harryh

58 ms·

541.
by harryh 7y ago
Ya, I'm not saying I'm 100% confident in my assessment. Just saying that reading it feels pretty fishy. Just my opinion.
542.
by harryh 7y ago
Let's make things real simple: Chinese people used to starve to death all the time because they couldn't afford to buy food. Now that happens much less often because China has gotten much richer through international trade. That&#
543.
by harryh 7y ago
I don't have a hard time saying that people's live are a lot better when they make enough money to afford things like reliable shelter, a better diet, access to medical care (Chinese lifespans have nearly 2Xed in 70 years) & m
544.
by harryh 7y ago
Have they? Unequivocally yes! Understanding this ironclad fact is one of the most important things to understand about changes in the world economy over the last 50 years. China has gone from a country full of subsistence farmers to a cou
545.
by harryh 7y ago
Questioner probably owned options for which he paid no money. Therefore there is no loss. Nor is there a gain on which they owe taxes.
546.
by harryh 7y ago
I very strongly believe this to be the case. The details don't feel right. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21359698
547.
by harryh 7y ago
It's all the same though. In the vast majority of circumstances you aren't firing an individual American and hiring an individual from China. You're just choosing to buy something from a giant corporation that manufactures go
548.
by harryh 7y ago
It depends on whether your role in the company means that you are part of negotiating the deal. If you are the CEO: then probably yes. If you're an IC engineer: then probably not. Relatedly, most of these deal terms are pretty standard
549.
by harryh 7y ago
FWIW, I kind of don't believe that this question is real. Questioner clams that he is a VP but also: > He has no idea how liquidation preferences work > He was "told" that the company was being acquired (instead of bein
550.
by harryh 7y ago
OPs comment asserted that developed world workers were being hurt specifically because of the combination of free trade and a minimum wage caused unemployment. My comment was refuting that specific argument. The stats you mention are intere
551.
by harryh 7y ago
If my example (turning $200 million into $100 million) the investors don't get their full investment back. They lose half of it. But I get your point. And yes, it has something to do with leverage. But I also assert that the current
552.
by harryh 7y ago
The contracts in question aren't shady in the majority of cases. Again, liquidation preferences are perfectly fair.
553.
by harryh 7y ago
I think that you are wrong and am demonstrating that with my willingness to put my money where my mouth is.
554.
by harryh 7y ago
This is actually a great heuristic. Good founders (and companies) will be very transparent about how all this stuff works. Bad founders (and companies) will not. If a company that is trying to recruit you is squirrely about this stuff, it&#
555.
by harryh 7y ago
To whatever extent that is happening, there is no evidence that it has happening more today than it was happening 50 years ago (before globalization) so comparing the unemployment rate of today to the unemployment rate then is still a perfe
556.
by harryh 7y ago
It's not that complicated. If a company exists for less money than the amount invested in the company then common stock is worth nothing. If it exists for more than the amount invested then common stock will (almost always) be worth so
557.
by harryh 7y ago
What information asymmetry? Liquidation preferences are perfectly fair, and not at all a mystery. Especially in the year 2019 when there has been an enormous amount written about them on the internet.
558.
by harryh 7y ago
If anyone reading this is working at a startup and values their options at zero please get in contact with me (contact info in my profile) and we'll find a way for you to sell me your equity for $1.
559.
by harryh 7y ago
It's not odd at all. If you start a company and you turn $200 million of investment into an exit of $100 million dollars you haven't done anything valuable. Why would you expect your stock to be worth anything?
560.
by harryh 7y ago
The current US unemployment rate is 3.5% which is near all time historical lows. Virtually no one is unemployed in the US because of the combination of international trade and minimum wage laws.
561.
by harryh 7y ago
What do you think makes up most of the cost of a cell phone plan? Labor.
562.
by harryh 7y ago
In some cases they are, but as the people across the ocean have gotten richer (much much richer) their working conditions have improved dramatically. Success!
563.
by harryh 7y ago
It is generally thought of as immoral to rend one person in order to help one other. Not when it comes to buying things, which is what this situation is. Blue collar workers in the US (or other developed nations) don't have a moral d
564.
by harryh 7y ago
Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter would like to have a word with you.
565.
by harryh 7y ago
nobody outside of Germany consumes German culture Everyone in the world that listens to electronic music would like to disagree with you.
566.
by harryh 7y ago
Every 15 points of IQ is 1 standard deviation from the mean. So 210 is 7.3 standard deviations away from 100. Just 7 standard deviations away from the mean means that you would expect only 1 in 780 billion from a population. Given that this
567.
by harryh 7y ago
It seems fairly obvious that wealth distribution would not perfectly mirror the underlying talent distribution. In a competitive environment small difference have large impacts on results. Usain Bolt was only a tiny bit faster than other sp
568.
by harryh 7y ago
Not a regular newsletter, but you might enjoy Byrne Hobart's essays on Medium: https://medium.com/@byrnehobart
569.
by harryh 7y ago
But good communication can solve all those obstacles. Good communication can solve hundreds of years of deeply ingrained sexism in society? I mean...maybe. But I don't think this is at all obvious.
570.
by harryh 7y ago
In most cases where the "wait them out" strategy is abandoned, it's because their are children involved and there is legitimate reason to be concerned for their safety.

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