sbardle

28 ms·

61.
by sbardle 10y ago
The Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski once said "Original sin remains a profound and insightful view of the human condition". He didn't last long at Berkeley, as it happens.
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by sbardle 10y ago
Pinterest is a good bet to succeed if it can integrate social commerce into the platform. A lot of E-commerce is going to be done over social media soon, especially fashion.
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by sbardle 10y ago
Financial institutions won't be making the decision as to whether the technology is widely adopted or not in the long term. If there is another financial crisis, then people will eventually work out the existing financial system (esp t
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by sbardle 10y ago
One of the most damaging notions of creativity is that of the lone genius, as portrayed and developed by the Romantics. To be creative you have to situate yourself in a tradition (it could be furthering the tradition, or rebelling against i
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by sbardle 10y ago
Many of the pre-Beeching lines cannot be re-opened, as they have been built over with roads and housing, especially in the South East. The closest you will get to experiencing pre-Beeching railways is the Hogwarts Express in Florida, I&#x27
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by sbardle 10y ago
I don't think it was intended to be a scam. The founder raised too much capital on the back of massively inflated expectations. They couldn't deliver (didn't one of the technical team commit suicide in despair over this?) a
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by sbardle 10y ago
Technological revolutions create economic growth, as understood by Schumpeter. Governments do not create economic growth. Debt does not create economic growth. We are at the early stages of probably the largest technological revolution in
68.
by sbardle 11y ago
Manufacturing isn't coming back. Do you think your average American would put up with the conditions in a Chinese iPhone factory?
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by sbardle 11y ago
How the media works: build em up, knock em down. Either way, there's a story.
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by sbardle 11y ago
A PhD isn't so much a test of intelligence as it is of perseverance.
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by sbardle 11y ago
William Blake said the last thing to expect of Public Records is for them to be true. I'd argue the last place to expect to find freedom of speech is a university campus.
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by sbardle 11y ago
Tech is a big part of the US stock market (significantly bigger than it was before the financial crisis began). The question is: would the unicorn bubble bursting then contribute to a loss in faith in tech in general by investors, a NASDAQ
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by sbardle 11y ago
The unicorn phenomenon is the result of hot money looking for any kind of return in a zombified financial system. Tech has had a good run the last ten years but things like QE have contributed to turning the sector into something of an ass
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by sbardle 11y ago
Trump doesn't believe in anything, but he is mining the writing of the paleoconservative movement (the traditional right) for popular appeal.
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by sbardle 11y ago
A good time to be a lawyer in the Valley...
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by sbardle 11y ago
I would investigate implementing a basic income through the creation of an alternative currency system. That is, everyone who subscribes to the system, gets a certain number of free credits equivalent to 10k a year, in exchange for certain
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by sbardle 11y ago
I'm not so sure. Central banks helped cause the 08 crisis by lowering interest rates after 9/11 and encouraging a housing bubble. Their response to the 08 crisis (bailing out the banks, ultra-low interest rates, QE) may have laid
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by sbardle 11y ago
He didn't fail the exercise because I like Cool Runnings:-
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by sbardle 11y ago
Most children are creative. I taught in a school for a year and there was only one child who had zero creativity (the exercise was to write a film plot and he basically reproduced the "Cool Runnings" story). But the school system
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by sbardle 11y ago
It's not going to happen by then. Musk is trying to provoke a greater interest in space exploration. He has done the same for electric cars. This may lead to greater public funding for NASA, and more private investment for things like
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by sbardle 11y ago
Central banks are the problem. They have destabalised the global economy by constantly lowering interest rates and creating asset bubbles to promote the illusion of growth. Central bankers are politically appointed in many cases so they ha
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by sbardle 11y ago
Also factor in the trend of millennials living at home and declining family formation. But the main reason for the drop is the collapse of the emerging markets and the fact that China has dramatically slowed down.
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by sbardle 11y ago
Contrary to popular belief, Dawkins has never produced original research. He is a popular science writer, who synthesises recent discoveries in the field of evolutionary biology into an understandable narrative for the layperson (albeit wit
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by sbardle 11y ago
Free trade with China has undoubtedly destroyed US manufacturing jobs, and therefore significantly affected the working and lower middle class, which makes (or made) up most of the people. China has always implemented protectionist policie
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by sbardle 11y ago
Alternative currencies independent of central banks.
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by sbardle 11y ago
Contrary to popular belief, there can be economic growth during periods of deflation, as demonstrated by the economist Gary Shilling. Paul Buchheit gave a presentation in London which understood capitalism as a technology. I think that is t
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by sbardle 12y ago
Startups and PhDs do tend to attract intellectually curious people. The startup scene seems to be benefiting from the brain-drain away from academia due to push and pull factors. But there are some differences: A startup involves working in