Comment by j-bos

3 years ago

Between today and the hey day of places like Bell Labs there is one fundamental difference:

Where are the true believers?

Let's use a HN reader as our baseline. You're like much smarter than the average. Do you want to woek incredibly hard, long, focused hours building another IP monopoly for somebody who's already OP? What if they reward you with a pat on the back? Is that personally appealing? Is there anyone or entity you love enough to slave under?

I posit the difference in mentality is massive.

A new Bell Labs would need to incenticize the people actually creating value, by "allowing" them to retain real stake in what they own.

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j-bos

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yodsanklai  3 years ago

> You're like much smarter than the average. Do you want to woek incredibly hard, long, focused hours building another IP monopoly for somebody who's already OP?

Possibly. Tons of people do ti.

> What if they reward you with a pat on the back?

They reward the high-performers with risk-free, extremely attractive compensation. Very few people would be able to create value on their own.

  • j-bos  3 years ago

    Thanks, My question though is, do you personally desire to be in that position?

    • Sakos  3 years ago

      A stable job with great pay and the freedom to work on tough problems without having to worry about funding? Yeah, I'd love to be in that position. If you want the fruits of that labour to not be monopolized, then it needs to be regulated.

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