donbright

Feel like sending an email to Jeff Bezos that just says ????

democracy dies because people couldn't be bothered with the "mundane technical details".

its like this is a flaw of intelligent civilization that Carl Sagan didn't think about. it's not global nuclear warfare, it's not climate change, it's not some mad virus...

it's that the species becomes disinterested in performing maintenance because maintenance tasks don't produce a dopamine rush. the civilization becomes too incompetent to perform even the most basic upkeep on the structures they set in place - whether physical like roads and bridges, or social-political, like election systems.

nobody becomes famous or wealthy for performing upkeep.

to me it seems as though there is no precedent for it.

Compare to IBM. IBM created the somewhat open "PC" platform in the 80s. Within ten years there were dozens, maybe hundreds, of companies making "PC Compatible" computers. IBM stopped making PCs. Their platform "won" the marketplace but they, as a company, left the marketplace. IBM is still in business because their primary business was not making or selling personal computers.

Another comparison might be Google. Its a stretch because android is not a hardware platform as such, more of software. However Android phone is relatively open. As a platform Android has 'won' the marketplace. But Google's primary business is not selling phones or phone OSes. They make a handful of phones, and might stop at any time.

There was the 3d printer company. Makerbot. They were theoretically supposed to be open. However they, well some of them in the company, wound up deciding it was not possible because of clones. So they went closed. They also sold out to a huge conglomerate whose primary business is not personal 3d printers. I am not sure if you could say their 'platform' has 'won'....

So if I am right, then if System76 creates an 'open platform' then there will be Compatibles springing up all over. System76 'platform' might win the marketplace. But what will happen to them as a company? What is their primary business.

People mention Prusa. Maybe that might work.

finance is a different culture than hackernews, and the people speak different languages with different philosophy and assumptions about the world.

maybe this is not a technical issue, maybe its a subculture interaction issue that involves a lot of technical details.

i dont think its easy to 'understand' unless one group spends time with another, and i dont mean half an hour meeting, i mean like, shadowing someone for a week.

maybe if college campus tech leaders didnt ogle 19 year olds, there would be more women in tech.

wouldnt it be true that, basically, every boom bust cycle is "caused" in part by 'traditional' investments having low returns which makes investors look for something with higher returns? which by definition is probably riskier?

the 'cheapness of capital' seems to me to be relative to the times that one lives in, in that the cheapness is only cheap in comparison to what investors believe they can profit from it.

dear young people who are reading the above comment.

IMHO dont be afraid to take it with a grain of salt. don't expect to be rewarded for saying no. don't expect a light feather ruffling. don't expect light consequences. be prepared to get fired. be prepared to get demoted. be prepared to lose your health insurance. be prepared to change your industry. be prepared for the realities that most people face.

if you say no to something that really is important, then there will, the vast majority of the time, be major consequences. dont expect it to be easy. dont expect a reward. dont expect anyone to even understand or care why you are doing it. dont expect to be respected. dont expect anything. be prepared.

when you are living in poverty or are homeless, that no wont really mean much. only say no when you have the ground to stand on that can catch you when the inevitable smack in the face comes.

and dont feel ashamed if you have to say yes to survive once in a while. its actually what most people do. every day. even people you respect as heroes. sometimes especially the people you respect as heroes. when a really big no comes, there will be many people chanting it together, and many others behind them silently backing them up, all of whom had to say yes, in ways large and small, at some time or another, in the past, just to survive long enough to be together in that space, building that critical mass, and supporting each other.

then wouldn't we would be able to correlate rates of lower toxic behavior, like harassment and conflict, with the practice of 'cultural fit'? like doing some kind of empirical study?

ironically i would wager that the people who can pass a 'cultural fit' test with the highest score might actually be Sociopaths, since they are the world experts at being charming to complete and utter strangers.