
Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems (2014) - misotaur
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/530901/technology-stalled-in-1970/
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dalbasal
I really don't see his perspective on a lot of these.

 _I don’t think we’re living in an incredibly fast technological age._ \-
..speaking on innovation in fields outside of computing.

I agree that the pace of tangible improvement in some fields (eg construction)
has not been as fast as others, but a lot of things have been changing fast.
Think of simple manufactured goods. Chairs, plates, etc. The labour efficiency
or just end-user price and choice is far better today compared to a generation
ago. For a lot of goods (eg clothes) most of the cost to the end user happens
between factory door and checkout. We could be doing a lot better at that, but
the actual process of turning sunshine, water & air into t-shirts and washing
detergent is not stagnant. This happened during a period where China's annual
addition of low cost employees to the global pool kept average wages and
efficiency low. Labour efficiency would (will) be even higher as their wages
rise.

Progress is complicated. But I can't see how he comes to his conclusions.
Maybe I'm missing some context.

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nibstwo
Due to globalization, which one (as Thiel does) could argue is not a
sustainable source of intensive progress, but just basic labour arbitrage with
an expiry date and zero sum implications long term.

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xiaoma
There is absolutely nothing objectionable in the content of this article. It's
also aimed squarely at "hackers" and entrepreneurs.

Flagging privileges have been abused, too.

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nvalleysilico
Fighting hate and white supremacy would be a big one.

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lj3
This is the first story I've ever flagged not because of the content, but
because of the ugliness of the top 5 comments.

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idlewords
This is from 2014.

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dang
Thanks; added.

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Roritharr
How about doing something meaningful about the Clathrate Gun?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis)

Turning the Methane Deposits into a business would be nice.

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gonzo41
I think were too late.

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some1else
I thought he said the market segment doesn't matter, as long as you're on
track to monopolize it.

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kristianc
Well as someone who spent $10m shutting down a blog he didn't like, I guess he
should know.

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elmar
it's from 2014

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saosebastiao
The dismantling of the rent-seeking civil-liberties-stomping military
industrial complex sounds like a good problem to tackle. Palantir first.

