Disqus - Latest Comments for jeremylichtman

Re: Want Success? Choose the Right Parents

jeremylichtman — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:25:11 -0000

Perhaps he tracked people in the Middle Ages named "Hode" and determined how many were bandits, but I'm guessing that most such people simply won't enter the historical record.

It obviously misses all of the Tailors (not Smiths - a blacksmith was a well-paid specialist) who climbed the ladder though.

Re: Want Success? Choose the Right Parents

jeremylichtman — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 07:16:34 -0000

If I understand correctly, his data will only tell him that a unique family name with high status retains high status (not all that surprising given inheritance and educational opportunities).

It won't tell him if people with low status are climbing up into the "ranks" or not.

There's an additional bias due to the selection of uncommon surnames. Think about where surnames come from - they're usually profession names, or were selected randomly from predetermined lists. A person with an unusual surname would likely have been high status in the first place (i.e. minor nobility, or people with money to purchase a "better" name), which is a serious statistical founder bias. The net result is that this statistic won't track upward mobility well, only the relative absence of downward mobility.

Re: Bitcoin Is a High-Tech Dinosaur Soon to Be Extinct

jeremylichtman — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 09:35:29 -0000

As an interesting aside, after a bunch of well publicized confiscations, the US government is one of the largest holders of BitCoins.

Re: So You Think That 10,000-Hour Rule Will Make You An Expert? Wrong!

jeremylichtman — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 13:28:18 -0000

All of the above is somewhat true. It is really important not to discount driving ambition, which can propel someone without "natural" talent or ability to accomplish things that might otherwise seem impossible. Few people cultivate such ambition though.

Re: Bitcoin Is Not as Secure, Unregulated, or Lucrative as You Might Think

jeremylichtman — Sun, 05 May 2013 17:20:40 -0000

It isn't a trivial task to update the work function. The entire user-base has to do it, or else the blockchain would split. There may be other implications as well.

Re: Bitcoin Is Not as Secure, Unregulated, or Lucrative as You Might Think

jeremylichtman — Sun, 05 May 2013 10:34:35 -0000

I generally agree with everything here. One quibble - anyone with access to a BIG supercomputer (i.e. a government) could potentially cause havoc by creating multiple forks in the blockchain, or via sybil attacks. The risk decreases as the number of people using BTC grows, but never entirely goes away.

Re: Hedge Funds Find Tech Stocks in the Bargain Bin

jeremylichtman — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 06:55:55 -0000

Lots of value traps in the bargain bin too.

Re: 3D Printing Large Items

jeremylichtman — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:42:06 -0000

Objective is to keep it cheap. I'm thinking along the lines of a very simple conveyor belt.

Re: “Stealth mode” and other f’ing brilliant startup strategies

jeremylichtman — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:42:55 -0000

I believe so.

Re: 3D Printing Large Items

jeremylichtman — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 10:49:18 -0000

Not necessarily. A big printer takes up lots of room. I've seen high-end ones advertised that can print out objects of several feet in each dimension, but you'd need a factory floor to put it on.

Re: Going To Zero: Why More Public Companies Than Ever Before Will Be Worth Nothing

jeremylichtman — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:17:55 -0000

I agree, but would preface with "in certain industries". Technology in particular is prone to winner take all scenarios, in addition to offshoring effects. There are plenty of industries where that isn't the case.

Re: Toronto is broken

jeremylichtman — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:36:31 -0000

I think its a bit more subtle. In SF and NYC the startup community is very tightly knit, and everybody seems to know each other. In Toronto it seems like there's a bunch of different groups of founders doing similar things, but with poor inter-connectivity between the groups. That directly effects all of the issues you mentioned, ranging from mentoring, to fund-raising etc. There's nothing here like the PayPal Mafia - yet - which allows good ideas to be actively promoted quickly.

Re: http://bencoe.tumblr.com/post/28287898568

jeremylichtman — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:36:55 -0000

Been through this process twice myself.

I was never able to raise outside funds (or even get a reasonable line of credit), so had to pay close attention to cashflow. Making payroll can age a person prematurely.

It took me a lot longer than you to realize the bit about taking time away. Sounds like you're on the right track though.

Re: What will cellphones look like in 5 years time?

jeremylichtman — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:37:55 -0000

Google Glass is likely to run on Android.

I suspect we'll see some new OS'es, in addition to the existing / upcoming ones. There will likely be one or two more (probably futile) attempts to build "dumb phones" using something along the lines of Symbian, at least one new open source system, a few more attempts to get Linux running on phones etc etc.

Re: What will cellphones look like in 5 years time?

jeremylichtman — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:59:25 -0000

I believe that Android falls in the category of pushing functionality into the cloud.

I don't believe it is going away.

I suspect that (like Linux) its true significance will be seen further out though - possibly ten year's time - and will depend on whether consumers ultimately prefer their computing to happen locally or via the browser.

Re: Yahoo should merge with RIM

jeremylichtman — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:46:37 -0000

I might be mistaken, or things might have changed. At the time, Yahoo! was listed in the news as one of the "and others" in the consortium.

Re: Spanish Banking Rescue Should Become Example for Europe

jeremylichtman — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:38:22 -0000

From what I can tell, the issues with the Spanish banks largely have to do with their purchases of Spanish government bonds (something like 60% of the total). As the yields have skyrocketed, their prices have fallen, taking the banks net worth (and all-important credibility) with them.

I wonder if a temporary measure that allowed those banks to bypass mark-to-market could help. Perhaps somebody with a better understand of this would be able to comment.

Re: Can Yahoo! be turned around?

jeremylichtman — Mon, 28 May 2012 22:16:46 -0000

I don't have any pull there either, but I can pass your comments along to some former employees who might still have contact there...

Re: Can Yahoo! be turned around?

jeremylichtman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:17:19 -0000

Is there some kind of indication that they've given up on Groups? I'm not really familiar with the community.

It could just be a matter of improving the quality of advertising across their system, in order to make it worthwhile from a cashflow perspective.

Re: Can Yahoo! be turned around?

jeremylichtman — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:59:41 -0000

Hopefully Y! is watching your comments! :)

Re: Can Yahoo! be turned around?

jeremylichtman — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:55:33 -0000

Disqus possibly had a cookie on your browser.

Several of my friends use nonsense strings for their names. I usually just have to approve their comments.

Re: Can Yahoo! be turned around?

jeremylichtman — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:56:05 -0000

Just an FYI - I believe I have this set up so that you can post without logging in.

What you're describing is a cultural issue. It similar to the one faced by Jack Welch at GE in the early 80s. Getting rid of bureaucracy in a large organization is a big, ongoing task.

Re: Why Dan Loeb Loves Yahoo's Résumé-Gate

jeremylichtman — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:22:47 -0000

Fixing the board will certainly help.

I suspect that there's an alignment issue here though.

Loeb is looking for a short to mid-term gain in share price, at which point he is going to sell.

The things necessary to get that price increase may result in some strategic decisions that hurt Y! in the long run though. I covered off some of this on my blog the other day.

Granted, the current move to rapidly sell off Alibaba (possibly with insufficient due diligence), lay off people (some of whom are the only ones with knowledge of proprietary code) and orient towards ecommerce (which will hurt their cashflow among other things) are silly.

If they're going to "fix" Yahoo though, its going to take a longer term strategic approach though.

Re: The Majorana Fermion – Elusive Subatomic Particle Confirmed

jeremylichtman — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:10:33 -0000

The press on this one was atrocious.

Its a quasi-particle, in the same sense that a "hole" traveling in the opposite direction to electron current is a quasi-particle.

I only partially understand how you could store information in them - I think its something like how an active memory array can have a particular bit set based on the presence of a small number of electrons. I'm guessing that the advantage here is that this isn't electrically charged, so in theory you could use a smaller number of them to store a bit.

Re: Mining a $20 trillion asteroid? New clues emerge about space robot startup

jeremylichtman — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:18:00 -0000

Todd, is Arkyd the same company as Planetary Resources? Their websites appear to be in the same data center.