5 ms·

This comment made me think "wouldn't it be weird if PG owned a basketball team?"

by far33d 19y ago

pg 19y ago
If I had that much money, I'd never buy a sports team. I'd found a town. That's the luxury I dream about. Probably just as well I can't have it though; it would be a huge time sink.
- kingnothing 19y ago
  Me too. I already have the style of architecture all planned out in my head.
  - pg 19y ago
    I wouldn't dictate the style of architecture. It's grim when towns seem too much the product of one mind. I'd do something more YCish in spirit: find good people and let them do what they want.
- rms 19y ago
  If you had that much money, you could stage a takeover of Equatorial Guinea. Why settle for a town when you could have a country?
- far33d 19y ago
  It's also funny to think that everyone has a dream about "what if I had some plateau of wealth higher than the one I occupy now"
  - deleted 19y ago
    [deleted]
- ph0rque 19y ago
  PG, this reminds me of a question I had a while ago. In your Silicon Valley essay, you mention in a footnote that one could reproduce SV with 30 of the right people. Who would those people be (or what kinds of people)? Angels like Ron Conway? VC's like Sequoia?
  - pg 19y ago
    If I could only pick 30 I'd want the people stuff emanates from. I'd probably choose mostly hacker-founders like Larry & Sergey, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and so on. Steve Jobs. Maybe Bill Gates. I wouldn't have to pick investors; enough would follow.
    - Alex3917 19y ago
      That's funny, I was thinking today that you should found one of those micro-universities like Deep Springs. I'd imagine the town would end up being somewhat similar though.
- palish 19y ago
  "Please tell us in one or two sentences something about each family member that shows a high level of ability."
  - pg 19y ago
    You'd never want to restrict who'd live there overtly. But you could do it by more subtle means, like giving pedestrians and bicycles priority over cars, and mixing inexpensive buildings with expensive ones.
    - davidw 19y ago
      Sounds like Europe to me.
- mattmaroon 19y ago
  Wow, that's my goal exactly. Well, technically I want a country. But I guess if I make enough to do that, you'll make enough from it to do a town.
  - rms 19y ago
    Equatorial Guinea is the perfect target for takeover. It has the second highest GDP per capita PPP adjusted in the world, yet the average citizen lives on less than a dollar a day because the evil dictator takes all the oil money. It's waiting to fall. Margaret Thatcher's son tried to stage a coup in 2005 and failed. MI6 and the CIA knew about the attempt and provided anecdotal support, they want Equatorial Guinea to have a new, western friendly leader. Basically, Thatcher just didn't spend enough money. A billion in private defense contractors (mercenaries) would be plenty to take Equatorial Guinea with overwhelming force. The defenders might not even fire a shot.
    - ivankirigin 19y ago
      I think starting fresh makes sense. I've been thinking about how to start a country for a short while now. Here is how I'd do it: 1) Buy or find an island around the size of Manhattan. This shouldn't be too hard. Avoid areas too hot or too cold. Low or no population a plus. 2) Buy an insurance contract with a group like BlackWater. Publicly declare the terms: they help invade whatever country violates your new sovereignty. This should make starting a country less dangerous initially. 3) Flagrantly violate useless laws in other countries to attract business and freedom-minded people. Patent laws and IP limits would be ideal targets. This would be a pirate nation. 4) Establish a fiat currency with predictable supply growth indexed on a percentage of the previous year's growth in GDP. Make it available online and with an open trading system. 5) Fund any government expenditures through the increase in the money supply, described in #4. This is an unavoidable implicit tax, at a low rate. To stress the point: there would be no other taxes. Initial conditions and trust would be hard to start with. It might require lots of money in the founder(s) to work well. But I think this could be a very nice environment.
      - rms 19y ago

This comment made me think "wouldn't it be weird if PG owned a basketball team?"

by far33d 19y ago

This comment made me think "wouldn't it be weird if PG owned a basketball team?"

pg 19y ago

If I had that much money, I'd never buy a sports team. I'd found a town. That's the luxury I dream about. Probably just as well I can't have it though; it would be a huge time sink.

kingnothing 19y ago
Me too. I already have the style of architecture all planned out in my head.
- pg 19y ago
  I wouldn't dictate the style of architecture. It's grim when towns seem too much the product of one mind. I'd do something more YCish in spirit: find good people and let them do what they want.
rms 19y ago
If you had that much money, you could stage a takeover of Equatorial Guinea. Why settle for a town when you could have a country?
far33d 19y ago
It's also funny to think that everyone has a dream about "what if I had some plateau of wealth higher than the one I occupy now"
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
ph0rque 19y ago
PG, this reminds me of a question I had a while ago. In your Silicon Valley essay, you mention in a footnote that one could reproduce SV with 30 of the right people. Who would those people be (or what kinds of people)? Angels like Ron Conway? VC's like Sequoia?
- pg 19y ago
  If I could only pick 30 I'd want the people stuff emanates from. I'd probably choose mostly hacker-founders like Larry & Sergey, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and so on. Steve Jobs. Maybe Bill Gates. I wouldn't have to pick investors; enough would follow.
  - Alex3917 19y ago
    That's funny, I was thinking today that you should found one of those micro-universities like Deep Springs. I'd imagine the town would end up being somewhat similar though.
palish 19y ago
"Please tell us in one or two sentences something about each family member that shows a high level of ability."
- pg 19y ago
  You'd never want to restrict who'd live there overtly. But you could do it by more subtle means, like giving pedestrians and bicycles priority over cars, and mixing inexpensive buildings with expensive ones.
  - davidw 19y ago
    Sounds like Europe to me.
mattmaroon 19y ago
Wow, that's my goal exactly. Well, technically I want a country. But I guess if I make enough to do that, you'll make enough from it to do a town.
- rms 19y ago
  Equatorial Guinea is the perfect target for takeover. It has the second highest GDP per capita PPP adjusted in the world, yet the average citizen lives on less than a dollar a day because the evil dictator takes all the oil money. It's waiting to fall. Margaret Thatcher's son tried to stage a coup in 2005 and failed. MI6 and the CIA knew about the attempt and provided anecdotal support, they want Equatorial Guinea to have a new, western friendly leader. Basically, Thatcher just didn't spend enough money. A billion in private defense contractors (mercenaries) would be plenty to take Equatorial Guinea with overwhelming force. The defenders might not even fire a shot.
  - ivankirigin 19y ago
    I think starting fresh makes sense. I've been thinking about how to start a country for a short while now. Here is how I'd do it: 1) Buy or find an island around the size of Manhattan. This shouldn't be too hard. Avoid areas too hot or too cold. Low or no population a plus. 2) Buy an insurance contract with a group like BlackWater. Publicly declare the terms: they help invade whatever country violates your new sovereignty. This should make starting a country less dangerous initially. 3) Flagrantly violate useless laws in other countries to attract business and freedom-minded people. Patent laws and IP limits would be ideal targets. This would be a pirate nation. 4) Establish a fiat currency with predictable supply growth indexed on a percentage of the previous year's growth in GDP. Make it available online and with an open trading system. 5) Fund any government expenditures through the increase in the money supply, described in #4. This is an unavoidable implicit tax, at a low rate. To stress the point: there would be no other taxes. Initial conditions and trust would be hard to start with. It might require lots of money in the founder(s) to work well. But I think this could be a very nice environment.
    - rms 19y ago