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dataisfun's comments

dataisfun | 8 years ago | on: Nuclear War Survival Skills (1987) [pdf]

Completely agree. Survival past that point would probably be a worse outcome. Just imagine the long tail of life when fully aware of humanity's self immolation. Combine that with the fact that most of the people likely to survive are the most paranoid of today's preppers, one shudders at the thought of plodding through an existence trapped in the most neurotic subreddits come to life.

dataisfun | 8 years ago | on: Launch HN: Lyrebird (YC S17) – Create a digital copy of your voice

I don't buy the "raising awareness" argument, ethically speaking. To do that, you could release demo files that show the capability without weaponizing it through easy access. It'd be great to increase awareness around our vulnerability to EMP attacks, but we don't need to publish specs and or sell a working prototype to make that case.

This is just one of those areas where the negative implications, I believe, far outweigh the positive ones. Aside from the noble cause of helping the disabled, most of the use cases center around entertainment. As great as that may be, the likely application to fraud and the potential for a catastrophic misuse in matters of war and peace just dwarf any upside.

dataisfun | 10 years ago | on: Why Uber Won

I didn't see any comments mentioning self driving cars, which to me suggest a cleaving of uber's marketplace. If all cars were to suddenly become autonomous, uber could be easily bested because their liquidity has become beside the point.

dataisfun | 10 years ago | on: Losing Money

As an investor, I can say you nailed it with this explanation.

dataisfun | 12 years ago | on: No Exit

fwiw, in traditional GP/LP relationships, the LPs know what's going on with the companies (annual meeting, etc.)

dataisfun | 12 years ago | on: Netflix VP of IT on the Future of Infrastructure

haha. Well, I doubt you're an idiot. Buzzwords serve a purpose insofar as they're a good shorthand for defining categories of product offerings. E.g., ETL, Data Warehouse, Mobile Device Management, etc. all have pretty well understood parameters within which the vendors, buyers, analysts, etc. operate.

dataisfun | 12 years ago | on: Beware techies talking gobbledegook

Not sure if the comparison with finance is apt. Financial sophistry layered complexity on complexity without a robust understanding of principles (i.e., housing prices don't always go up, hiding debt and ownership in millions of small pieces spread around will create a mess), whereas computing grows intelligently (most of the time) from real world problems that need addressing.

dataisfun | 12 years ago | on: What to do if a bubble is starting

Thanks Sam. I love your posts!

I think the rise in startup valuations, even at the early stage, while a bit frothy (and definitely more so in the bay area) is driven by some structural changes (i.e., the leverage allowed by the new tools which make development cheaper/faster) and access to much bigger markets (mobile, anyone?).

"Hot girls" at the bar looking for a job are probably doing so because tech is one of the few non-sucky sectors for young people.

Founders investing their capital in other startups doesn't strike me as so weird, given how Angel List and Funders Club, etc. are making it ridiculously easy to put a bit of money to work. Founders with disposable income used to invest in public equities and bonds if they wanted to. Now, startups.

There are trillions of dollars still sitting on the sidelines chasing growth. Not even a tiny fraction of that has been deployed to VC (mostly because the returns, in aggregate, are still pretty bad). Should that happen, I might begin to be a little apprehensive.

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