eldavido

55 ms·

451.
by eldavido 9y ago
So this actually points to a big problem with how we measure growth. If you start from the assumption that well-being or some other desirable policy goal can be measured by income (profits, wages, etc), I'd argue most of the things in
452.
by eldavido 9y ago
A lot of sophisticated financial people share your thinking. The problem is there's no growth to be found anywhere. People are cheering for 3% GDP growth in the US. Interest rates are at all-time historical lows, meaning discount rates
453.
by eldavido 9y ago
I wrote a long article on this topic today - wouldn't normally post in a comment but it's responsive to a lot of this author's points: https://blog.shortbar.com/tech-debt-in-the-cloud-a6cdcbea184...
454.
by eldavido 9y ago
"100% technically driven". That's a silly statement. You aren't dealing with objective facts here, it's opinions. Tastes. There are always egos, personality, and differing points of view. I think a better view is ar
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by eldavido 9y ago
I'm not sure if I agree or not but I think this is a very insightful comment. This is the level on which this conversation needs to take place - what's important? Are some things more important than others? It's not strictly
456.
by eldavido 9y ago
I think this is true, but I draw a different conclusion: talking about industry-wide "Averages" is a complete waste of time. It's sort of like talking about "the housing market" vs. the Houston market, Chicago marke
457.
The end of the country developer: how software development is becoming like law(blog.shortbar.com)
4 points by eldavido 9y ago|0 comments
458.
by eldavido 9y ago
Says or does? He might talk about profits a lot, but Berkshire is very much a cashflow-optimized machine. The entire thesis of the company was a hack, noticing that insurance collects cash upfront (premium payments) in trade for future liab
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by eldavido 9y ago
Capital structure is _not_ external. You seem sophisticated to know this, but for everyone else, it's all about CASHFLOW. How much the business has coming in the door, how much is going out, etc. Warren Buffet goes on periodic rants ab
460.
by eldavido 9y ago
My .02 on this: You've already lost. The decision has been made, they're moving ahead, and it's clear (a) you can't change their minds and (b) you aren't onboard with it. You should treat this as a learning experien
461.
The development train: product, dev, ops(medium.com)
1 points by eldavido 9y ago|0 comments
462.
by eldavido 9y ago
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rig
463.
by eldavido 9y ago
The naivitee, ignorance, and arrogance of this thread astounds me. The HN population (I include myself in this) seems to think everything is new, there are no precedents for any of this, and that we're building some kind of new society
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by eldavido 9y ago
You'll also get help with tax planning. This matters a lot when you have a complex estate.
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by eldavido 9y ago
My wife and I call this the "faith in experts" argument. We named it because we often find ourselves on opposite sides of it. She believes in experts, I'm more skeptical. The main thing I've realized is that returns to p
466.
by eldavido 9y ago
It's important to realize the global macro environment is pushing up prices of everything: houses, stocks, just, all of it. I'll admit I'm surprised by Bitcoin, I actively avoided it thinking it would crash long before now. B
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by eldavido 9y ago
Funny, that's exactly opposite of my perception. It seems too volatile to use as a unit of account or store of value, but almost perfect as a medium of exchange.
468.
by eldavido 9y ago
Yeah it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. I used to be pretty Randian/anti-regs but I now see that places like this need to operate under some level of regulation to ensure they aren't massive conduits for mon
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by eldavido 9y ago
Ok dude. I see you've put a lot of time into this. If you want to continue this conversation my email is in my sig. I am your living counter-example. I've worked middling tech jobs for the past few years making roughly what we&#x2
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by eldavido 9y ago
It's called saving money, you might try it sometime. Seriously though, people need to see the big picture. There are many, many households in the SFBA with incomes in the 200-300k range. Buying a 600-900k house on that just isn't
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by eldavido 9y ago
Sorry but this is just wrong. I rent in Lake Merritt just off the 17th St BART stop for 2200/month. I split it with my wife. If you can't make a 2k/month rent payment on 100k/year of income, you're not managing your
472.
by eldavido 9y ago
Here in Startupland we sometimes disparage 15%/year. But at the scale where big companies operate, that can be truly massive. facebook is realizing something like 15% return on 70 billion of equity book value. Getting 15% on a 100k r
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by eldavido 9y ago
There's a middle ground here guys. If you're talking about 2-4 million seed rounds, sure, back a great team. But when you're talking about nine-figure equity raises, you probably need a tenable financial model. Another thin
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by eldavido 9y ago
It isn't absurd. You need to distinguish between participating and non-participating preferred. Participating preferred is a lot worse than non-participating, which is always converted into equity in the success case. The scenario this
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by eldavido 9y ago
It's from the 2016 earnings letter. He was making a completely different argument, namely, that accounting that ignores options expense is bullshit (many companies still present this separately in their earnings reports). The relevant
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by eldavido 9y ago
I don't think this is true anymore. I think this is one of those funny vestigial things that evolved in a different era. If you think of a startup as a true "garage venture" with a few people toiling away trying to ship a pro
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by eldavido 9y ago
It also bears mentioning that some of the proposals in the current plan are surprisingly well-considered. Also, it's not like all of it even hews to traditional republican orthodoxy. A few things I've read: - Removing state exempt
478.
by eldavido 9y ago
I think the way we do options in startups needs a more fundamental rethink. I wouldn't be too sad if the current system falls on its face. I like Buffett's proposal from a few years ago. They don't grant stock, they simply pa
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by eldavido 9y ago
Side effect of too much executive power. It's problematic that this is even possible.
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by eldavido 9y ago
Interesting. Care to tell me a little more? How many people live in your town? Is it a socially cohesive place? What would people qualified enough to run the ISP do if not work at the ISP? I always think of that last point (what else would

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