfke 2y ago
        So a company that can pivot within their general domain is preferable
- psychoslave 2y ago
  "Flourishing and and thrive in peace" can be a good starting point. Specifications will vary over time sure, but there are good chances humankind will still crave for this in a few thousand years if it managed to stay alive as a species. I seize the opportunity to wish you a great satisfying and fulfilling life in harmony with the rest of your relatives, whoever you are.
- wrycoder 2y ago
  In this case, the company was providing a service that was needed for millennia - building temples. Their structure seems to have been like a private corporation, with special rules and efforts to maintain their ideology and culture. They had the ability to expand outside the current leading families when necessary, though. When they hit the recent hard patch, they pivoted, but didn’t scale back enough to survive until the next great leader showed up. They fell into the hands of modern corporations, and we all know how that turns out.
bjornsing 2y ago
So what would be the equivalent of building temples today, and for the next 1000 years?
- keiferski 2y ago
  Good question. One answer would be focusing on basic human activities. People will still probably be eating and traveling in 500 years. Another would be to figure out and/or develop the “temple” of whatever future belief system or religion one thinks will be necessary and popular in the future. And this could be a currently existing religion; Islam and Christianity will probably be around in some form or another for a long long time.
  - l3x4ur1n 2y ago
    I mean, modern cloud computing centers are the new temples of current digital religion. And graphics cards are the new chalices.
    - jakeinspace 2y ago
      Is… Snowden Jesus? And Tim Berners Lee Moses? Or perhaps Jobs was Moses, and Xerox PARC was the burning bush?
    - tsimionescu 2y ago
      There is no similarity whatsoever. Temples are places that people flock to, computing centers are places kept secret.
- fsloth 2y ago
  The Mars Terraforming Company? Half-kidding.
- jajko 2y ago
  Building houses? Wooden furniture? Can't imagine this getting out of fashion anytime soon. Methods and materials may change, the mission not so much. With wooden furniture you are (at least for some time) also blocking release of stored CO2 back into atmosphere, a fate all other wood faces.

blitzar 2y ago

Its just you.

teddyh 2y ago

Of those two, of course one is preferrable. But. Either you have a company which does everything and anything, or you have a company which depends on solving a particular problem or set of problem. If your company solves a particular problem, the company depends on that problem persisting. I’d rather the problem be eliminated at some time by future developments, making the company defunct, rather than hoping for a 1000 year-old company. Hoping for a 1000 year-old company which solves one problem is really the same as hoping for humanity to keep having that specific problem for a 1000 years.

keiferski 2y ago
I think that’s a false dichotomy. Most of these old companies are addressing basic human activities, not problems. Unless you thinking eating good food and staying in hotels are problems that ought to be solved? Most entertainment business are also not solving problems, and yet manage to be extremely successful businesses. See: Disney, Pokémon, video game companies, etc.
- teddyh 2y ago
  Yes, you’re right. (There’s also the “oldest profession”.) But I’d still like to think that many of these actually are problems to be solved, rather than unalterable facts of life. Look what happened to, for instance, secretaries. Or “computers” – i.e. the profession. Regarding entertainment, I don’t see how companies providing entertainment is an absolute necessity; people can be entertained by each other’s company, and have been for most of history and pre-history. Furthermore, the examples you give all rely heavily on copyright for their business models, a purely legal concept without a guaranteed future. If I had to bet on any entertainment company to survive for 1000 years, I would pick one which does things which can not be copied, like live performances, perhaps at specific historically important locations.
  - fsloth 2y ago
    ”Problems to be solved” is a narrow view of the mechanism of providing goods and services. Is food a problem? Clothes? Housing? Historically societies that have lacked markets in these (grow your own food, make your own clothes etc) are not something I would call as aspirational models for our current civilization.
    - ikekkdcjkfke 2y ago
      So a company that can pivot within their general domain is preferable
psychoslave 2y ago
"Flourishing and and thrive in peace" can be a good starting point. Specifications will vary over time sure, but there are good chances humankind will still crave for this in a few thousand years if it managed to stay alive as a species. I seize the opportunity to wish you a great satisfying and fulfilling life in harmony with the rest of your relatives, whoever you are.
wrycoder 2y ago
In this case, the company was providing a service that was needed for millennia - building temples. Their structure seems to have been like a private corporation, with special rules and efforts to maintain their ideology and culture. They had the ability to expand outside the current leading families when necessary, though. When they hit the recent hard patch, they pivoted, but didn’t scale back enough to survive until the next great leader showed up. They fell into the hands of modern corporations, and we all know how that turns out.

bjornsing 2y ago

So what would be the equivalent of building temples today, and for the next 1000 years?

keiferski 2y ago
Good question. One answer would be focusing on basic human activities. People will still probably be eating and traveling in 500 years. Another would be to figure out and/or develop the “temple” of whatever future belief system or religion one thinks will be necessary and popular in the future. And this could be a currently existing religion; Islam and Christianity will probably be around in some form or another for a long long time.
- l3x4ur1n 2y ago
  I mean, modern cloud computing centers are the new temples of current digital religion. And graphics cards are the new chalices.
  - jakeinspace 2y ago
    Is… Snowden Jesus? And Tim Berners Lee Moses? Or perhaps Jobs was Moses, and Xerox PARC was the burning bush?
  - tsimionescu 2y ago
    There is no similarity whatsoever. Temples are places that people flock to, computing centers are places kept secret.
fsloth 2y ago
The Mars Terraforming Company? Half-kidding.
jajko 2y ago
Building houses? Wooden furniture? Can't imagine this getting out of fashion anytime soon. Methods and materials may change, the mission not so much. With wooden furniture you are (at least for some time) also blocking release of stored CO2 back into atmosphere, a fate all other wood faces.