tibbetts

13 ms·

121.
by tibbetts 6y ago
Sounds like a law school exam question about when it stops being parody and starts being deliberately confusing to consumers. Like if I sell Jock Doniels whiskey that’s only 10% alcohol, is that really a parody? Or the South Butt clothing b
122.
by tibbetts 6y ago
I don’t know about pretending a correlation, but a common challenge for engineering and product ICs who are trying to become more senior or have a bigger impact is understanding how their work relates to the big picture. I often ask enginee
123.
by tibbetts 6y ago
If you thought “A Modest Proposal” sounded pretty fantastic, you must have read a different essay by that title than I did. And saying that communism sounds good in theory is also a pretty superficial reading of Marx and others.
124.
by tibbetts 7y ago
There is a version of DB2 for mainframe, but it’s a totally different codebase as I understand it. The operating system on a mainframe provides a lot of what modern app developers get from their database and caching systems, generally with
125.
by tibbetts 7y ago
I’m not an OSX expert, but it seems like you should be able to make a compiled binary to do this and then give it setuid permissions, avoiding the need for a password. At least that is how I would do it on other unixes.
126.
by tibbetts 7y ago
It often seems like shutting down potential acquisitions has the biggest impact, but it’s hard to get credit for saying “no” to something.
127.
by tibbetts 7y ago
To quote: “...because we’ve got the bomb. Two words. Nuclear fucking weapons....”
128.
by tibbetts 7y ago
Yes please LinkedIn.
129.
by tibbetts 8y ago
I’ve hired engineers in their 40s and 50s at a startup where I was the 25 year old CTO founder. Now I’m turning 40 and my most recent title was CEO. Some of the best ICs I’ve worked with were later in their career. And not only are they goo
130.
by tibbetts 8y ago
At that age my doctor said the things that were likely to kill people like me were motorcycle accidents, extreme sports, and drug addiction. So if your hobbies are software and photography, that mostly leaves drug addiction.
131.
by tibbetts 8y ago
Some of my mechanical engineering friends think of working at LEGO the way others think of working at Space X or NASA. I’m pretty sure all of those models have run through finite element analysis.
132.
by tibbetts 8y ago
Sure, but most business decision making is based on hand wavy made up math. Like, how do you decide to build a feature or switch programming systems? Does it not relate to customers or revenue? Also, yes, don’t have the numbers be BS or fai
133.
by tibbetts 8y ago
Learn to talk about your accomplishments like an entrepreneur or executive would: impact with quantified customer and company value. Not “I switched our development from Java to Go” but “improved time to deliver new customer functionality f
134.
by tibbetts 8y ago
The I think “maybe I should rent one on vacation sometime.” And after three days with a BMW Z4 convertible, I get that out of my system for well under $1k. I also resolved my interest in Jeep Wranglers this way.
135.
by tibbetts 8y ago
Don’t stress as much about investor capital as about your own time. Investors probably like what you are doing and they probably have (more or less) plenty of capital or they wouldn’t have given to you. They mostly won’t want their money ba
136.
by tibbetts 8y ago
You can and should show meaningful numbers while searching. And you should probably do some of your 24 months and numbers before you quit your day job and ask for money. “We talked to 15 friendly CIOs at mid sized banks, and they all said t
137.
by tibbetts 8y ago
If you have access to an oracle that protects you from making these kind of mistakes, I encourage you to start a venture fund. Or start an international charity. Or ask your oracle what the best thing to do is and then do that. The answer i
138.
by tibbetts 8y ago
Donating it to charity wasn’t on offer. It’s not like OP stole the money. Heck, I raised some of my seed capital from a venture fund that is mostly backed by an international charity, and apparently that charity thinks that a little bit of
139.
by tibbetts 8y ago
No, but for the right people in the right place at the right time raising seed capital is about as difficult as applying for a job. It’s just that you have to invent and pitch the job. In that context you could think of the post as “I got t
140.
by tibbetts 9y ago
Venture capital is a hits business, and if you want to invest in an entrepreneur there is benefit towards getting them the first time. Marc Benioff has 13 years of Oracle experience when he started Salesforce, and he already had plenty of a
141.
by tibbetts 9y ago
Well they were only off by one or two.
142.
by tibbetts 9y ago
Or moderator successful younger founders. Using the first startup as a launching point is even easier when you clear a few million than when you “fail”.
143.
by tibbetts 9y ago
Weapon design is all about government contracts, which generally require experience. Even Iron Man was using his dad’s existing corporate vehicle. Advanced AI usually depends on finding a business model, which requires experience. And place
144.
by tibbetts 9y ago
Pay their taxes without whining or trying to take over the government. Don’t try to discredit science to protect your wealth. Consider the social costs of their investments. Engage in substantial philanthropy.
145.
by tibbetts 9y ago
It turns out that some problems are solvable by a massively parallelized optimization process based on independent decision making, advertising, pricing, and money. Success stories include food production, household goods, and many kinds of
146.
by tibbetts 9y ago
This is true. The feeling of entitlement, that their wealth was earned, and the lack of obligation to give back to the greater good, is the biggest problem with wealth growth since the 1980s. The 19th century British aristocracy might have
147.
by tibbetts 9y ago
It matters, and it might be ok if the wealthy were being nice about it. Unfortunately a very active subset seems to be bringing back feudalism. In the 20s-70s rich people were conveniently afraid of communist revolution and thus inclined to
148.
by tibbetts 9y ago
The law against perpetuity means you can’t have an open ended bequest like that. Someone living has to get it, and in bounded time. You can mess around a bit, like leaving money in trust to your youngest living descendent, to pay out on the
149.
by tibbetts 9y ago
DARPA and friends should go long. But it would be nice if journalists didn’t act like problems were completely solved the first time they see a prototype. That kind of hype is how you get AI winter.
150.
by tibbetts 9y ago
An assumption can be widely held even if most informed people would dispute it. For example the widely held belief that housing prices will only go up, despite historical and theoretical arguments to the contrary.

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