myzerox

> "1. Life is about the continuous cycle of our human species development and where we fit in that as individuals."

If you create what feels authenticate to you, it will fit in with humanity as a whole.

> 2. Religion as purpose.

I'd say purpose is drawn from philosophy in general, and religion is an instance of philosophy.

> 4. Justice.

There is a political dichotomy of merit-based systems vs. egalitarian systems. I lean towards merit, and equal opportunity.

> 5. Adequate regulation.

There is an overregulation bias. If in doubt, a new law is passed. This is especially harmful to innovation: see AirBnB, Uber/Lyft, Synthetic Biology.

> 6. "University education should not be a replacement for auto-didactic learning."

But the emergence of MOOCs makes autodidactic learning a possible replacement for university education. In an unbundled form, of course, as you still need to develop your network (w/o the campus) and build your reputation (w/o the degree).

> 9. Authenticity vs. social convention.

Again, given the dichotomy of authenticity vs. social convention, favor authenticity. ("if in doubt" is more of a stylistic element)

> "11. "Risk-avoidance is the riskiest strategy." does not fully respect the logic."

It would not, if we could control all of the risks. However, we cannot fully predict and avoid the occurrence of extreme events. Hence, it is better to embrace them via antifragile systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile. Moreover, not taking any seemingly high risks, usually leads to not making any progress at all - and stagnation is the ultimate risk.

> 12. Creative destruction vs. conservation

The comparison is to be understood on the level of "where should I, as an individual, focus my limited attention and energy on?" Environmentalism or Technology? Answer: Technology.

> 13. Technology-driven extinction

Many people primarily see the dangers of technology, whereas - imho - the benefits outweigh the costs. In fact, the opportunity costs of not advancing technology because of naysayers would be higher than the damage that is done by technology itself. (extinction is meant on the level of humankind)

> 18. "Humans will step over their biological limits, but that will threaten our cohesion on a species level."

Threat and opportunity usually go hand-in-hand.

Yes, one of his better quotes!

Of course a healthy meritocracy relies on a meaningful and objective measure of performance. Technology should make it easier to implement such a system today though, compared to the times of the old Greeks.

Thanks! Indeed - whether the "many" is true in all cases, is something I'd like to verify.

I agree with your nuances on 8, 10, 15.

"I want to start a company, employ US citizens, pay taxes, and drive GDP growth."

It's bad for innovation at Whatsapp but great for innovation in Silicon Valley as capital flows back into the cycle.

I didn't get which inbox messages would hit, in your scenario.

Would I be required to install a new app for checking an additional inbox?

It's because of network effects.

(I'm not going to switch to the 2nd best app where I can only reach 10% of my friends.)

Twice.

It's a $1.3B fund.

That's a valid point.

It's certainly worth it for someone coming from abroad (assuming you have something to offer the community).

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. By how much could the valuation of your company increase from building up those early connections (investor intros, hiring leads, early adopters of your service)?

2. Would that outweigh living expenses?

3. Would it still outweigh living expenses after considering the effect of a smaller budget on your company's runway?

We'll see new angel investors. That will help the ecosystem.

They're buying access to a winner-take-all market.

Browse AirBnB for a hacker house, and live there for a while.

Yes, my assumption is that's what the US people want.

This is the worst possible measure to deal with those sanctioned countries.

As we've seen in the Arab Spring or currently in Ukraine, extremist regimes have to replaced by bottom-up grassroot movements, by the will of the people.

Having said that, what could be a stronger weapon than access to education?

Well, Vicarious is still independent... http://vicarious.com/

Yes, the built-in deflation seems to be Bitcoin's biggest question mark.

Other the hand, Bitcoin doesn't have to replace the complete currency system to become a useful medium for transactions.

So, a low-level of inflation can still be maintained via fiat currency.

(We obviously need a certain amount of inflation to encourage people to invest vs. hoarding their money.)

This is a wonderful idea!

Was looking for exactly such a book for teaching my 7 and 8 year old brothers the theoretical basics of programming after getting them to create their own tiny games with MIT's Scratch.

As I'm also quite confident that Linda's execution will be of highest quality, I pre-ordered the digital version.

Yes! Hope guys like Chris & Rob at LT (and/or Bret Victor) will succeed in reinventing programming - making it more tangible and visual. Programming doesn't need to be that tedious!

There is so much more educational value in this conversation than just people saying "serve your users but question what they say they want", as it is right in the action - with all its nuances.

Great lesson on prioritization!