The Solution for Silicon Valley?

"People—especially in the financial community—seem to assume that every industry works kind of like a web startup, and that all you need is two hot guys and $25,000 and you're a millionaire in six months. Heavy semi doesn't work like that. Heavy semi is like steel mills and railroads. By the time you can get a serious semi company self sustaining you're looking at a couple hundred million dollars of investment." — Ivan Godard of Out-of-the-Box Computing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uotQn-jrAZU#t=599)

It's a longer conversation to have, but I have opinions about Silicon Valley (that I share with others). However, it is nice to see people trying to create a real business and solve real problems instead of creating the next Instagram clone. The thing is that it takes hard work, many years, and the perspective to step back and work towards fundamental—not incremental—change.

Best of luck to the OOTBC guys! True, a new CPU architecture isn't exactly solving problems of justice and social inequality, but at least it isn't a get rich quick scheme. Finding ways to fill in computation at neglected price points in the market is a stepping stone to solving other problems. Hopefully those problems aren't how to gamify haircuts or something. *sigh*

Let's have some get-rich-slow startups that are truly innovating to solve difficult, fundamental problems.

The Buck Stops Here

"Rufer explains the thinking behind the process: 'I was signing checks one day and I recalled the saying, "The buck stops here." I thought to myself, that isn't true. In front of me was a purchase order, a note that said the stuff had been shipped, we had received it, and that the price on the invoice matched the puchase order. A check had been prepared. Now, do I have the choice not to sign the check? Nope. So the question isn't where the buck stops, but where it starts—and it starts with the person who needs the equipment. I shouldn't have to review the purchase order, and the individual shouldn't have to get a manager's approval.'"

"First Let's Fire All the Managers," Gary Hamel (https://archive.harvardbusiness.org/cla/web/pl/product.seam?c=573&i=15715&cs=7c855bfce2fd1c3860846954978b1181)