TechStars forced its startups to do a faux reality TV series that amounted to a kind of smear campaign? This is going to have serious blowback. Yet another example of suicide being a startup's or related program's worst…
> I don't understand where the fixation for multiple founders stems from Basically the YC model stems from PG recreating his experience with ViaWeb. He started a company with his best friend and another expert…
This whole treatment is a little odd. First, he had a second "founder" before the program started, so it wasn't single-founder. Second, luckily the second guy turned out to be "perfect". This could easily have…
The real trick is that the existing cultures themselves will have to quickly reconfigure so that this doesn't simply shift the problem laterally. For example, initiatives to dig wells in various African countries have…
As already mentioned in this thread, expectations of how it WILL do for this quarter are astronomical. Sales numbers that are already in back this up. Also see here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3128143 So, no,…
I just read about how the stock tumbled because the results were less than expected. "Highest September Quarter Revenue and Earnings Ever" and it's a disappointment. This is like the market equivalent of "eh, her knees…
Apparently up to 4B tweets monthly now: http://blog.twitter.com/2011/09/share-photo-via-text-message... Sending messages to recipients and load-balancing don't faze me. SMS gateway costs do. I could have cloned it,…
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/groupon Funding Total $1.14B Series D, 1/11 $950M Digital Sky Technologies Morgan Stanley Venture Partners Fidelity Ventures Andreessen Horowitz Battery Ventures Greylock Partners…
The other lesson is that incompetence of this magnitude on one issue is always a symptom of incompetence generally. I have seen this over and over again with multiple companies. It's not like everything else is…
It's a little different when a single, minority system vendor who is selling systems at twice the price does something like this, vs. when the dominant player in 90% of the market wants to require it of all the PC…
Whoever is holding it when the price inevitably falls. When the price is increasing, the money is redirected from any other investment seen as less preferable, and whoever is holding that loses money. The money has to…
> To be honest, I am growing tired of arguing against people who believe that the economy is a zero sum game, along with all the other fallacies. I can just grow wealthy on the back of betting against them, which is…
That dismissal is a bit oversimplistic. With increases in productivity, it is possible for everyone to have more; but almost all the gains have been concentrated toward the top. PG: > I can remember believing, as a…
> and imply that any company that does business with Monsanto is in the wrong, is wildly inappropriate and unfair. First, if this applies to any company partnering with Monsanto, they are receiving equal treatment.…
By analogy, imagine someone wearing an Abercrombie & Fitch shirt. They are trying to associate themselves with a well-known brand in order to gain some kind of status or legitimacy. But when you do that, you are…
You're right about the seed currently being a bigger source of revenue and profit than RoundUp, because it's currently protected by patents whereas the herbicide patent expired in 2000, and now Monsanto is being…
> As someone else noted, you can buy Roundup itself at Wal-mart. And who do you think makes money when you do that? Hint: It rhymes with "Monsanto". > that I know the basics of the difference between Roundup and…
> The herbicide isn't what's interesting or valuable. Headpalm. You DO realize that the point of the gene is to SELL ROUNDUP, right? Not using RoundUp on "RoundUp Ready!" crops kind of defeats the entire purpose.…
> If you invented a new kind of seed which was significantly more productive but cost billions in R&D to develop, what business model would you use instead? If the new crop is more expensive because of IP…
> and then using Roundup on the field. There was an element of getting-something-for-nothing Using RoundUp means more herbicide sales for Monsanto.
> Norman Bourlag's life work was to develop and distribute high-yield crops. Borlaug's work was via selective breeding. He helped countries produce unpatented food at massive scale in order to feed a billion people.…
> It's an unfortunate sign for HN when the top comment on a thread is such a content-free rant. To the contrary, the tenor of the majority of comments makes it clear that the context is well-understood already, and…
> because the ultimate test of user experience is whether users continue to use the software. TIL Windows has always been an amazing user experience. Just look at their numbers. > But HN users aren't confused by…
Down the rabbit hole. Not only are there secret laws, but now courts are being made to interpret secret laws they aren't permitted to see. Or rule based on evidence they aren't permitted to see: > The extraordinary…
> is not responsive to the argument that not allowing muscles time to recover retards growth. That point isn't in dispute. What is in dispute is the degree of alleged growth. Extraordinary claims require…
TechStars forced its startups to do a faux reality TV series that amounted to a kind of smear campaign? This is going to have serious blowback. Yet another example of suicide being a startup's or related program's worst…
> I don't understand where the fixation for multiple founders stems from Basically the YC model stems from PG recreating his experience with ViaWeb. He started a company with his best friend and another expert…
This whole treatment is a little odd. First, he had a second "founder" before the program started, so it wasn't single-founder. Second, luckily the second guy turned out to be "perfect". This could easily have…
The real trick is that the existing cultures themselves will have to quickly reconfigure so that this doesn't simply shift the problem laterally. For example, initiatives to dig wells in various African countries have…
As already mentioned in this thread, expectations of how it WILL do for this quarter are astronomical. Sales numbers that are already in back this up. Also see here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3128143 So, no,…
I just read about how the stock tumbled because the results were less than expected. "Highest September Quarter Revenue and Earnings Ever" and it's a disappointment. This is like the market equivalent of "eh, her knees…
Apparently up to 4B tweets monthly now: http://blog.twitter.com/2011/09/share-photo-via-text-message... Sending messages to recipients and load-balancing don't faze me. SMS gateway costs do. I could have cloned it,…
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/groupon Funding Total $1.14B Series D, 1/11 $950M Digital Sky Technologies Morgan Stanley Venture Partners Fidelity Ventures Andreessen Horowitz Battery Ventures Greylock Partners…
The other lesson is that incompetence of this magnitude on one issue is always a symptom of incompetence generally. I have seen this over and over again with multiple companies. It's not like everything else is…
It's a little different when a single, minority system vendor who is selling systems at twice the price does something like this, vs. when the dominant player in 90% of the market wants to require it of all the PC…
Whoever is holding it when the price inevitably falls. When the price is increasing, the money is redirected from any other investment seen as less preferable, and whoever is holding that loses money. The money has to…
> To be honest, I am growing tired of arguing against people who believe that the economy is a zero sum game, along with all the other fallacies. I can just grow wealthy on the back of betting against them, which is…
That dismissal is a bit oversimplistic. With increases in productivity, it is possible for everyone to have more; but almost all the gains have been concentrated toward the top. PG: > I can remember believing, as a…
> and imply that any company that does business with Monsanto is in the wrong, is wildly inappropriate and unfair. First, if this applies to any company partnering with Monsanto, they are receiving equal treatment.…
By analogy, imagine someone wearing an Abercrombie & Fitch shirt. They are trying to associate themselves with a well-known brand in order to gain some kind of status or legitimacy. But when you do that, you are…
You're right about the seed currently being a bigger source of revenue and profit than RoundUp, because it's currently protected by patents whereas the herbicide patent expired in 2000, and now Monsanto is being…
> As someone else noted, you can buy Roundup itself at Wal-mart. And who do you think makes money when you do that? Hint: It rhymes with "Monsanto". > that I know the basics of the difference between Roundup and…
> The herbicide isn't what's interesting or valuable. Headpalm. You DO realize that the point of the gene is to SELL ROUNDUP, right? Not using RoundUp on "RoundUp Ready!" crops kind of defeats the entire purpose.…
> If you invented a new kind of seed which was significantly more productive but cost billions in R&D to develop, what business model would you use instead? If the new crop is more expensive because of IP…
> and then using Roundup on the field. There was an element of getting-something-for-nothing Using RoundUp means more herbicide sales for Monsanto.
> Norman Bourlag's life work was to develop and distribute high-yield crops. Borlaug's work was via selective breeding. He helped countries produce unpatented food at massive scale in order to feed a billion people.…
> It's an unfortunate sign for HN when the top comment on a thread is such a content-free rant. To the contrary, the tenor of the majority of comments makes it clear that the context is well-understood already, and…
> because the ultimate test of user experience is whether users continue to use the software. TIL Windows has always been an amazing user experience. Just look at their numbers. > But HN users aren't confused by…
Down the rabbit hole. Not only are there secret laws, but now courts are being made to interpret secret laws they aren't permitted to see. Or rule based on evidence they aren't permitted to see: > The extraordinary…
> is not responsive to the argument that not allowing muscles time to recover retards growth. That point isn't in dispute. What is in dispute is the degree of alleged growth. Extraordinary claims require…