#startups

My read on this is: the startup economy is undergoing a structural transformation here. Startups are substituting compute for labor at an increasing rate. I still remain optimistic that this is going to result in a lot more companies doing a lot more things, but so far it hasn't happened. But companies' claims that they can get by with way fewer people in the age of AI does seem to be true.

The United States became the global innovation leader in part because we attracted the best and brightest from around the world. They came here because we had something other countries didn’t: a stable, democratic system where merit mattered more than connections, where you could build something without worrying that tomorrow’s political winds might destroy everything you’ve worked for. But that’s been trashed. In mere months.

Venture capital is screwed. A bubble in AI is their last hope, and they’re betting everything on Sam Altman. It’s heartwarming.

Maybe your goal is best met by building a stable yet undemanding career that leaves plenty of time for family, friends, community, and self improvement.

He's telling you the story of, "If you bust your ass and don't sleep, you'll get rich" because the only way that people in his line of work get richer is if young, poorly-socialized, naive geniuses believe that story! Without those coat-tails to ride, VCs might have to work for a living. Once that kid burns out, they'll just slot a new one in.

To any non-technical person planning on starting a web company, I have one key piece of advice: Become a Minimum Viable Developer.

"37signals is now a $100 billion dollar company, according to a group of investors who have agreed to purchase 0.000000001% of the company in exchange for $1."

"Here’s a brief review of the last 6 months of grassroots tech / startup community organizing in Ann Arbor, MI, originally intended for the July 2009 Ann Arbor New Tech Meetup (but foiled by a blown projector bulb)…"

"Kickstarter aims to let creative people of all kinds — journalists, artists, musicians, game developers, entrepreneurs, bloggers — raise money for their projects by connecting directly with fans, who receive exclusive access and rewards in exchange for their patronage. More than just a fundraising app, Kickstarter's a publishing platform where project creators can communicate with the people that are supporting them. "

"Instead what happens when software developers try the Hollywood Launch, and I've seen this many times, is that users indeed do flood to your site on launch day but... Tomorrow, hardly any of those users come back. Your traffic graphs look like the sharpest mountain you've ever seen: a huge climb up and then, almost immediately, a similarly-sized crash back down. ... So what do you do then? Well, you do what you should have done all along: you grow the site."

"If you want to get all that value, don't destroy the startup after you buy it. Give the founders enough autonomy that they can grow the acquisition into what it would have become."

"The restrictiveness of big company jobs is particularly hard on programmers, because the essence of programming is to build new things."

I thought this was supposed to be an enhancement add-on service for del.icio.us. Instead it looks like a prettily-designed yet not obviously useful replacement.

"... there are 14 stages in taking a venture from idea to IPO..."