> ... with participation from NVentures (NVIDIA's venture capital arm), ServiceNow Ventures, MongoDB Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, Databricks Ventures ...
Are tech companies FOMOing so hard that they're now all running AI venture arms themselves instead of you know, developing their own products? Except for NVIDIA who needs to keep pumping the bubble I didn't expect the others.
Well, at least for them, investing into AI is actually developing their own product. The push to replace "Actually Indians" [1] with LLMs is huge because large Western companies want to save even the pittances they're paying Indian body shops.
During ZIRP they discovered that the way to lead companies nowadays is to become a maxxer of whatever current fad is, and the more you maxx the better. And then when things change and you're wrong, you'll be a strong leader and, in ZIRPs case fire everyone you over-hired, with AI will be similar.
Why be a normal guy that waits to see what happens and is measured and pragmatic when you can get attention basically through the whole cycle by being the earliest adopter, adopt it to the maxx, then also be the loudest big brain when the tide changes and be praised for "taking hard decisions" when you revert everything you said so far?
A special case of the more general cringe economy we're in. The dumbest, most outrageous ideas win, amplified by social media. Say stupid sh*t loudly, be wrong, profit.
I know plenty of people that went through an engineering degree with me that do not like math, but they are competent at all the way up to what an electrical engineer needs to know, which is not research level math, but what most people would call advanced. I would never say I "like" math for example but I've always thought about it as something important to learn and get decent at to succeed in life.
I have way more interest in history and philosophy but the way I figured is I can learn all of that on my own because all you need is to read. Math is actually hard so I better get "trained by someone" at it.
I’m similar to you, except to upgrade my practical math skills at college I did cultivate a “liking” for math comparable to other technical areas I pursue. Namely, I started reading popular math books and articles, watching math youtubers, solving recreational puzzles from math periodicals… It was like, half actual interest and half contrived interest, seeing if I could develop in that direction. One summer when I had a lot of free time, with the help of a mathematician friend, I worked through a few advanced textbooks and video lecture series beyond anything I strictly needed. Progress was real but agonizing, and then I promptly forgot everything. It turns out that just maintaining a mid-to-late-undergraduate-level understanding of applied math is all I can be responsible for. It’s a responsibility I attend to, but my brain is only so mathy. At some point it becomes a question of both motivation and ability.
You also don't know the people who didn't make it through, because for whatever reason they aren't able to learn something they weren't able to like. Glad you were able to make it work.
I don't know the people that didn't make it through? You're under the impression I didn't meet anyone outside of those 25? And that I didn't have classmates all the way from first grade to university? Wat
Similar experience on differential calculus courses in an engineering university in portugal. Some people would try a couple of times and then some even switch university to an easier one so they could actually get a degree, or outright give up. I remember 210 guys and 10 girls started my course. Only about 25 guys and 5 girls finished the 5 year degree "on time" - most people don't give up but they will get delayed by a semester up to a year or two due to failing some classes on the first try.
This was not due to malice but instead, incompetence. They didn’t have enough cash to clear their trades.
I have ranted on here before about the SV startup mindset of “I don’t need to know anything about the industry I’m ‘disrupting’ nor do I need to play by their rules” and this was an example of that. On that day, everybody who was actually in capital markets went, “what f-ing idiots those guys are”
There are so many of these breeding ponzi schemes every few years. Guinea pigs, "rare" snakes, long distance pigeons, you name it. They are all ponzis regardless of the animal reproducing, with the added benefit that instead of just being part of a financial scam you can also be part of animal abuse, because most people don't give two shits about the animal, mess it up, abandon them later, etc.
I don't think these are special as in rare, but they are cool. Many countries have gestures for the same thing. In portugal you pick up the ear lobe with your index finger and thumb, stretch the other fingers and pull it a few times. It means tasty also. You may accompany it with saying "it's from here", as in the food "is from the earlobe" which means its good, but mostly its done silently.
Are tech companies FOMOing so hard that they're now all running AI venture arms themselves instead of you know, developing their own products? Except for NVIDIA who needs to keep pumping the bubble I didn't expect the others.
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