If I could redesign college education for smart people who don't know what they want to be, it would be a single intensive year with these essential courses:
- Microeconomics 101
- Macroeconomics 101
- Python programming
- Probability & Statistics
- Corporate Finance
- Sales 101
Heard today about top Indian engineer in the US working on advanced semiconductor tech, been in the country for over 10 years but now being forced to move out because he hasn’t received a green card which created major family issues.
Great way to win the global tech wars!
Positive American thought of the day:
even in the two World Wars, the US was late and slow to act initially....but mobilized rapidly and motivated its best people to figure out solutions to the hardest problems, with great results
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.
Spent a good amount of money on a sleep training coach for us to get my toddler sleep without assistance.
She had all sorts of modern techniques and tools to help. Took 2 months and we got nowhere.
Finally just used the ancient cry-it-out method and it worked within 3 days…
@DavidSacks
This argument is not working and doesn’t pass a sniff test. Polls showed the majority of Dems and supermajority of Americans wanted Biden out after the debate. If that happens , the correct outcome is for Biden to go. It’s actually democracy at work.
I suggest you try a
The ironic part is that this thread was typed on an internet site created by a billionaire, on a device created by a billionaire, on a network created by a billionaire and maybe even in a coffee shop created by a billionaire.
So easy to complain, so hard to create massive value.
Every birth of a first child is actually three separate births. Birth of the child and birth of mother and father. Hard to know what kind of parent you’ll be until it happens.
Just got a call back from Senator Rubio's office with the Small Business committee. The relief bill doesn't leave out VC-backed startups intentionally, and the SBA will issue clarifications after passage. They acknowledged a large number of calls over past 24 hours.
Keep pushing
Finally used Waymo in SF. Absolutely worth doing if you're in the Bay Area, or visiting.
It's a mind-bending experience, and drives home the point that our young kids will never have to drive.
'Slowly, and then all at once' ....applies to self-driving cars as well.
Restaurant food delivery is one of the least sustainable business models out there. Consolidation will continue until there is only one big player, and prices will skyrocket to make it a much smaller market.
I read over 100 books yesterday. Pretty sure that’s a world record. Totally exhausted.
Small detail that they were all toddler books to my voracious daughter.
Happy Fathers Day to all, even the haters and losers!
@DavidSacks
Your version of ‘history’ appears very selective. Plenty of wars have ended early with fewer casualties and damage because of a show of devastating military force and massive escalation. Israeli history itself shows this.
When coronavirus overwhelms hospitals, lots of people die from other stuff because they can't get to a doctor. Thus, coronavirus' true toll is bigger than its fatality rate would suggest.
There is starting to be real panic in the high-skilled immigration community about another Trump term. Rightfully so I think.
Tell the immigrant in your life that they should file for their green card asap. You'll be doing them a favor.
In fact, we probably agreed on 95% of the issues
I now wonder if social media fundamentally exacerbated our divisions simply by eliminating context and nuance
Is it a coincidence that our national divisions spiked with the rise of Twitter in 2010 or so?
@ntsbfh
@ArmandDoma
protecting his confidentiality but he had a kid who was about to age out of the green card system (turning 18) who would basically have to start from scratch and start applying for visas as a foreigner. This is a common, sad story with our long green card waits.
Why would
@DavidSacks
Care to explain where the amnesty is in the bill? I couldn’t find any in trusted summaries I’ve read. The one here from Fox News suggests there is no amnesty whatsoever
NEW: My initial highlights from the border deal.
- No amnesty/legalization of anyone already in the U.S. illegally.
- Funds an increase in ICE detention capacity to approx. 50,000 from the current 34,000.
- At 7 day rolling average of 5,000 encounters per day, or 8,500
Had a really interesting conversation today with a Trump supporter who was a distant contact that I follow on social media.
I always perceived him as being hyper partisan given his social media posts, but I found his views were far more nuanced and open (cont)
In 2019, the number of foreign-born entrepreneurs in the US declined by 4,400, the only yearly drop since 2000, thanks to US' convoluted immigration policies (
@amyfeldman
/ Forbes)
@paulg
I can see a lot of people in the comments are confused as to why this happens. It’s not about the interest payments - it’s about the overall terms of the loan. Typically the terms are called covenants and can include a wide variety of things like ARR growth , cash on hand, timing
@benshapiro
You're going way extreme. Not every person called 2A advocates monsters. Several of them were reasonable and wanted to discuss rationally. Some of them were over the top, but are also grieving.
Stepped down from Presto CEO role after almost 15 years in the seat. Been a huge pleasure working with such great people taking on difficult challenges to transform traditional physical industries.
The company is in great hands moving forward.
Onto
@pmarca
Great to see you back essaying.
Feels like this proposal is a bit simplistic and diagnosis incorrect. It was not a 'lack of desire' holding anyone back from investing in building cotton swabs and PPE. It was the lack of a forcing function. Pandemics happen too infrequently.
The first couple years of parenting are quite intense but I believe they do train parents well for the decades ahead of
- dealing with sleep issues
- ensuring children are fed
- decoding their kids’ moods and feelings
- working together under pressure with a spouse as a team
@mattyglesias
Why not find ways to deregulate and speed up supply chains ? And invest in technology to improve crop yields ? And remove other bottlenecks to increased food competition
@paulg
I remember in the early days one intro email you sent to a VC asserting that this would definitely be a public company and they needed to meet us.
I thought you were crazy but as always you were just way ahead of the game!
Thanks for everything and especially for creating YC
If the US wants to beat China economically, the strategy is now clear: aggressively court top Chinese talent.
For a variety of reasons, there has never been a better time to lay out the red carpet for the best and brightest of China. Need to be much bolder than we are right now
@garrytan
@paulg
Skilled immigration is legal but it's just incredibly difficult for skilled people to navigate. Indians are the worst off and actively discriminated against.
That's why we are working to help all motivated and honest people navigate the system.
@Austen
It was predictable 4 years ago when Joe Biden was already the oldest presidential candidate in history. The fact that he’s over 0% is hard to believe
Trump at 63% at 78 years old is not something I would have predicted, esp after Jan6th to be honest
I became a US citizen today.
It was really hard for me to get here, and I’ve been blessed with all the luck in the world.
I can’t imagine how hard it must be for those who are less fortunate but have the same dreams of building a better future for them and theirs.
Some macro observations from a China trip after 4 years away (used to go two-three times a year)
- China is more modern than ever. New airports, parks, canals, infrastructure have been rapidly built over past few years. A few store closures but nothing major.
- Products and
Presto’s first employee based in Toronto, Canada started today.
Trump can try as hard as he likes to reduce legal immigration - but he won’t stop companies from going to where the talent is.
The borders are already open, and jobs are leaving the country.
‘1917’ is the best war movie since Saving Private Ryan.
It’s so good and different from past movies that it willl likely change the genre irrevocably
Few war movies are made these days, unfortunately, but the lessons of war are timeless and deeply human
@davidchang
I am CEO of Presto, a leading restaurant tech company in Silicon Valley and we just did a bunch of research on this topic.
DM me and I’ll send you our whitepaper, including how we think the US will evolve
As my toddler attempts every crafty move in the book to avoid bedtime, it's kind of scary to think that this is the least intelligent she will ever be.
Launching a new podcast called Curiosity with the prolific
@immad
- going deep on technical topics like AI, Space, Nuclear, Economics and Bio with some of the smartest people on the planet.
As tech founders ourselves, we like to explore these topics more fully than most pods do
An Italy / China style lockdown is inevitable in the US, moreso in affected areas (both coasts).
We are ~2 weeks away
Once in lockdown, it will take 6-12 weeks to start normalizing behavior
But remember: every crisis has opportunity
@paulg
Call of Duty is the modern equivalent of boys running around with 'space laser' guns or playing fort or playing 'cowboys and injuns'. Boys love their simulated violence and that's just naturally hard-coded.
Charging and packing my kids’ iPads before an international flight and feeling like a Samurai warrior sharpening his blade and affixing his armor before battle
Every tech founder should be inspired by the enduring creativity and prolific output of legendary film-makers churning out quality movies into their 80s
- Spielberg
- Scorsese
- George Miller
- Ridley Scott
- Eastwood
- Miyazaki
If they can do it, why can't you?
@pm
Not true that credit cards are doomed because the cost of these ‘card not present’ transactions are much higher than credit card ‘card present’ transactions. We power both and chain restaurants prefer the latter !
@stevesi
Fair points. However I don’t think anything more than high school math is needed for Stats and Economics (which is more math dependent than writing). Don’t need calculus, just need to know how to add and multiply basically.
Things I know now that I wish I knew before having kids (thread)
- How intellectually engaging it is to have a kid. The emotional connection was obvious but I didn’t know how interesting the constant problem-solving could be. Kids are ever-changing, mysterious and fun.
/1
@TechSalesChris
@Austen
How could you not predict it? Biden himself in 2020 said his candidacy was a bridge to the next generation and he was widely expected to not run again
Talented people, no matter how naturally driven they are, often need an external force / impulse to truly achieve their potential for greatness
Instead of being impressed by someone’s talent, light a fire under them.
You’ll be doing them, and all of us, a great favor
The upside of Trump losing would be a GOP party that is forced to retrench and pick fresh leaders that are future-oriented vs grievance-oriented.
The country needs a functional and capable GOP with an optimistic vision
Took my 2 yr old daughter swimming yesterday. Glorious sunny afternoon, too warm to sit outside but perfect to soak in. Got all her fave water toys ready and she was ecstatic.
Then 5 mins later she had to pee, started calling for her Mama and we had to leave
Happy Fathers Day!
Spending the last couple days in the hospital after the birth of my second child, and it’s been remarkable to see how relaxed health care workers (even in CA) have become about Covid precautions now that they’ve been vaccinated.
A big change from last year!