
Silicon Valley has turned into the place it hates the most - Kapura
http://www.businessinsider.com/kairos-ventures-raises-fund-focusing-on-middle-class-problems-2017-11
======
ukulele
This is a PR piece for Kairos Fund, whatever that is. For fun, you can compare
with PG's formula[1]. I'd give it a B-.

[1]
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

~~~
sctb
We've updated the headline to the document title, which is far more
substantive and less bait-ey.

~~~
cityzen
You should change the title back or remove the link entirely. This isn't the
right way to handle what you consider "bait-ey"

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relyio
The author conflates several things into the label "SV": the private capital,
the founders, the startup execs and so on. but surprisingly it barely mentions
the engineers that are perhaps SV's most defining characteristic.

Now to address the article, the current ecosystem of companies in SV and the
people it attracts is the byproduct of what venture capitalists are willing to
invest in, which is itself a consequence of what the economy wants and the
kind of ventures regulators allow to succeed.

So, if you want to point fingers asking why aren't tough problems solved you
should start by asking yourself why is it that those are so much more capital-
intensive to solve in the first place. And more importantly, what could be
done to make them more attractive to private capital.

Of course, there's a narrow category of problems that are intrinsically
capital intense. But many more are just artificial moonshots i.e problems that
aren't that hard if not for the many roadblocks and hoops one would need to go
through to formulate even a basic answer.

How long would it take to get a railroad network going in 2017 v. 1830s?

tl;dr: the entities influencing the incentive structure are more to blame than
the individual agents trying to optimize for their own KPIs.

~~~
justinhj
Your railroad question made me think... back in 1830s there was a huge need by
both the public and industry for a railroad network. These days transport is a
mess in some ways but it’s not a huge need for anyone. On the other hand the
issues of what can we use smart phones for, what should social networks look
like and how to advertise on these new mediums were actual problems of our day
that companies and engineers had to solve. Hopefully we can move on to more
interesting problems soon though.

~~~
lovich
There's also just more things in the way. It may have been difficult to tunnel
through a mountain but it's several times more difficult now to both deal with
getting the rights to land with all the people in your path _and_ tunnel
through the mountain

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neom
It's much easier to build an attention app, pull demographic info, sell
advertising, than it is to build a product that adds bottom-line value to
society. It also seems over the last 10 years or so, there has been lots of
"small cash" sloshing around. Early stage employees from the first wave of
successful internet companies write small cheques to fund questionable ideas.
Taken together with the continued commoditization of the software developer as
a job segment and the ability to deploy easily and it's not surprising people
don't try particularly hard anymore. It feels like one of the main issues in
the valley these days is insular intellectual dishonesty. Sadly, I feel like
the same thing is about to happen to tech here in New York.

~~~
fapjacks
So then the question is: Where did the innovators and hackers go? And why
aren't they doing that anymore? Where are the next generation of hackers and
innovators, and where are they going? And why aren't the lot of them trying to
add bottom-line value to society?

~~~
131012
In a corporate open space office? According to the article, this is where they
are.

~~~
fapjacks
Sure, but my question was really aimed at something deeper. I agree that
they're in the corporate open space office. But that doesn't answer the
question of why they're there, on the whole, and leaves the question of
getting the hackers working on societal problems instead of attention
problems.

~~~
testeng222
You have a bit of idealism in your understanding of how things are made ,
created adopted and maintained. Weather the problem is societal or not these
are the attributes that need to be solved.

1) what is the problem and how much money can we make from solving it? 2) how
much will it cost the enginners to solve the problem (we are not your slaves)
3) If problem is solved at a profit is it still viable/worth to approach , is
it a $5 profit or a $50,000,000 (business men/women/pick a gender are not our
slaves either) 4)Is it legal? The more money to be made the more the masses
and dems feel its evil even if it good for all , we cant have anyone being
successful off of hard work now can we, so any kind of far reaching societal
solution will have gov red tape (this is a good thing I believe, better to be
safe than sorry)

we are all in this together, its no super smart guy overlords that tell us
what to do, and if you think that is the answer you should look up the idea of
"euthanization". Elite , intelligent people are not always kind , but they are
always efficient. They sometimes have very cold ways of solving your
"societal" problems.

~~~
fapjacks
I'm sorry, but you have completely missed the mark here.

------
amhenk
> America's business hero has become Amazon's Jeff Bezos

Is this accurate? I feel like more people look to Musk than Bezos. However, I
realize I have a sheltered "internet only" view, so pardon my ignorance.

~~~
bluedino
>> I feel like more people look to Musk than Bezos.

Businessman? Bezos for sure. He's the Sam Walton of our generation.

Inventor/technologist? Musk. I'd guess that most people would believe Musk if
he said he was going to start building a car that ran on water.

~~~
Hextinium
Tbh if most of the time that you talk to people they either know exactly the
plausablity of what Musk is saying or they just read a headline. Most of the
time it is the later but there are a lot of advocates in the former that call
him out on his plans.

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mdorazio
I agree with a lot of the author's points, but the "big problems" facing the
American middle class that Kairos is aiming to solve just cannot be solved by
tech alone. They are political, legal, and social problems.

Student debt is largely a consequence of easy loans for low-return degrees and
laws that prevent those loans from being released (pretty much ever), combined
with a generation that pushed kids to go to the "best" school they could,
regardless of cost. High housing cost is a problem of zoning laws, NIMBYism,
and lethargic construction. Retirement income is a problem of an entire
generation just not saving any money (financial irresponsibility) combined
with jobs that don't pay pensions anymore and a strained national retirement
system. Etc.

SV isn't falling down on producing tech to solve problems, it's falling down
on using its wealth and influence to actually change laws, opinions, and
behaviors that would have a broad impact.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
> Student debt is largely a consequence of easy loans for low-return degrees
> and laws that prevent those loans from being released (pretty much ever),
> combined with a generation that pushed kids to go to the "best" school they
> could, regardless of cost.

Tech _might_ be able to solve that by making the "best" school an online and
low-cost one.

> High housing cost is a problem of zoning laws, NIMBYism, and lethargic
> construction.

Tech might be able to solve that one by increasing the availability of remote
work.

~~~
mdorazio
Fair points, but I would argue that both of those possibilities hinge on
social/psychological issues. Companies typically hire from prestigious schools
because there's an implicit faith in pedigree and the pre-selection criteria
of admissions panels at traditional institutions. You would need to shift that
view before anyone would consider an online degree of any kind the "best"
qualifier for employees. Same with remote work - you need to shift the
perception that butts-in-seats and long hours in an office are favorable
things before the technology even has a chance of making a solid impact.

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exogeny
Look up how Ankur Jain's family made their money. That and this obvious PR-
piece article are both enough to make not feel like eating my lunch today.

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twunde
I love the fact that at the very end of the article, there's a link to see
Google's stock price.

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cityzen
The title of the article is, "Silicon Valley has turned into the place it
hates the most", not whatever this watered down title is. I saw this post
earlier with the original title and I'm curious why it was changed? Is this
too sensitive of a topic for HN?

~~~
timmytwotime
Maybe it hits a little close to home. From my experience, there's a bit of a
disdain for SV in the other US tech hubs (Austin, Atlanta, Raleigh, Boulder,
et Al) and maybe rightfully so.

~~~
cityzen
I agree and I'm disappointed HN would change the title. They claim it is a PR
piece for Kairos but it certainly doesn't read that way to me.

~~~
sebleon
If this was truly a heartfelt article, I doubt it would have cast Kairos as
the only do-gooder in this industry. The focus on helping the US Midwest is
straight from Kairos’ thesis.

Most honest articles about SV’s shortfalls focus on bigger problems, like
global war, famine, or extreme poverty.

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smaili
> Now I don't cover Silicon Valley. But I do cover Wall Street. I know Wall
> Street.

Stopped reading after this statement.

~~~
vgrafe
The article is good. I do not "cover" silicon valley, nor do I live there. But
I share the author's thoughts. Rather than solve real/bigger problems,
startups are being over-funded for services made to create a market and sell
user data, opening doors to misuse without serious monitoring. What a waste.

