On: A relatively small amount of force applied at just...

[sonicshadow]

Until I joined HN I wasn't aware that all these tech companies deserve the same rareified air as core scientific research. The real world barely thinks about Airbnb and how it's "revolutionized the world for a narrow slice of remote tech workers that want to rent a house in Mexico for a month".

[raincole → sonicshadow]

If anything "the real world" (read: average people) don't care about core scientific research either. Maybe when they or their parents get ill they care about medical research, but that's all. Try to pick any Nobel physics nominees in past 50 years and explain why their work is important to average people.

[projektfu → raincole]

It's an easy task because many of the prizes are given well after the discovery and so many are for things everyone recognizes.

For example, Bohr was recognized in 1975.

Some prizes for more recent discoveries:

2014: Blue LED 2009: fiber optics and they blue lcd.

[projektfu → projektfu]

Oops I meant the CCD, not blue lcd.

[sonicshadow → raincole]

That really doesn’t sound hard, try taking the initial pitch for Reddit and explain why anyone should care about some internet link aggregator.