But honestly, why should we care about PG's brand of web startups? Yes, we're told that they're desireable for vague, inscrutable reasons, but if you dig any deeper than that you'll find that they're at best performing market arbitrage based on better information, and at worst destroying value.

Look at Uber. They're hemorrhaging money all so that they can artificially lower wages and run their competitors out of business before ultimately going belly-up from their unsustainable business model. And they're considered a success story.

That second tweet is pure gold.

Buut... It's just so difficult. Isn't it? The lure of that grand empire that we had. :/

Ironically it seems that China is trying to do a little empire-building of its own.

They're still a long-ways away from playing globo-cop, but all that island-building in the South China Sea is pretty telling. They're also doing a lot of infrastructure investment in Africa.

Why are Software Development world has such a naive world view? Why are we not a bit more enlightened about Nation-States and nature of power? I really do not know. As a person who enjoys Geopolitical articles and newsletters, I find HN discussions on Geopolitics range from naive to nauseating.