GraffitiTim

Just so you know, it’s possible to overcome a phobia. In fact my startup Fearless helps people to just that, using VR. We have a module for cockroaches specifically. It goes very gradually, starting with a cartoon drawing, and progresses at your own pace. If you’re interested, http://FearlessVR.com

Also, I understand your complaint about the name, as I’ve encountered many, many people with all sorts of phobias at varying levels of extremity. It’s more common than most people think.

It doesn't sound crazy at all -- lots of people have a fear of flying/planes.

I'm working on a program that uses VR to help people overcome their fear of flying. Would you mind filling out this short fear of flying survey, so I can get in touch with you when it's ready?

https://goo.gl/forms/RA8RfTUebvZUM3Un2

At Fearless we’re using VR to help people overcome fears (spiders, flying, etc).

http://FearlessVR.com

Did this year’s peak decrease vs last year? That looks like an extremely rare event if so.

They did show the Roadster, it's in space now. The cameras on the drone ship cut out so they're still waiting to find out if CORE landed.

The two boosters landing simultaneously was breathtaking. Photo: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/960980119312453632

I would argue YC is extremely ambitious, especially under Sam Altman. However, ambition doesn't have to mean immediately investing billions of dollars in new areas. Huge ambitions can start as small experiments to see what's promising. That's how YC itself started too. Like a startup.

There's a YC app for that:

https://www.70millionjobs.com/

And importantly, the photosensitive ganglion cells are most sensitive to blue wavelengths of light, which is why a lot of people recommend avoiding blue light at night.

We are using VR to help people overcome fears at Fearless.

http://FearlessVR.com

It is based on lots of research showing that VR exposure therapy is extremely effective.

I still remember the time we came to office hours with Garry to get some advice on how to approach designing a new product, and in 15 minutes he sketched out an entire design -- which we used.

Boost VC, the other accelerator focusing on VR, is scrappy, focused, and cares only about the startups it's funded. Quite a contrast.

edit: This Rothenberg article sounds pretty damning, but also reads like a hit piece -- which makes me wonder what the other side of the story might be. I don't know anything about Rothenberg personally.

Very much agreed, but still happy to see people trying to take a step in the right direction. They do mention ending the practice of killing male chicks, which is currently universal among egg-producing farms.

A historic moment here, folks.

Incredible, and in my opinion a little terrifying.

I'm working on this as a startup called Fearless.

http://FearlessVR.com

Why not have an application process similar to YC?

In addition to things with long time horizons, it makes sense to look at things that have little profit-incentive for startups or companies to work on.

One example would be nutritional supplements. It's fairly expensive to do a good nutritional study, and there's no good way to make money off of the results (since companies can't patent supplements). So, no one funds good studies on supplements.

At the same time, finding out that certain supplements have positive or negative effects would be great for humanity as a whole.

This also goes for nutrition in general, though supplements are easier to research.

I wonder if this could be the beginning of many artists being replaced by AI.

That statistic is orders of magnitude off. There are 30,000 driving fatalities per year. At the ratio you stated the number of miles driven per person per year would be absurd.

Actually it looks like it's been on reddit multiple times in the last 2 years with some decent interest and a fair number of positive reviews (as well as a few negative, some of which could be dichromatic which it doesn't work for).

I felt the same way. I think the dynamic way it moves is what evokes the anthropomorphic feeling for me, more than its physical appearance. It has a lively bounce to its step. When it looks like it's struggling to catch its balance, that's literally what it's doing. Reminds me of some kind Disney or Pixar table or other inanimate object brought to life through movement.

I assume you're referring to the Crescent Bay prototype, and I agree. The Gear VR will help too, as will potentially their acquisition of Nimble VR (more robust hand-tracking than the Leap).

That said, 2015 is just the beginning of the VR explosion, and Fred Wilson's prediction is phrased vaguely enough that he could probably claim it to have been accurate at the end of 2015 either way.

Still watching the presentation, but virtual reality is the medium that will eventually allow for a lot of the things he's talking about.

Edit: he later dismisses this, but I don't think he's right to do so.

I believe the Aeon article is referring to pilot wave theory when it talks about Broglie-Bohm, although it does so with almost no explanation, even though it's one of the main threads of the article.

I think the idea of pilot wave theory is really interesting, and that a variant of it could turn out to be more fundamental than our current understanding of quantum physics.

Most Lyfts in SF don't have mustaches anymore (or at least not displayed prominently) and about 10% do the fist bump now. I always sit in the front seat because it seems friendlier (and the drivers definitely do seem more friendly than on Uber), but I doubt they'd have any problem with you sitting in the back.

I use Lyft frequently and love it.

Reminds me of this (surprisingly powerful, IMO) video of a kid who doesn't want to eat an octopus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJNntUXyWvw

False rumors are able to spread throughout a large population before being debunked. Corrections, however, are only really able to spread to people who previously saw the rumor. Furthermore, many people who shared the rumor may be less likely to share the correction, since it makes them look gullible for sharing the unverified rumor in the first place. So it's much harder for a correction to spread virally.

If there were a system in place so that false rumors could be debunked in real-time, in-line (as opposed to using a separate retroactive correction), they would be less likely to spread as far. The closest thing I can think of would be something like Genius.

For people who've switched from Sublime to Atom, what are some of the things you miss/prefer from Sublime, and vice versa?

I think Amazon has account settings to remove particular items from your history.

In what ways do you think the communities will diverge over time?

MobileWorks is an example of an existing YC (S11) company that has the potential to do this.