

The Columbia Math Professor Every NYC Startup & VC Should Know - MediaSquirrel
http://news.columbia.edu/newyorkstories/1955

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samratjp
He has a good frame of reference: “I see this as an opportunity for academics
in New York to contribute to start-up culture,” says Wiggins, referring to the
pivotal role that Stanford’s dean of engineering, Frederick Terman, played in
the rise of Silicon Valley.

Stanford is what it is today thanks to Terman's meddling and the army
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo>). If Wiggins is NYC's Terman,
what's NYC's army equivalent?

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MediaSquirrel
Hmm. Perhaps the army is...FourSquare?

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samratjp
Well, I suppose the army was like a wave and the initial startups surfed that
wave. FourSquare is surfing alright, but which wave?

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MediaSquirrel
Maybe the army is the shrinking of the financial services bubble?

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MediaSquirrel
This dude is awesome. He's a genuine force for good in NYC and has access to
one of the scarcest resources in the city: high quality technical talent.

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helwr
loved the original title, i'm trying to get off "the Street" myself

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Rod
Is "the Street" like _Hotel California_ : "you can check in any time you like,
but you can never leave"? If not, you have no one to blame but yourself for
not following your dreams. You may find pity here on HN, but that will hardly
advance your goals, right?

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weeksie
How idealistic. The problem is that when you start working in a very high
paying job, as finance jobs tend to be, there is a catch. All of that money.
By the time you have a mortgage, a care, and a vacation home, it's very hard
to get away and you get stuck on the treadmill.

The other side of it is that you could live frugally and save up a massive war
chest to fund a startup but most people don't go that route. It's not
weakness, it's human nature.

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Rod
No one forces you to live lavishly. You can rent a small apartment instead of
buying a house and having to pay a mortgage, you can travel on a modest budget
instead of buying a Summer house you'll use only 2 weeks per year. You don't
need a trophy wife if you have some game. You have no one to blame but
yourself for your _weaknesses_. Yes, because living to impress others _is_
weakness.

A couple of friends did what you mentioned. Lived frugally, saved a lot of
money, then started their own companies. They're both millionaires now. The
guys who were too weak to pull that off are still in "the Street", they lead
comfortable lives, but they are miserable... they are slaves to their vanity
and to their trophy wives who have a lot to gain from divorce.

This has nothing to do with idealism. It has to do with willpower. Most people
lack the will to improve themselves simply because it's too much work and
effort...

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weeksie
What you don't seem to understand is that most people can't make themselves
see far enough into the future to deny satisfaction. That's not a weakness,
that's normal. The ability to see beyond that and delay gratification is a
_strength_.

It's something that irks me about people who are gifted with a lot of will
power is that they (myself included when I was younger) assumed that people
who didn't possess their traits were weak; they're not weak, you're just
gifted. I've worked for everything that I have (and I'm not doing too shabby)
but I won't pretend for a moment that my position in life isn't due to
happenstance of genetics. I can delay gratification, many people can't and
that makes me lucky.

