When I was studying in the early 2000s, email wasn't a problem. I went to check my email at the computer centre on campus twice, maybe three times a day.
With smartphones, I probably check my email 40 times a day. It is very distracting, but you have to keep on top of it for work. I'm sure it gets in the way of more meaningful thinking and has ruined my attention span.
I've been involved in a number of "community building" initiatives. What I've learned is that it is easy to start the community, but soon enough people start getting political and the infighting begins - it often only takes one or two people to ruin it for everybody else.
Being aware of your own mortality on a regular basis can spur you on to take more risks and do something positive with your life.
In the midst of life we are in death.
Biz Stone talks about selflessness being selfish because altruistic acts release the same chemicals in the brain as winning money, apparently.
I help out at a local work group restoring old buildings. It's only a morning a month but it puts a smile on my face for the rest of the day, partly because I enjoy the work but mainly because I am volunteering.
Solid advice. I think YC advice gives you the road map, but in addition speeches like Paul Buchheit's "The Technology" can also help stimulate the vision in the first place.
We have the congestion charge in London. Initially the traffic did drop, but now the traffic is just as busy, and the gridlock lasts all day.
Cities like London, NYC and SF are expanding very quickly in terms of population size and density, so in transport terms,
the solution will have to be something like automated self driving cars integrated into a conveyor belt like system, which incentivise ride-sharing.
In the UK, the existing social structures like the church had pretty much collapsed before social networks came on the scene.
Social networks actually have the potential to help restore local social structures as at root they are about connectivity. A local volunteering group can easily keep its members up-to-date via its FB group. A local Councillor can update his constituents via his Twitter account. I'd like to see a new batch of startups which work on channelling social media usage to properly social ends.
YC is taking the long term view, which is great.
But what concerns me is the way in which Basic Income is already getting heavily politicised.
Politicians are already using it to attract voters (front page of UK Guardian today, Labour party are "considering" a basic income).
We are still very much at the research stage.
I'm in the same boat.
I was chatting to some Chinese business people yesterday. What we call social media, they call "self media". I think that is a better description of how most of us use social networks, i.e. to broadcast ourselves.
But there is still underlying value in the connectness which social networks enable. For example my local community is using Facebook to bring everyone together to oppose a gravel development next to our local school. It's a great way of keeping everyone informed, quickly, and at no cost. Some people are really creative too, such as uploading videos of the proposed site using drones to show what we would lose.
So I think to be useful, "self media" has to truly evolve into "social" media.
Twitter has been mismanaged over the years. With FB, the buck stops with Zuck, but at Twitter, the politics between the cofounders has meant there has been no long-term strategic leadership. Twitter has got away with a lot of stuff over the years because it was perceived to be cool, but these days, it's more Henry Wrinkler than The Fonz.
I'm a member of CAMRA, the campaign for real ale.
Every month they send out a magazine to members.
On the front page is an article on the social benefits of having a regular local.
On the back page are the member obituaries. Sadly, regularly drinking alcohol shortens your life pretty dramatically, unless you are incredibly disciplined with it.
There was a recent study into the male suicide rate in Northern Ireland. It has boomed since the end of the Troubles. Historically, war has given men a sense of belonging. But it's not a great trade-off.
The church can in theory be a good place to build social cohesion, but in the UK it is mired in cultural politics, so many people choose to avoid it.
I used to know a "Success".
He owns a profitable company. He has a beautiful wife. He lives in a gated mansion and drives expensive cars.
But he was also a cruel person, who liked to hang out with other cruel people.
I decided if that's what being a success in life means, I'd rather be a failure.
You also need to factor in the available cures.
A simple gastric band operation means you can't then die of overeating.
But a liver replacement can still be abused by an alcoholic.
Yes, Jelly is Biz Stone's company, and this App is a "Re-pivot" back to the earlier release.
I really like Biz Stone's thinking around altruism (apparently we get the same good feeling from helping people as we do from winning money).
Using technology to promote altruism is potentially revolutionary, so I follow Biz and Jelly closely.
Motivation is the big factor. Most PhDs are smart enough to pursue a career in higher ed, but it takes a PhD to evaluate your level of motivation / love of the subject.
Intrinsic motivation is becoming even more important given the incentives for entering the field are diminishing (job insecurity, more senior management, publish or perish).
Most PhDs pursue their subject because they are very interested in it.
That interest may stay the same, it may (in most cases) die down / be satisfied, or it may intensify.
You will always be wondering whether academic was for you or not unless you do a PhD.
On point number 1, since we are living longer (Happy Birthday, Your Majesty), there is a logic to delaying adulthood by around 5 years until your mid to late 20s.
Grad school can also be a great place to date, and the time can be used to reflect on what you really want to do in the future.
All your points resonate with me and the people I knew in grad school.
I had two criteria when it came to doing a PhD: it had to be funded and it had to be relatively short (so UK rather than the US).
Germany has good academic (selective) schools and good technical schools.
We used to have something similar in the UK.
I have a PhD and was good academically. I recently bumped into an old school friend, who was not academic in the slightest and is now a tradesman earning great money.
If I had kids, I wouldn't mind one bit if they decided to pass on higher education and learn a trade instead.
I call it, "Revenge on the snobs."
Yes, the Profski Scheme, as it's known (although IME it's the administrators who are behind the inflation of the scheme).
I think there is fundamentally something morally wrong with the HE system in the US and now the UK, which lands young people in so much debt before the start of their working lives (I would make exceptions for vocational qualifications like medicine).
The sooner this space is disrupted, the better - it is a moral imperative.