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The summary is that Alex has invested in two companies that he'd like people to consider are the solution to a crisis he describes. He also pooh-poohs a scheme
by droithomme 13y ago
The summary is that Alex has invested in two companies that he'd like people to consider are the solution to a crisis he describes.
He also pooh-poohs a scheme by Peter Thiel which is a privately financed personal pilot project for 20 talented young adults a year by investing in their work without requiring ownership of whatever they come up with. He criticizes this plan for only applying to 20 people even though it was never meant to scale to the populace, it has always been about giving very talented young adults who are already working on something interesting an alternative to college debt. He then as a counter example points to a system with literally millions of students as input which has produced a student in Mongolia who was accepted to MIT, the same student who is mentioned in numerous articles as the great success of this system.
And we have his credentials as having cashed in with Reddit. Reddit it cool and valuable, but it's also not profitable after all these years, which should be considered when talking about things that are expected to yield some sort of economic value and not just a cash out for a property that never manages to create positive cash flow.
- al1x 13y agoThanks for the summary. Reading articles is so 5 years ago. From what I've read it seems that Reddit is unprofitable more by choice than by anything else though. They refuse any serious attempt to monetize with ads, thinking (foolishly, I would say) that it would scare their audience away. The types of ads they do run are silly and light-hearted. An Amazon affiliate ad for the book "Crafting With Cat Hair" was a personal favorite. So while you do have a valid point -- they're not (or barely) profitable, I think it should be framed in this context for understanding: they're not profitable by choice. I personally don't think making a switch and putting "real" ads up on their site would make a damn bit of difference. Why should anyone care? They're a business, they should make money. People are used to ads. They're No Big Deal at all. Besides, where else would be people go? It's not like there's a better alternative.