interesting_att's comments

interesting_att | 5 years ago | on: Suspect is arrested in grisly killing of tech CEO Fahim Saleh

Remember this is an ALLEGATION.

I knew Fahim personally. I know people who spoke to him the day of about this very issue, so I have some information that most people don't. I absolutely do not believe this kid did it.

Fahim was well liked in Nigeria but he was disrupting a dangerous market.

interesting_att | 9 years ago | on: I’m a black man – What happened when I booked an Airbnb

If the hotel industry ever got its act together, they could really use this for a great marketing push.

Advertise the fact that AirBnB lets racial discrimination go unabated, unlike the hotel industry which is regulated for this. Younger, more liberal minded individuals will be less likely to use AirBnBs.

interesting_att | 10 years ago | on: After Zenefits, Will VCs Rein in Their Unicorns?

It's important to note that when the investment was made, enterprise tech companies (like Workday) like were getting a really high valuation, whereas consumer tech companies weren't doing so well. Investors like a16z probably wanted to invest as much as possible before the enterprise IPO market would go south. Moreover, I am sure investors probably had strong liquidation preferences, ensuring a profit in the case of an exit or IPO.

We're now seeing the downsides of their thesis. Workday's market cap has since cratered, down 33% in the past year, indicating a weakening interest in the enterprise IPO market. Zenefits itself has a number of growing concerns- regulatory and competition concerns (ADP is only getting better by the day).

interesting_att | 10 years ago | on: Request For Research: Basic Income

Really glad YC is pushing for research into this. This is a fascinating topic that deserves more research. There have many points in my life where many of my friends and I needed welfare just to purchase food. For all of us, we experienced unbelievable amounts of shame even considering the idea. As a result, two things happened.

i) Some of us didn't go on welfare to our detriment. Not eating = decreased ability to be a productive citizen.

ii) Some of us had to 'over-sell' to others and to ourselves our disabilities, out of the fear that we would be denied access to these services or be accused that we were gaming the system. The effects of overselling these disabilities were devastating on one's mental health.

Having a shame-free way of getting welfare could be a great thing.

interesting_att | 10 years ago | on: Tech faces hour of reckoning as fundraising drops, layoffs rise

I would actually disagree. eCPMs on mobile have steadily been going up, but not because game companies have been spending unsustainably. eCPMs have increased because brands have slowly been moving in, there is better adtech/targeting, and because game companies have a higher LTV, hence can spend more. Many US-based mobile game companies have basically given up fundraising from VCs as a significant part of their strategy, because it became too difficult to do so post-Zynga's crash.

Point is: If you're a ad-supported mobile app, can purchase users at an ROI+ rate, and know how to iterate productively, it sounds like you have weathered the storm. Mobile ad-supported companies will stay around (though they may trim workforces to ensure long-term viability).

interesting_att | 10 years ago | on: A reply to Russell Okung

PG's point is so obvious it is almost tautological. Of course we should get rid of negative causes + negative effects, while keeping the positive. That applies to literally anything (gambling, friendship, work, etc). Maybe people are interpreting this w/ the most controversy because PG has a history of controversial statements (remember his article on immigration which caused an uproar on HN?).

A more interesting argument that PG could have made is that it is theoretically possible to have inherent wealth inequality in the system without negative results. At this point, I see very few believe that it is even possible.

interesting_att | 10 years ago | on: Etsy stock has lost 76% of its value in 9 months

The stocks you mentioned barely get any buzz in tech media (TechCrunch) or HN. The stocks that OP mentioned get a significant number of mentions here. A number of unicorns are dying, experiencing significant criticism (Theranos), doing not-so-well (Square, Zenefits), or exiting negative returns for investors (Gilt Groupe)

The point is the companies that seem to be getting the most hype (young, 'disruptive' companies) don't seem to be doing well as IPO companies. This is an issue for the public investors (who are often pension funds, average investors, etc) and employees.

This seems to be a clear indictment of tech media, who are more interested in hyping up stories than really digging into a company's fundamentals. The only losers are common people in this scenario.

interesting_att | 10 years ago | on: Obama administration ready to put $4B toward self-driving cars

What's really interesting about this is that being a truck driver is one of the most common jobs in America. Most of these drivers have limited ability to do many other decently paying jobs. By getting self-driving countries, we would be dramatically changing the economic + social landscape of the country.

We have already gotten rid of the factory worker and that has led to withering away of Middle America. Removing the truck driver would be a huge nail in the coffin of Middle America. (If lab grown meat + vertical farming takes off, we can potentially drastically reduce the number of farmers in this country.)

I am all for these technical innovations, but we must be aware that this can dramatically change the economic/political/social landscape. Radical regressive ideologies spring out of such environments.

interesting_att | 10 years ago | on: Magic+

Welcome to Hacker News, where people's conflict of interests are not disclosed.

I agree with OP- this is an absurd tool. If you can pay $100/hr for an anonymous 'personal assistant' you can pay for a real personal assistant. This is another example where rich SV-elite are making out of touch predictions on the market.

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