lingzb

Crazy how little code it is.

Great read but I don't think this is a huge problem, yet. The US is the biggest and most vibrant economy in the world. It has the most advanced military, it spans a huge land area, and the country has massive impact on global culture. Until that changes, I don't think the average American needs to speak another language.

Note this is about the average American. Obviously for people who conduct international business, I think the story is different.

I'm actually bilingual and I do appreciate the benefits. But again I just don't think learning multiple languages is needed for the average American. What's probably missing more from the American educational system is STEM competence. I think that is a lot harder to argue against given what it confers in terms of economic and defense benefits.

Facebook can go real big here. The have ridiculous distribution (2B+ monthly users). If they roll out a crypto payment or stored value system to their users, the network effects / lock in will be insane. Only Google could really compete (Amazon doesn't have the same international presence as Facebook or Google; Microsoft doesn't have enough mobile presence; Apple only has rich users).

The question is will Facebook take this seriously and invest over the long term to win. Historically, they've had a terrible history of investing and committing to new efforts that don't pay out immediately (killing Parse, sunsetting big parts of their platform, shutting down their Creative Labs, etc.)

This is a move in the right direction but I think Google has no chance in hell of establishing a serious footprint in China. They've poked China in the eye too many times on human rights issues and regardless of your moral stance here, China is not going to help a company that does that.

This is terrible. I actually like some of Trump's work in terms of negotiating better trade deals for the US. However, the unpredictability is a little nuts and threatens stalling an otherwise great US economy of late. Basically snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

$100B will completely change landscape given the total amount of VC investment per year has only been around $100B to date. Exact figure depends on what source you look at but here's one: https://www.statista.com/statistics/277501/venture-capital-a...