4 ms·

> But more important in the general sense? I think you'd have a harder time supporting that argument if you tried to make it. I'm not suggesting it's more impo

> But more important in the general sense? I think you'd have a harder time supporting that argument if you tried to make it. I'm not suggesting it's more important - quite the opposite. Pharma is very important. It's just not as accessible or comprehensible to the general public. So if you're looking to start a company, on average, you'll find that the competition is scarcer in pharma than in tech. How often does a 17 year old singlehandledly found and sell a company for $30 million to big pharma?

deleted 13y ago
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Retric 13y ago
The problem is the overwhelming majority of 17 year olds don't know enough to make useful pharma research. And other than research not much really scales well-enough to be worth 30 million. Think of it this way computer research goes back around 100 years, medical research goes back well over 2,000 years. There is simply less low hanging fruit left. PS: Consider this there is a large but finite number of reasonably stable chemicals with 10 atoms or less. All of them have been considered as to there medical impacts. (There toxicity if nothing else.)
- refurb 13y ago
  Not to detract the discussion, but 10 atoms or less? Ethanol is about as simple as it gets and that's 9 atoms. You're setting the bar way too low. If you start to look at possible drugs that have molecular weights of less than 500, we haven't scratched the surface of what's possible.
  - Retric 13y ago
    N20 is a rather potent drug and 3 atoms, although plenty of people would consider pure oxygen as the simplest useful drug.
- w1ntermute 13y ago
  > The problem is the overwhelming majority of 17 year olds don't know enough to make useful pharma research. There's more to it than that. The reason why the overwhelming majority of 17 year olds don't know enough to make useful pharma research is because it's not so easy to learn those skills and gain that knowledge. Any 17 year old can teach himself to code and get valuable, real-world programming experience (and an actual job, for that matter) with nothing more than a laptop and an internet connection - everything else is free. He can then start a company, all from his parents' home. You cannot say the same about pharma. The capital investment needed is much higher, the regulations are much stricter, and blind trial-and-error isn't an option unless you want to put your own life at risk. To put it simply, you're quite literally in the (human) meatspace.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

Retric 13y ago

The problem is the overwhelming majority of 17 year olds don't know enough to make useful pharma research. And other than research not much really scales well-enough to be worth 30 million. Think of it this way computer research goes back around 100 years, medical research goes back well over 2,000 years. There is simply less low hanging fruit left. PS: Consider this there is a large but finite number of reasonably stable chemicals with 10 atoms or less. All of them have been considered as to there medical impacts. (There toxicity if nothing else.)

refurb 13y ago
Not to detract the discussion, but 10 atoms or less? Ethanol is about as simple as it gets and that's 9 atoms. You're setting the bar way too low. If you start to look at possible drugs that have molecular weights of less than 500, we haven't scratched the surface of what's possible.
- Retric 13y ago
  N20 is a rather potent drug and 3 atoms, although plenty of people would consider pure oxygen as the simplest useful drug.
w1ntermute 13y ago
> The problem is the overwhelming majority of 17 year olds don't know enough to make useful pharma research. There's more to it than that. The reason why the overwhelming majority of 17 year olds don't know enough to make useful pharma research is because it's not so easy to learn those skills and gain that knowledge. Any 17 year old can teach himself to code and get valuable, real-world programming experience (and an actual job, for that matter) with nothing more than a laptop and an internet connection - everything else is free. He can then start a company, all from his parents' home. You cannot say the same about pharma. The capital investment needed is much higher, the regulations are much stricter, and blind trial-and-error isn't an option unless you want to put your own life at risk. To put it simply, you're quite literally in the (human) meatspace.