5 ms·

You realize that a business is at least 70% a social solution no matter how big your engineering department is, right?

eli_gottlieb 14y ago
/sigh Yes, but when I say "social problem", I mean the kind where you have to convince people with whom you're not actually doing business, and who therefore have a larger stake in their personal whims than in getting anything out of your project. For example, with the "package tubes" idea, you have to convince either reams of individual property owners or whole municipalities and states to allow you access to the space under the roads to build your infrastructure.
- harryh 14y ago
  Ya, you're looking for something that never existis. This stuff is hard man. To do things that are hard you often have to get down in the muck and deal with shit you don't feel like dealing with. Welcome to life. I'm sure that DaniFong has to do that all the time for her energy project. But hey, write everything off as a social problem if that's the excuse you're looking for to let yourself off the hook. Everyone's got to come up with something.
  - eli_gottlieb 14y ago
    Well thanks for being a jerk about it, but it's not like I'm doing nothing with my life. I'm just so far choosing lines of work that keep me out of infrastructure negotiations with municipalities, and I'm only 23. We'll see.
    - harryh 14y ago
      Hey, you're right I was being a jerk. I was in a bad mood (for completely unrelated reasons). Sorry about that.
- saraid216 14y ago
  I guess I was a little unclear. A business is the solution-method with the most minimal social component possible, and it's still hugely a social solution. Any other solution that will ever exist is going to require a much larger social solution. This is part and parcel of any innovation. If you're going to disrupt society, it will be relevant to society when you do so. You don't get to be antisocial about this unless you're a supervillain.

/sigh Yes, but when I say "social problem", I mean the kind where you have to convince people with whom you're not actually doing business, and who therefore have a larger stake in their personal whims than in getting anything out of your project. For example, with the "package tubes" idea, you have to convince either reams of individual property owners or whole municipalities and states to allow you access to the space under the roads to build your infrastructure.

harryh 14y ago
Ya, you're looking for something that never existis. This stuff is hard man. To do things that are hard you often have to get down in the muck and deal with shit you don't feel like dealing with. Welcome to life. I'm sure that DaniFong has to do that all the time for her energy project. But hey, write everything off as a social problem if that's the excuse you're looking for to let yourself off the hook. Everyone's got to come up with something.
- eli_gottlieb 14y ago
  Well thanks for being a jerk about it, but it's not like I'm doing nothing with my life. I'm just so far choosing lines of work that keep me out of infrastructure negotiations with municipalities, and I'm only 23. We'll see.
  - harryh 14y ago
    Hey, you're right I was being a jerk. I was in a bad mood (for completely unrelated reasons). Sorry about that.
saraid216 14y ago
I guess I was a little unclear. A business is the solution-method with the most minimal social component possible, and it's still hugely a social solution. Any other solution that will ever exist is going to require a much larger social solution. This is part and parcel of any innovation. If you're going to disrupt society, it will be relevant to society when you do so. You don't get to be antisocial about this unless you're a supervillain.