kkotak

You're an idiot if you lose $100 from your pocket, but you're a genius if you lose -$1.1B of other people's money every quarter.

I wonder how this affects the gaming industry.

Speaking of 'Paying for reach'. The Supreme Court said (in 2014) there should be no limit on how much an individual can contribute to campaigns (money that is used to buy reach) - And Corporations are legal persons - so... https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/us/politics/supreme-court...

I think Darren Brown claims to use short term persuasive power to influence people to drastically change their mind about intimate things.

I just can't believe that even the moderately level headed people can tolerate the monotonously repetitive assertions by the Apple team - 'The best ever!, 'The fastest ever!', 'It's gorgeous!', 'It's so impressive!', blah blah blah and applause that follows. Sometimes I'm scared that some of us have forgotten that we have a choice not to watch or applause at this grotesque display of self stroking speak that comes out from apple twice a year.

Akin to - "It always rains on my birthday. It's raining today - it must be my birthday."

Great effort Josh! It's a shame that Apple decided to drop Workflow in favor of Shortcuts. Many powerful features were lost as a result. Case in point, Apple Watch geofencing automation. Apple will continue to get more closed as long as the market will allow them to do so.

I see the issue with false positive, but I don't get the privacy argument here. Scanning your face vs your passport is not any different from privacy perspective.

No worky on Chrome.

I'm disheartened by the power wielded by so few in the American King Making Machine called the Silicon Valley.

Cases in point Groupon, Uber, Magic leap, Instacart, Theranos.

Frankly I can't fathom how this company is still in business. I live in the bay area and I don't know a single person who's ever used it or mentions it.

It's called nepotism and designed exits for investors with public funds.

And in my experience they focus solely on tech IC candidates, which is not for everyone.

I can't upvote this comment enough. The bottomline for risk keen candidates is to get in with founder's equity and risk averse (and experienced, of course) to work with a headhunter to maximize your chances of building wealth.

I know, right? I met him a few times back in the 2000s and didn't see why he got so much attention back then. I think he is regurgitating some of the common talking points amongst the valley anarchists about how we live in a bubble. I don't disagree with the overall message but nothing new to see here.

To be sure though; It is still quite a superfluous software product that is a more complex version of Google forms. The key is to be able to sell to enterprises with a shiny veneer.

EDIT: And that SAP is not buying the software per se. They're buying the customers and credibility.

These are the types of things that keep me worrying about self driving cars and if an entire system can be hacked to do the opposite of avoiding obstacles by malicious forces.

Don't forget; Henry Kissinger was involved.

open a store selling niche items.

START

If successful, add more items. If successful, add more stores. If successful, add more items. If successful, sell top shelf space at premium. Gather and analyze ALL data. Identify highest selling and most profitable items. Find manufacturers of those items. Seed those products directly from manufacturers. Create own brands. Sell those products under store/new brands. Use your foot/online traffic, reputation, edge, consumer behavior data to cut out the middle man in select products. Continue to offer sellers a superior marketplace to sell their goods. Experiment with your product placements, ads and optimize. Gather and analyze ALL data.

REPEAT

Nothing new here. For more info see - Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Target, Whole foods, Safeway, Costco, et al.

Don't forget, FAANG are looking for minions that fit the assembly line in 99% of cases. Not original thinkers or people who are multi-talented, wearing many hats.

And ML also happened. If you can do pattern recognition and semantic analysis without the markup, why bother with it?

People with that plan don't usually make that first $1M. It's the driven ambitious people who make that $1M fast and keep on going. Folks who think like you are too conservative to make sizable amount in short time, because they are too risk averse. In other words, what made him the first $1M also made him lose the last $1M.

Exactly. I don't see anything new or differentiating here except that A16Z has a louder microphone and is using HN as a stage to announce it. Besides also apparently reveling in the fallacy that if expert are involved, it can't be hacked.

I don't get it. Is this anything more than post it notes on a grid?

Two other great history reads are -

1. The Great Game - by Peter Hopkirk 2. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples - by Winston Churchill

Thanks Jessica for that wonderful and candid post. I've applied for YC once a while back but didn't get in. I think many founders who don't have access to YC get bitter and start thinking it's a clan and only certain type of people (Elite schools, etc.) get in.

I think the problem, as you rightly pointed out, is that a lot of entrepreneurs are not that at all. They want to start a company and do a me-too venture just to ride the 'Sold to XYZ' train.

No one likes the test or to be judged by others and resent being rejected. When we talk of emotional intelligence, I think it's about knowing what you want to and can do, and allowing your peers or mentors to help you get there. I've met many YC alums and do see a certain set of qualities that unite them - I suspect those are the ones you picked up on :)

Thanks to you and the YC team for creating a wonderful new pathways to fulfillment for budding entrepreneurs.

Agreed about Skype. They're trying to make it like a messaging platform, and added a lot of crappy - completely unintuitive, complex UX that now make it extremely difficult to use their core features of phone calls, video calls, screen-sharing.

And yet again, the masses are infatuated with the royal wedding/funeral.

Absence of one doesn't prove presence of the other. But I digress.