zby

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511.
by zby 8y ago
This would be a useful feature - a button "Search disagreeing videos" or "Search critique of this video".
512.
by zby 8y ago
I really like this analysis: https://thinkgrowth.org/uber-is-going-to-0-and-benchmark-kno... : Taxi service is not a good candidate for a global monopoly - because most rides are for local population and there is no need fo
513.
by zby 8y ago
Care to elaborate on that? Sounds rather surprising. In wikipedia on nuclear fission "quantum" is used 3 times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fission - but I suspect that all of the nuclear physics is
514.
by zby 8y ago
Advertising is just the first thing to do with that data - I expect there will be more (or already there is more - just most of it secret). The problem is that there are huge network effects for information - because there can always be som
515.
by zby 8y ago
Uber is actually not the best example of a natural global monopoly - because it needs to compete locally - most taxi rides are for local population. So there might be a natural monopoly (or duopoly) for a taxi app - but one per a metro area
516.
by zby 8y ago
The craziness of recent Uber and WeWork and other unicorn valuations (with SoftBank just doubling their bets to show valuation growth) looks like a peak in the investment euphoria and what we should expect next is a swing back ala https:&#
517.
by zby 8y ago
"Violence and the sacred" by Rene Girard.
518.
by zby 8y ago
What we need is a Glassdoor for VCs.
519.
by zby 8y ago
VC investing is on a spectrum - at companies already at the unicorn stage it is more private equity than what happens at earlier stages. Also now partial liquidity events for the founders are a standard. They improve the incentives alignmen
520.
by zby 8y ago
There is one more additional thing: graft also takes effort, the easy things are also easy to control. The founder can either work on the startup or on the extractions. The point is to make the extractions relatively less attractive than th
521.
by zby 8y ago
Europe is behind - but it goes in the same direction. It is not that this is very new - my father (in the 1950s) used to wander whole day in the forests, I did not have exactly the same freedom (in 1980s) - but still a lot of it, a few year
522.
by zby 8y ago
VCs want binary outcomes - either something grows 100 times or it dies. This is not because they are evil, or crazy (and don't want money from a slow growth but still money earning business) - but because this is a way to avoid princip
523.
by zby 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking - yes banks print money (figuratively). They make loans and the money people receive on their accounts is money just created out of thin air.
524.
by zby 8y ago
I believe privacy is a tragedy of the commons - individually nobody cares, because in each case there is a very small chance that the loss of privacy will have an impact on a life, but as society we give up on the idea of democracy. This is
525.
by zby 8y ago
It might be read as cynical - but in itself it is just a statement of fact. It is informative.
526.
by zby 8y ago
Isn't the MongoDB code covered by their Server Side license [1]? AWS could not use this legally. 1. https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/mongodb-now-released-under...
527.
by zby 8y ago
If it is proprietary they don't have to pay - they can always write their own - just like it happend in this case. If it is economic to write their own now - it would also be economic to write their own when Mongo was entirely propriet
528.
by zby 8y ago
If it was proprietary it would not be free - why should they pay then and not now? I am arguing that they would not, just like they don't now - there is no difference. The problem is with selling software - not with Open Source, if it
529.
by zby 8y ago
Why would AWS be a customer if Mongo was entirely proprietary and not when it is mostly Open Source?
530.
by zby 8y ago
[Meta warning] This comment is being downvoted because of the incendiary language, but it is actually quite insightful. I wish the author changed some of the words used :(
531.
by zby 8y ago
How would it be different if whole of MongoDB had a proprietary license? Amazon would do the same thing with the same effect. Open Source is a red herring here - the problem is with selling software when AWS sells “performance, scalability,
532.
by zby 8y ago
The established truth is that “Chance favors the prepared mind.“
533.
by zby 8y ago
Are you sure that the reading were 20-30 percent off and not just delayed? Libre and other sensors measure sugar level in the extracellular fluid and it takes some time before glucose gets there from blood. The delays make the comparison di
534.
by zby 8y ago
I am not a lawyer but beside some really crazy cases it seems very hard to prove at court.
535.
by zby 8y ago
VC try to filter out such founders - but it happens and it is the reason of why VCs want quick outcomes and avoid the middle ground of slow growth profitable companies. They want their companies either go down quickly or grow up enormously
536.
by zby 8y ago
Floor is better when it is higher - would you agree with that statement? But if floor is important and it is better when higher - then the best store of value would be a basket of long lasting useful commodities. Like iron. Their floor is p
537.
by zby 8y ago
Floor is better when it is higher - would you agree with that statement? But if floor is important and it is better when higher - then the best store of value would be a basket of long lasting useful commodities. Like iron. Their floor is p
538.
by zby 8y ago
Another angle: https://stratechery.com/2015/aggregation-theory/ The aggregated side is the commodity.
539.
by zby 8y ago
I don't care much if the waste is in energy or hardware or in any other resource. And the level of waste depends only on the block reward and the price of ETH, not the algorithm used, because as long as it is profitable people will bur
540.
by zby 8y ago
This is about making credible commitments, decentralization is a mean to that. What we see here is that the commitments can never be absolutely credible - but maybe that is not too bad, maybe we can live with some relativity.

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