5 ms·

Is this really that big a problem though? I mean irrespective of how many people in SV disagree with the candidate, eventually if he/she throws enough money at

by eshvk 14y ago

Is this really that big a problem though? I mean irrespective of how many people in SV disagree with the candidate, eventually if he/she throws enough money at the problem, he should be able to sort it out? After all, Porn is the canonical example for something that not a lot of engineering people would work on but still manages to attract enough talent to work on some really hard problems.

nasalgoat 14y ago
That's the thing, though - they threw something like four times the amount of money at it than the Dems did and it still failed. The best metaphor is a Fortune 500 vs. a scrappy startup - who is more agile and can pivot faster?
- moocow01 14y ago
  I would argue that they just directed that money in the wrong direction. If the parties advertise money for campaign oriented tech Im sure the startup community will increasingly take notice and be willing to service any paying customer.
- eshvk 14y ago
  IIRC, the reason they spent so much money is because they outsourced it to a bunch of consultants. I am sure that if they wanted to do this properly, they could have organically grown a small team, and done this in-house.
jiggy2011 14y ago
Porn isn't something a lot of nerds like?
- eshvk 14y ago
  Lots of people may consume Porn but only a small subset of that group might be interested in creating Porn.
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    There's a difference between creating porn and building a porn site or whatever.
    - eshvk 14y ago
      I don't disagree. However, I know quite a few people who think that they are somehow "contaminated" by the mere virtue of having an adult company on their resume. This may of course be bullshit because I know that we hired a mobile engineer from an adult production firm recently.
michaelt 14y ago
A job pays money, but it also involves a bunch of other things, like interesting work, a sense of purpose, and a manager who isn't an asshole. More money can replace all the non-money things, in the same way tofu can replace bacon: It's a good enough replacement for some people, it'll never be a good enough replacement for all people. It might be difficult to attract top tier job candidates if you offer an all-tofu diet. You might have to hire non-top-tier candidates.
- WildUtah 14y ago
  +1 for "more money can replace all the non-money things, in the same way tofu can replace bacon."
scrumper 14y ago
> Porn is the canonical example It's the same with weapons design and scientists, or battlefield medicine and doctors. At some point the challenge overcomes the ethical qualms. Or, in some cases, the need to eat becomes pretty overwhelming. Morally dirty but technically difficult jobs often pay really rather well, partly because many talented people are turned off by the field. Real example: a good friend of mine was in my physics class at university. He was a pretty peace-loving, anti-establishment, idealist type like all of us at that age, yet he's now a government employee spending his days inventing ways to make ICBM warheads invulnerable to anti-missile systems. It's cutting-edge materials science stuff, and he loves it. (As a cold war kid myself I'm slightly ashamed to say that I found the whole thing deeply cool and I'm quite jealous of his job.)
- eshvk 14y ago
  Exactly. I went to school and did research hoping to have a career in robotics/Unmanned air vehicles and I had resigned myself to having to work in defense because unless you are in Europe, the number of companies that work on robotics that is not defense related is very small (Single digits, I would say). While, I would have serious problems with the whole idea of actively participating in war, the fact of the matter is that the kind of problems that I would get to hack on while working on there would have been tremendous fun.
- dlitwak 14y ago
  True, I remember a friend chose an internship at Altria (parent company to Phillip Morris, the cigarette company) over another because they paid so much better. Re your friend though: I'd chalk it up to a maturation and the pragmatism that comes with it.

by eshvk 14y ago

nasalgoat 14y ago

That's the thing, though - they threw something like four times the amount of money at it than the Dems did and it still failed. The best metaphor is a Fortune 500 vs. a scrappy startup - who is more agile and can pivot faster?

moocow01 14y ago
I would argue that they just directed that money in the wrong direction. If the parties advertise money for campaign oriented tech Im sure the startup community will increasingly take notice and be willing to service any paying customer.
eshvk 14y ago
IIRC, the reason they spent so much money is because they outsourced it to a bunch of consultants. I am sure that if they wanted to do this properly, they could have organically grown a small team, and done this in-house.

jiggy2011 14y ago

Porn isn't something a lot of nerds like?

eshvk 14y ago
Lots of people may consume Porn but only a small subset of that group might be interested in creating Porn.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  There's a difference between creating porn and building a porn site or whatever.
  - eshvk 14y ago
    I don't disagree. However, I know quite a few people who think that they are somehow "contaminated" by the mere virtue of having an adult company on their resume. This may of course be bullshit because I know that we hired a mobile engineer from an adult production firm recently.

michaelt 14y ago

A job pays money, but it also involves a bunch of other things, like interesting work, a sense of purpose, and a manager who isn't an asshole. More money can replace all the non-money things, in the same way tofu can replace bacon: It's a good enough replacement for some people, it'll never be a good enough replacement for all people. It might be difficult to attract top tier job candidates if you offer an all-tofu diet. You might have to hire non-top-tier candidates.

WildUtah 14y ago
+1 for "more money can replace all the non-money things, in the same way tofu can replace bacon."

scrumper 14y ago

> Porn is the canonical example It's the same with weapons design and scientists, or battlefield medicine and doctors. At some point the challenge overcomes the ethical qualms. Or, in some cases, the need to eat becomes pretty overwhelming. Morally dirty but technically difficult jobs often pay really rather well, partly because many talented people are turned off by the field. Real example: a good friend of mine was in my physics class at university. He was a pretty peace-loving, anti-establishment, idealist type like all of us at that age, yet he's now a government employee spending his days inventing ways to make ICBM warheads invulnerable to anti-missile systems. It's cutting-edge materials science stuff, and he loves it. (As a cold war kid myself I'm slightly ashamed to say that I found the whole thing deeply cool and I'm quite jealous of his job.)

eshvk 14y ago
Exactly. I went to school and did research hoping to have a career in robotics/Unmanned air vehicles and I had resigned myself to having to work in defense because unless you are in Europe, the number of companies that work on robotics that is not defense related is very small (Single digits, I would say). While, I would have serious problems with the whole idea of actively participating in war, the fact of the matter is that the kind of problems that I would get to hack on while working on there would have been tremendous fun.
dlitwak 14y ago
True, I remember a friend chose an internship at Altria (parent company to Phillip Morris, the cigarette company) over another because they paid so much better. Re your friend though: I'd chalk it up to a maturation and the pragmatism that comes with it.