harryh

53 ms·

571.
by harryh 7y ago
They can kinda do something half way in that direction just by waiting. The lower WeWork's cash on hand gets, the harder of a position Neumann is in. Of course, it's not clear if it's a credible bluff since Softbank isn'
572.
by harryh 7y ago
You should read about James Simons, one of the richest of them all. He has a PhD in math from Berkeley and is, by all accounts, brilliant.
573.
by harryh 7y ago
Maybe if you are talking about some random investor. But if we're talking about SoftBank, which already owns ~30% of WeWork, probably not.
574.
by harryh 7y ago
They rent buildings long term for low prices and then lease them back out in small pieces at higher prices. If they can keep the buildings full enough, they could make a lot of money! Right now most of their buildings are still pretty new,
575.
by harryh 7y ago
Because SoftBank wants additional control of the company. In order to get that, they need more stock. Stock than Neumann owns. So they'll pay him for it.
576.
by harryh 7y ago
The majority of their properties are very new so losing money is expected. If older properties are making money and new properties will eventually turn into older properties then they are, potentially, fine.
577.
by harryh 7y ago
Fun fact about Costco. More than 100% of its profits come from membership fees. The actual selling of goods loses a small amount of money. See this super interesting twitter thread: https://twitter.com/investing_city/st
578.
by harryh 7y ago
When it comes to company stock liquidity isn't really binary. There are degrees.
579.
by harryh 7y ago
Of course. But in many cases they will. And even in cases where there are restrictions....there are often things that can be done. But that's not really the point. My point is calling something illiquid worth "nil" is often s
580.
by harryh 7y ago
If anyone has any post-exit but not yet liquid stock that they would like to sell me for $0.01, my contact info is in my HN profile.
581.
by harryh 7y ago
Blue Ribbon? With the Oxtail?
582.
by harryh 7y ago
The MTA is currently in the process of spending 5 billion dollars on ~70 elevators. The inefficiency (and, frankly, corruption) of the agency is staggering. The organization's problems have very very little to do with budget constraint
583.
by harryh 7y ago
I did this in college to hack the digital sign on the Purnell Center at CMU. Did not get expelled. Also good times.
584.
by harryh 7y ago
WeWork currently employs about 15,000 people. Though pretty much everyone expects that number to drop a good bit with layoffs (including this one) in the coming months.
585.
by harryh 7y ago
Do you really think Turks and Caicos banks only loan money to islanders? Not much to invest in there. Capital easily flows across borders to the best investment opportunities. Real estate is a bit tricky since it can be both consumption and
586.
by harryh 7y ago
Bank deposits aren't removed from the economy. That money is loaned out to other people. That's what banks do.
587.
by harryh 7y ago
Property beyond a certain level should be taxed way worse than income. It's just hogging resources from society This is an argument for taxing consumption, not wealth. If I have $100M sitting in a bank account it isn't consuming
588.
by harryh 7y ago
Do go on? Sure! Read this: https://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/01/27/a-quick-economics...
589.
by harryh 7y ago
It's not just the workers, GE shareholders have gotten slammed as well. GE's stock is down about 70% in the last 3 years. This is what happens when a business underperforms.
590.
by harryh 7y ago
This person wasn't AFAIK kicked out of the community completely. They were removed from a leadership position. Those in leadership are held to higher standards than others in the community.
591.
by harryh 7y ago
StackOverflow is made of of people, not technical knowledge seeking robots. Those people are messy and will inevitably come with a hole bundle of values in addition to their desire to ask and answer technical questions.
592.
by harryh 7y ago
StackOverflow is a community and communities are sustained by shared values. It makes perfect sense to oust leaders from a community who are out of alignment with the values the community wants to support.
593.
by harryh 7y ago
The "black lives matter" movement is a protest against the fact that black people are killed by police officers at alarming rates. The phrase "all lives matter" is a deliberate attempt to draw attention away from this fa
594.
by harryh 7y ago
GMail was a heavy AJAX user and predated Google Maps.
595.
by harryh 7y ago
I think the Kalanick you describe here is a ruthless businessman that veers across the line into asshole and that's...not great. But again, it's not the same thing as Holmes (fraudster) or Neumann (purveyor of fantastical bullshit
596.
by harryh 7y ago
Did smartphones transform the world or were they just an emergent property of improved touchscreen and battery technology? Like...I get what you are saying and I agree that something like Uber was inevitable. But someone still has to go out
597.
by harryh 7y ago
Fair enough. There are indeed some very small towns where Uber hasn't changed anything. Despite that, I stand by my assertion that the company changed the world in a real way. I also think they'll get the the Charles Town WVs of
598.
by harryh 7y ago
I didn't check exhaustively but I looked at all the cities in South Carolina (the state that I am from) in that list and if you click through you'll see that the areas they are talking about actually pretty much cover the whole st
599.
by harryh 7y ago
Banks borrow short and lend long. It works out OK for them.
600.
by harryh 7y ago
Taxis only really worked in a few large US cities before Uber. Now I can get an Uber almost anywhere.

More ›