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I'm pretty cynical as a rule, but I'd be careful about classifying startups as trivial or first-world. Facebook was a startup based on the notion that ivy leagu

I'm pretty cynical as a rule, but I'd be careful about classifying startups as trivial or first-world. Facebook was a startup based on the notion that ivy league kids wanted another exclusive place to themselves, and it's obviously put a dent in the world. The amount of visual information we're collecting nowadays is vast, and I think the idea that it's cute but that it's value ends at individual nostalgia might be shorting it's potential quite a bit. Further, I'd love to see sharing of medical information get easier, in fact that's literally what I do at the startup I work for... but a big part of what makes what we build possible is the enormous amount of technology in the form of other people's ideas and software (most of it open-source). Loads of that tech came from people working at shops taking shots at problems you might consider first-world. Yeah, it'd be neat if more people were geeked about working in healthcare. (I'd sure love it if we could find it easier to hire!) But to suggest that everyone else is wasting their time is ridiculous.

angersock 13y ago
To your point about collecting visual information: Look, I agree it's awesome and all, but consider that I can still hold the physical photographs of myself from five years ago, of my parents thirty years ago, and my grandparents fifty years ago. I can't get at the images I uploaded to Facebook two years ago. So, while I agree that the data is great, I don't exactly think that turning all of it over into the cloud is going to do much for permanency.
- famousactress 13y ago
  What I heard you say: Putting my pictures in the cloud isn't working for me today Gee, that sounds like a pretty solid defense for someone trying to do it better :) Of course, I did notice you also concluded that because we haven't gotten it right yet, we should give up. That's even better. When people say that, that's when I really start to believe there's a problem worth working on here. If a good number of people don't think it's impossible or silly to do (or that it's already been done poorly and that's the best we can hope for), it's probably gonna be boring to work on.
TechNewb 13y ago
Agreed. Solving any real problem is a good problem to solve. Cell phones have changed the way Africans communicate with each other, as well as any other developing country/area, but I don't think the initial problem was to solve poor tele-com infrastructure in developing countries.

angersock 13y ago

To your point about collecting visual information: Look, I agree it's awesome and all, but consider that I can still hold the physical photographs of myself from five years ago, of my parents thirty years ago, and my grandparents fifty years ago. I can't get at the images I uploaded to Facebook two years ago. So, while I agree that the data is great, I don't exactly think that turning all of it over into the cloud is going to do much for permanency.

famousactress 13y ago
What I heard you say: Putting my pictures in the cloud isn't working for me today Gee, that sounds like a pretty solid defense for someone trying to do it better :) Of course, I did notice you also concluded that because we haven't gotten it right yet, we should give up. That's even better. When people say that, that's when I really start to believe there's a problem worth working on here. If a good number of people don't think it's impossible or silly to do (or that it's already been done poorly and that's the best we can hope for), it's probably gonna be boring to work on.

TechNewb 13y ago

Agreed. Solving any real problem is a good problem to solve. Cell phones have changed the way Africans communicate with each other, as well as any other developing country/area, but I don't think the initial problem was to solve poor tele-com infrastructure in developing countries.