chrisherd's comments

Do you have an email I could forward some materials to, thanks for your response

- The Prince (get's a bad press, thought provoking)

- Apex [Nexus 3] (prose is meh, inevitable life goes this way)

- Factfulness (Awesome, most important book I read this year)

- Prisoners of Geography (why nations act the way they do)

- Crux [Nexus 2] (prose is meh, inevitable life goes this way)

- Debt: the first 5000 years (slog to get through but interesting)

- Nexus [Nexus 1] (prose is meh, inevitable life goes this way)

- Digitocracy (super short story, super powerful message)

- Artemis (Not as good as the martian)

- Before Mars (Starts out great, fizzles out)

- Down and Out in Magic Kingdom (How reputation based social currency might pan out)

- Blood Sweat and Pixels (How games are really made)

- Masters of Doom (Awesome story of how the game was made and what it led to)

- Foundation [Foundation 1] (Prescient with where the world is, what might happen in reality)

- Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that can't... (Ok, not great, read it on blinkist)

- Ender's Game (Under rated, most fun I had reading this year, I know...)

- Neuromancer (classic, must read)

- Pre-suation (interesting and worth reading if starting a consumer facing business)

- The Three-Body Problem (Found it tedious, honestly. Interesting though)

- Radical Candour (A lot of common sense advice we take for granted and could do better with)

- Seveneves (Longggggg, but really worth it. Shame about the ending)

- The Virgin Banker (Really good read, how a bank came into being)

- Why information grows (Great read, could of been half the length, would recommend)

- Babylon Revisited (Meh)

- Money: the Unauthorised Biography (Simplistic history of money before and after coin. Good)

- Hellbent (Enjoyed it, good for a holiday read)

- Snow Crash (Classic, Awesome, read it)

- The little prince (must read)

- To Pixar and Beyond (A different viewpoint on Jobs)

First product will launch in October (Nexves dot com) would appreciate any comments Jared.

Got ~1,000 users desperate to test the beta and a very compelling reason 100k will migrate in the first 12 months.

Startup School would of been external gratification of what we know is an awesome idea.

We’ll deliver.

This.

We’re building a massively ambitious banking alternative. Principal engineer ex JP Morgan Chase Senior Dev. Angel investment from the founder of a hugely disruptive British Unicorn. Support from a number of other important sources.

Not to criticize the decision making process, historical precedent speaks for itself. We thought we fit the mould but apparently not.

Back to implementing.

You’d expect this from other accelerators, everyone holds YC to higher standards.

I don’t think it’s wrong to expect better in this instance. In the age of social media news travels fast. I’d received congratulatory messages from several YC alum within 10 minutes of the first email.

That’s life.

Interesting - we would absolutely benefit from the multifunctionality of use on IOS/Android

The problem I have is that I am comfortable using either, but can't really understand the long-term implication of my choice. Obviously I can change the tech later, but with it being money I see the switching cost being much larger than normal. It's about wanting to minimize risk now as much as possible with view to future development on the platform.

Just founded my startup - left a high paying job, have two kids, own my house, a lot of liabilities etc.

Figured if I didn't take the risk now I'd always regret it. Things are tight, but each morning I awaken invigorated by the opportunity to create something that matter. Never underestimate the vitality gained by working on something you love.

Realise the liklihood that I don't succeed is high, but when faced with the certainty of lifelong regret if I didn't it simplified things. Time is the only thing I can't get back, honestly, I'm just upset I didn't do it sooner. Managed to convince the CEO/Founder of an existing unicorn to invest, but probably won't be able to draw a salary for 6-12 months, and that is scary.

Would love to discus more, drop me a line if interested: [email protected]

Interesting thought if, obviously a huge if, this or something similar turns out to work as advertised.

Would the drug be left unpatented as a gift to humanity, highly unlikely, or exploited for every penny like viagra?

i get that, I just wonder whether utilising a massive platform approach like reCAPTCHA could optimise the ability of NLP to comprehend things at a far higher rate.

The general consensus seems to be, on HN atleast, that what they are doing in unsustainable - which economically it obviously is - but how many people would short Uber?

As far as I see it, if venture continues to fund its expansion Ubers access to private capital from banks is almost infinite. Ride sharing might be a non-zero sum game, but I fully expect Uber to buy lyft eventually and then it becomes far easier to cherry pick any smaller upstarts when they reach a certain scale.

In fact, Ubers forray into new markets would be far more economically viable by doing so. Allowing smaller companies to establish in new cities or regions before purchasing them makes a lot of sense as the business matures.

Additionally, like the deal with Didi shows, there is a massive incentive to monopolise through partnership. I would imagine this is the route Uber would go should any of the large tech companies decide to establish itself as a viable competitor.

Classic case of always doing the same thing because it's the way things have always been done. Only takes one person trying something differenct to start a 'revolution'...

The article reads better than the book, which is unfortunate because all of Michael Lewis' work has been fascinating.

Exactly that, architcute is an altruistic pursuit where the hours you invest are never appreciated. Clients don't see, nor do they care about, the amount of time it takes to create great work.

Fortunately I'm based in Scotland, and comparative the the states a master degree is priced far more reasonably and we have some excellent institution I.e. St Andrews university

Originals - Adam Grant: Concise and clear, originals change the world but they aren’t the people we think they are.

When breath becomes air - Paul Kalanithi: Haunting, beautiful, moving and perfect. Life is surprising and we can’t legislate for the things that are thrust upon us.

Shoe dog - Phil Knight: How a gang of misfits can changed the world. Favourite entreprenurial journey I've ever consumed.

Sapiens - Yuval Harari: Wow, nothing else to say.

The Future of the Proffesions - Richard & Daniel Susskind: This is a tough read, it was a slog, but it was worth it. The world is changing before our eyes. Professions will die, not just entry level labour intensive jobs.

Contagious - Jonah Berger: If you own a business you want things to go viral, Jonah enlightens you to the possibilities of how.

Platform Scale - Sangeet Paul Choudary: Excellent and rigorously supported. An infusion of practicality and academia. A look behind the curtain of the collaborative economy.

The Third Wave - Steve Case: The low hanging fruits have been picked, now what? The internet of things is coming, but what does that mean.

The Sharing Economy - Arun Sundararajan: I’m a believer in the sharing/collaborative economy but i’m worried, the way people are being treated is deplorable. A projection of whats to come.

Grit - Angela Duckworth: Why do some people succeed and others don’t? Why did the child prodigy fail? Why do some people drop out of school and others thrive? Favourite book of the year.

Black Box Thinking - Matthew Syed: Cognitive dissonance, why do we think the way we do. Why can’t we change our minds even when we are wrong?

Clay Water Brick - Jessica Jackley: Want to learn what it takes to change the world?

Behind the Cloud - Marc Benioff: Marc Benioff is a genius.

Postcapitalism - Paul Mason: Does capitalism work? This seems even more pertinent following recent political upheaval. First Brexit now Trump, this gravitas of what this book conveyed wasn’t really certain until those moments occurred. The world is changing, brought forth by massive economic migration and the erosion of borders. Can we stay the same or must we evolve to survive?

Zero to One - Peter Thiel: Classic.

Presence - Amy Cuddy: I was going to omit this from the list on account of the fact some of the science of the book being flawed. I couldn’t, I loved it. It spoke to me about my own issues facing impostor syndrome.

Delivering Happiness - Tony Hsieh: Tony is my mentor, he just doesn’t know it, yet.

Peers Inc. - Robin Chase: Could zipcar have been uber if the technology existed? It doesn’t matter, but reading this I felt like I was learning about a secret nobody knew about. Chase was ahead of her time, probably too far, but the book is gold.

Things a Little Bird Told me - Biz Stone: Sometimes billion dollar ideas are about luck arising from failure.

Business For Punks - James Watt: Do things your way or fail trying to please other people. Business for punks is brash, unapologetic and sure of itself. It doesn’t make any excuses, instead it forces it down your throat. In the same way Brewdog is a business like no other so is this book. It’s irreverent and certain. It’s the best business book i read this year, without queston.

OrphanX - Gregg Hurwitz: out Bourning Bourne, out Bonding Bond and out Reachering Reacher.

TV is where music was in the early 2000's. Technology, and streaming in particular, has advanced to such an extent that it's a no brainer. Like music executives were, TV producers are archaic and they've presided over its demise because they have had a monopoly which was so good for so long. They've accepted the way things are as the way they will always be without cognition of the change they were witnessing.

TV is dying because you have to pay more money to have no control over the schedule of things you watch, in comparison to streaming.

In the UK, for sports at least, it is even worse. Up to £90/$120 a month for the full TV package yet I can't even watch the soccer game I want to watch it's picked for me, it's absurd. Yet I can go online and watch an international stream of the same game for free.

Spotify emerged and changed the paradigm, the same will happen to TV but with one critical evolution; the extinction of garbage television.

Programming outside of live television is dead, it makes no sense to persist. The film and TV series market have been sewn up. The greed of sporting government/TV corporation has prevented this so far with Live TV but they'll fall or face the same problem the music industry did, which they already are.

The death of satellite Television is the first step to a better, economically efficient, world for consumers.

If you follow the natural path, advertisement on Satellite television may be the most wasteful form of advertisement imaginable. It's a small step to imagine a world where advertisements around a sporting event are tailored specifically to an individual, if you subscription is linked to your Facebook account or Google search history. It therefore must be assumed if more targeted advertisement could be achieved live events would be subsidised to reach the appropriate audience.