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Here is how I responded to Michael via Twitter: "I don't want to move to New York because my wife and son live here with me, and we have a whole life outside o

by dalton 14y ago

Here is how I responded to Michael via Twitter: "I don't want to move to New York because my wife and son live here with me, and we have a whole life outside of tech that matters. The thing about imeem and picplz is they seemed really stupid and insignificant at first too. But the issues they tackled ended up being about something very important and fundamental. At least in my opinion. imho everything worth doing looks stupid and insignificant at first: http://daltoncaldwell.com/the-makings-of-history-are-banal http://daltoncaldwell.com/the-makings-of-history-are-banal " Source tweets: https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/224947883009515521 https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/224947883009515521 https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/224948252141830145 https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/224948252141830145 https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/224948783891496960 https://twitter.com/daltonc/status/224948783891496960

waxman 14y ago
Thanks for responding, Dalton. I really appreciate it. Responses to the responses below :) "can't argue with that :) meant Valley v. New York more as ideas than places, but you should at least come visit for inspiration I actually agree with that :) I like the Paul Graham line that many huge startups start off as "toys" seriously best of luck with http://app.net http://app.net , I don't want to come off as a dick I just find the idea of crusading against ad-supported models with an awesome team inspiring, but not necessarily the api idea" Source tweets: https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958061226360832 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958061226360832 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958718230544387 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958718230544387 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958289140658176 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958289140658176 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958976733888512 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958976733888512
- dannyr 14y ago
  waxman, Have you actually lived in the Valley? The "bubble" indeed exists but there are so many things about the Valley that outweighs that negative. What are the chances in NYC that I go into a cafe and meet a startup founder? For me, being in the Valley means I'm surrounded by people who understands what I'm going through. It keeps me motivated. I haven't been to NYC for years but I'm pretty sure that when I walk in a cafe there, I won't think that the people there are probably building the next great web startup.
  - achompas 14y ago
    What are the chances in NYC that I go into a cafe and meet a startup founder? You have great odds if you're in the right area (Union Square/Flatiron). Probably no different (or not significantly different in practice) than the Bay Area. That said, are you randomly approaching people in cafes to accomplish this?
    - dannyr 14y ago
      I don't really approach people but I overhear conversations.
      - carterschonwald 14y ago
        I do both! It's really fun and easy to happen in the union square area. That said, I find myself have so many tech company comvos in NYC that I'd not want to have any more tempting me. That said, fun techie convo and hangouts at the high end of the spectrum (the only sort of tech folks I enjoy having as good friends) are a bit sparse, but they're sparse population wise everywhere (though the absolute number of folks in that possible pool is likely larger in the sf area. ) I must confess that the large population of young college grads who are neither engineers nor dudes is also a fun attribute of union square area
  - potatolicious 14y ago
    > "What are the chances in NYC that I go into a cafe and meet a startup founder?" As someone who lives in SF and is moving to NYC, your odds are pretty low. But I think there's a better question here: What are the chances in SF that I go into a cafe and meet a startup founder working on something big and impactful? I don't know about you, but my time in SF has netted me a lot of opportunities to talk to founders who are working on [insert social/mobile/local thing here] which IMO simply aren't big enough (or original enough) for me to care. For every Square there are dozens of Square copycats who aren't really executing anything substantially different. For every Zynga there are dozens of startups in SF egging their exact formula and not really mutating it in a meaningful way. Certainly very, very few are working on anything that has relevance outside of the tech community, with impact IRL - I'm talking about the AirBnbs and the Squares. Stuff that will change the lives of people who aren't plugged into the pulse of the California tech scene. SF is full of startups, sure, but the vast majority aren't doing anything interesting. I'll trade quantity for quality, though I'm not asserting where one might find higher quality between SF and NYC.
danso 14y ago
>imho everything worth doing looks stupid and insignificant at first: http://daltoncaldwell.com/the-makings-of-history-are-banal http://daltoncaldwell.com/the-makings-of-history-are-banal Those aren't particularly good choices...because I doubt those announcements were considered banal by the authors or by their intended audience. Particularly the announcement of the Web, which you quote in part as: "However, it could start a revolution in information access" A better example would be the origins of something like Facebook, which sounds like it was geared towards scoping out the attractiveness of Harvard classmates and has grown into something far more ubiquitous and all-encompassing. In comparison, the Web hasn't really outpaced its initial predicted scope -- a "revolution in information access" -- but of course, its makers dreamed big.
- dalton 14y ago
  What I learned at imeem re:the music industry is that problems with "content industry" have nothing to do with technology, and have everything to do with social/political/regulatory issues. The music industry behaves the way they do because they have a financial incentive to do so. I think that attempting to solve the fundamental financial incentives of the operators of our core social communications infrastructure is as important as those other announcements. Rather than just sit on the sidelines and complain about the fact that the companies controlling the building blocks of the social web are erratic and financially incentivized to screw over their entire user+developer ecosystem (or die), I am going to try to do something about it. Even if I fail, I will be proud that I put my money where my mouth is, and did everything within my power to do fix something I see as a HUGE problem, a problem that affects a lot more things than some would appear to believe.
badclient 14y ago
The thing about imeem and picplz is they seemed really stupid and insignificant at first too. But the issues they tackled ended up being about something very important and fundamental. At least in my opinion. Such a cop out. Any start-up founder of the most stupid start-up could reframe like you have and claim to be working on something "very important and fundamental." You can't be the guy hating on ad start-ups and turn around and suggest your own ad-supposed start-ups were exceptions because you found them "very important and fundamental." Of course, you have every right to love your own baby even irrationally(every founder must have some dose of delusion to not give up). But too much of it doesn't help us achieve clarity about your position and message on this topic.
- qq66 14y ago
  I don't think that it's a cop-out that any founder could use -- imeem and picplz were not successful companies, but the issues they tackled were successful issues, in that Spotify and Instagram are (currently!) thriving companies that found the "magic sauce" to succeed in that space.

by dalton 14y ago

waxman 14y ago

Thanks for responding, Dalton. I really appreciate it. Responses to the responses below :) "can't argue with that :) meant Valley v. New York more as ideas than places, but you should at least come visit for inspiration I actually agree with that :) I like the Paul Graham line that many huge startups start off as "toys" seriously best of luck with http://app.net http://app.net , I don't want to come off as a dick I just find the idea of crusading against ad-supported models with an awesome team inspiring, but not necessarily the api idea" Source tweets: https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958061226360832 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958061226360832 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958718230544387 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958718230544387 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958289140658176 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958289140658176 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958976733888512 https://twitter.com/wxmn/status/224958976733888512

dannyr 14y ago
waxman, Have you actually lived in the Valley? The "bubble" indeed exists but there are so many things about the Valley that outweighs that negative. What are the chances in NYC that I go into a cafe and meet a startup founder? For me, being in the Valley means I'm surrounded by people who understands what I'm going through. It keeps me motivated. I haven't been to NYC for years but I'm pretty sure that when I walk in a cafe there, I won't think that the people there are probably building the next great web startup.
- achompas 14y ago
  What are the chances in NYC that I go into a cafe and meet a startup founder? You have great odds if you're in the right area (Union Square/Flatiron). Probably no different (or not significantly different in practice) than the Bay Area. That said, are you randomly approaching people in cafes to accomplish this?
  - dannyr 14y ago
    I don't really approach people but I overhear conversations.
    - carterschonwald 14y ago
      I do both! It's really fun and easy to happen in the union square area. That said, I find myself have so many tech company comvos in NYC that I'd not want to have any more tempting me. That said, fun techie convo and hangouts at the high end of the spectrum (the only sort of tech folks I enjoy having as good friends) are a bit sparse, but they're sparse population wise everywhere (though the absolute number of folks in that possible pool is likely larger in the sf area. ) I must confess that the large population of young college grads who are neither engineers nor dudes is also a fun attribute of union square area
- potatolicious 14y ago
  > "What are the chances in NYC that I go into a cafe and meet a startup founder?" As someone who lives in SF and is moving to NYC, your odds are pretty low. But I think there's a better question here: What are the chances in SF that I go into a cafe and meet a startup founder working on something big and impactful? I don't know about you, but my time in SF has netted me a lot of opportunities to talk to founders who are working on [insert social/mobile/local thing here] which IMO simply aren't big enough (or original enough) for me to care. For every Square there are dozens of Square copycats who aren't really executing anything substantially different. For every Zynga there are dozens of startups in SF egging their exact formula and not really mutating it in a meaningful way. Certainly very, very few are working on anything that has relevance outside of the tech community, with impact IRL - I'm talking about the AirBnbs and the Squares. Stuff that will change the lives of people who aren't plugged into the pulse of the California tech scene. SF is full of startups, sure, but the vast majority aren't doing anything interesting. I'll trade quantity for quality, though I'm not asserting where one might find higher quality between SF and NYC.

danso 14y ago

>imho everything worth doing looks stupid and insignificant at first: http://daltoncaldwell.com/the-makings-of-history-are-banal http://daltoncaldwell.com/the-makings-of-history-are-banal Those aren't particularly good choices...because I doubt those announcements were considered banal by the authors or by their intended audience. Particularly the announcement of the Web, which you quote in part as: "However, it could start a revolution in information access" A better example would be the origins of something like Facebook, which sounds like it was geared towards scoping out the attractiveness of Harvard classmates and has grown into something far more ubiquitous and all-encompassing. In comparison, the Web hasn't really outpaced its initial predicted scope -- a "revolution in information access" -- but of course, its makers dreamed big.

dalton 14y ago
What I learned at imeem re:the music industry is that problems with "content industry" have nothing to do with technology, and have everything to do with social/political/regulatory issues. The music industry behaves the way they do because they have a financial incentive to do so. I think that attempting to solve the fundamental financial incentives of the operators of our core social communications infrastructure is as important as those other announcements. Rather than just sit on the sidelines and complain about the fact that the companies controlling the building blocks of the social web are erratic and financially incentivized to screw over their entire user+developer ecosystem (or die), I am going to try to do something about it. Even if I fail, I will be proud that I put my money where my mouth is, and did everything within my power to do fix something I see as a HUGE problem, a problem that affects a lot more things than some would appear to believe.

badclient 14y ago

The thing about imeem and picplz is they seemed really stupid and insignificant at first too. But the issues they tackled ended up being about something very important and fundamental. At least in my opinion. Such a cop out. Any start-up founder of the most stupid start-up could reframe like you have and claim to be working on something "very important and fundamental." You can't be the guy hating on ad start-ups and turn around and suggest your own ad-supposed start-ups were exceptions because you found them "very important and fundamental." Of course, you have every right to love your own baby even irrationally(every founder must have some dose of delusion to not give up). But too much of it doesn't help us achieve clarity about your position and message on this topic.

qq66 14y ago
I don't think that it's a cop-out that any founder could use -- imeem and picplz were not successful companies, but the issues they tackled were successful issues, in that Spotify and Instagram are (currently!) thriving companies that found the "magic sauce" to succeed in that space.