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"The government ... disrupted by a group of people building something on their laptops in Silicon Valley." Right below this quote from your blog, in the "From

"The government ... disrupted by a group of people building something on their laptops in Silicon Valley." Right below this quote from your blog, in the "From around the web" section: "Obamacare could soon cause massive layoffs." I think it's a magical time to get people wasting time on their phones, maybe solve some minor efficiency problems around the edges of Obamacare but SV is the worst possible choice to solve the big problems we're facing.

dennybritz 13y ago
Fair opinion. I believe there are many startups and companies that solve big and important problems, particularly in the Healthcare space. It's not only "around the edges", and lots of healthcare accelerators encourage such startups. Layoffs are not necessarily a bad thing. Building a world with technology in mind means that the role of humans will shift away from traditional positions to something different. In the long run, this may create more jobs that it makes go away. Though I can't disagree with you on the mobile phone thing ;)
- smacktoward 13y ago
  > Building a world with technology in mind means that the role of humans will shift away from traditional positions to something different. In the long run, this may create more jobs that it makes go away. Unfortunately, as John Maynard Keynes famously observed, "in the long run we are all dead." (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes)
  - dkuntz2 13y ago
    That just explains the appeal of Keynesian economics to corporations and the government. The problem is that we kinda need to worry about the long term affects of things, because not doing so is what got us in our current mess with the environment. Dealing with the short term is really appealing, but it typically has the worst long term affects.
    - pessimizer 13y ago
      Only dealing with an indefinite long term is the same as not dealing at all. The fact is, during that entire indefinite period, people will be experiencing life in the present. The consequences of the means have to be justified by the benefits of the ends.
    - smacktoward 13y ago
      It's not an argument for only dealing with the short term, it's an argument for not hand-waving away problems like "X million people can no longer earn a living" with responses like "oh, in the long run that will sort itself out."
    - dragonwriter 13y ago
      > Dealing with the short term is really appealing, but it typically has the worst long term affects. At the same time, focussing only on the theoretically-projected long-term effects while neglecting the near-term effects is really appealing, but then we keep getting changes motivated by long-term (=infinite horizon) effects that never are acheived because what we are always dealing with the short-term results of the most recent change that come from real-world friction on the way to the theoretical infinite horizon effects. To deal with the real world, we need to concern ourselves both with the long-term effects and the path to them.
thetylerhayes 13y ago
I haven't read OP's piece yet, but I agree with @dennybritz that there are plenty of us here in SV who care about solving the big problems. For example we just launched Prime, an iPhone app that allows you to download your medical record from any doctor and share health activity with friends and family. http://stayinyourprime.com http://stayinyourprime.com. We're not the only ones in healthcare. There's also Practice Fusion, drchrono, DoctorBase, and countless others. And on the education side there's Inkling, for example. And on the banking side there's Simple (though they're actually based in Portland). And of course YC famously backed Watsi. Maybe you have different examples in mind of what big problems are but it does seem to me that as we are seeing more startups overall that means we're seeing more startups addressing bigger/more meaningful problems.
- felipe 13y ago
  > an iPhone app that allows you to download your medical record from any doctor and share health activity with friends and family I mean no offense to you personally, but I fail to understand how this problem fits in a world in which 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation.
  - VladRussian2 13y ago
    >I mean no offense to you personally, but I fail to understand how this problem fits in a world in which 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation. some of the people making big on some app will become the next Musk (though unfortunately some will become the next Thiel) and will work on the big problems our civilization faces. That is is the beauty of SV - it allows people doing business here (or even merely employed) to generate resources to try to tackle something bigger. It is like springboard.
    - CodeMage 13y ago
      Let's be honest: how many Thiels per Musk do we get? Somehow I fail to see the beauty in this alleged springboard.

dennybritz 13y ago

Fair opinion. I believe there are many startups and companies that solve big and important problems, particularly in the Healthcare space. It's not only "around the edges", and lots of healthcare accelerators encourage such startups. Layoffs are not necessarily a bad thing. Building a world with technology in mind means that the role of humans will shift away from traditional positions to something different. In the long run, this may create more jobs that it makes go away. Though I can't disagree with you on the mobile phone thing ;)

smacktoward 13y ago
> Building a world with technology in mind means that the role of humans will shift away from traditional positions to something different. In the long run, this may create more jobs that it makes go away. Unfortunately, as John Maynard Keynes famously observed, "in the long run we are all dead." (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes)
- dkuntz2 13y ago
  That just explains the appeal of Keynesian economics to corporations and the government. The problem is that we kinda need to worry about the long term affects of things, because not doing so is what got us in our current mess with the environment. Dealing with the short term is really appealing, but it typically has the worst long term affects.
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    Only dealing with an indefinite long term is the same as not dealing at all. The fact is, during that entire indefinite period, people will be experiencing life in the present. The consequences of the means have to be justified by the benefits of the ends.
  - smacktoward 13y ago
    It's not an argument for only dealing with the short term, it's an argument for not hand-waving away problems like "X million people can no longer earn a living" with responses like "oh, in the long run that will sort itself out."
  - dragonwriter 13y ago
    > Dealing with the short term is really appealing, but it typically has the worst long term affects. At the same time, focussing only on the theoretically-projected long-term effects while neglecting the near-term effects is really appealing, but then we keep getting changes motivated by long-term (=infinite horizon) effects that never are acheived because what we are always dealing with the short-term results of the most recent change that come from real-world friction on the way to the theoretical infinite horizon effects. To deal with the real world, we need to concern ourselves both with the long-term effects and the path to them.

thetylerhayes 13y ago

I haven't read OP's piece yet, but I agree with @dennybritz that there are plenty of us here in SV who care about solving the big problems. For example we just launched Prime, an iPhone app that allows you to download your medical record from any doctor and share health activity with friends and family. http://stayinyourprime.com http://stayinyourprime.com. We're not the only ones in healthcare. There's also Practice Fusion, drchrono, DoctorBase, and countless others. And on the education side there's Inkling, for example. And on the banking side there's Simple (though they're actually based in Portland). And of course YC famously backed Watsi. Maybe you have different examples in mind of what big problems are but it does seem to me that as we are seeing more startups overall that means we're seeing more startups addressing bigger/more meaningful problems.

felipe 13y ago
> an iPhone app that allows you to download your medical record from any doctor and share health activity with friends and family I mean no offense to you personally, but I fail to understand how this problem fits in a world in which 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation.
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  >I mean no offense to you personally, but I fail to understand how this problem fits in a world in which 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation. some of the people making big on some app will become the next Musk (though unfortunately some will become the next Thiel) and will work on the big problems our civilization faces. That is is the beauty of SV - it allows people doing business here (or even merely employed) to generate resources to try to tackle something bigger. It is like springboard.
  - CodeMage 13y ago
    Let's be honest: how many Thiels per Musk do we get? Somehow I fail to see the beauty in this alleged springboard.