david927

I heard a quote once that said something like, "For the niche of highly reliable systems, programming is nearly indistinguishable from mathematics. Highly reliable systems should not be a niche." I t…

Actually, screw traveling -- if we could just drill a few hundred meters easily and cheaply, we could solve all our energy problems. Temperatures roughly increase about 1 degree C for every hundred me…

I always thought that, as a child, we differentiate, and everything we experience splits into new branches, creating intelligence, whereas when we get older, we assimilate, everything we experience ge…

Silly. It took us 24 years to get 12km straight down, and that's the best we've ever done. http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=567

The frustration is understandable. It's partly the problem of gate keepers. Something like 20 publishers turned down J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book. The people making the decisions on what t…

They can wait. There is no requirement to implement the product.

Thanks. YEurope was listed as being in Vienna, Italy -- and that just hurt to look at.

> no reasons why you couldnt track down Osama But to stop 9/11, you would have to track down Cheney.

And now my summer program: $10 for 5%

Where you are right now is the best place to start.

The sweet thing is that it's only getting started.

So the best bands/musicians are their own best fans and agent? The best artists? No. That's silly. But this is, for startup, obnoxious reality. Those who raise funding are not the ones with the be…

I live in Europe and there's not much in the way of concept level funding here. I completely understand the OP -- having any help, let alone a few months of funding, the mentorship and Demo Day is de…

That's a perfect reply. You're absolutely right, but I know a lot of companies who've made a fortune doing "Ebay for Switzerland", etc. Businesses will step in to fill that gap to a certain extent b…

I couldn't agree more about YC. The application questions would change to "we're only interested in single founders, but we will consider a technical co-founder." I think it also just makes sense for…

It's a new way to structure and query data -- essentially a new type of database, a variation of a graph database -- and the result is that anyone can use it and model their data without realizing tha…

Exactly. Productivity only matters when it's directed properly. A brilliant MIT student working 20 hour days on some silly mash-up is not nearly as productive as a slow and obtuse engineer in some l…

That's true, but meaningless. History is only our friend when it applies. A lot of technology is now software based and thanks to the web, it is immediately distributed evenly to all those who have …

I agree technology may represent a new economic phase -- but startups are just the way they're introduced. And it has nothing to do with productivity and everything to do with uniqueness of vision. …

If we're not talking recently then quantum mechanics and Joseph Campbell spring to mind.

I hope it doesn't come across as narcissistic, but what I'm doing with my startup.

The change has to come to take the money and investment out to where it's happening. Innovation is spreading everywhere, yet investment is local, which means North America and (parts of) Europe. And…

Anyone (and there are many) who says that we're definitely screwed shouldn't be listened to, and those who say we'll definitely be fine are the same. No one knows. One thing he hasn't factored in is…

That's a good point, and I think India and China will do well through it all. But remember that a lot of demand for manufacturing and production in these countries comes from Europe and North America…

But I can't imagine ever buying a Kindle, and I'll most certainly get this device. I'm already reading digital books on my PC or laptop, but I'd prefer to read it on this. In other words, I don't thin…

Not Steve's best. I love the guy, but this wasn't well thought out. 1. Everything is complex, some things more than others, but you can't not start a change because it's complex. 2. This change MUST …

Of course it's not an end-user sort of thing. The market is technical, which doesn't respond well to marketing and early adopters tend to resent it. So why in the world would they want a Jobs co-fou…

You all got it wrong. Here's what I said: - There is no correlation between a good idea and how hard or easy it is to pitch. Some great ideas are easy to pitch, others are not. No correlation. - Th…

This fits with what I'm now sensing about YC: that they're not as interested in innovation as with what sounds good. Personally speaking, CouchDB is better than a lot of the companies that they have …

I'd like to add a couple things to this: 1. This is the 'gatekeeper' problem. You have a handful of people deciding if you're making "what people want". They can't possibly know what all people want…