I want to change the world, but real problems are hard. There are huge opportunities, in transportation, energy, computing, healthcare, manufacturing, but none of them can be solved on the kind of timelines and expectations that the startup community have. So many companies I see have great ideas, but aren’t realistic and serious enough to realize them. I worry that we wont solve these solvable problems, because everyone just want to party like its 2009.
I think people also want the glamour and social desirability from 2009 VC startup stuff. People build or want to build things that will look cool and make them look good.
Yes, things are that shallow these days.
Real problems that hit most people –like housing- are not necessarily hard, but they’re tedious. They require humility (housing is a different problem in every single climate, for instance). They require to take time to understand and listen. VC folks think in brute-force mode: throw money and more money, and at some point it just works.
Silicon Valley sold the idea of a single-solution-rules-them-all concept to far too many young bright minds who end up believing in it. There are other bright minds, thankfully.
Back to problems and huge opportunities and to me, everything is telling me housing is the root.
Transportation: what’s the problem with it? We have superbly efficient vehicles. Maybe people travel too much (work, cheap vacation). Just do that less, then (telecommute, less traveling).
Energy: what’s the problem with it? We know everything about how to minmax this. We could do a million time better with housing and buildings, that’s for sure. That’s a housing problem, then.
Computing: not sure what’s the problem here besides the fact that we have far too much processing power to do nothing online. It’s ridiculous. Moore’s law is done. No one cares about 4K or 8K. We have reliable computers that can run for 20+ years without breaking.
Healthcare: well, if we had better housing we would have a shit ton less healthcare problems. We could retrofit houses and buildings with great insulation. That would reduce humidity which reduces the risks of contracting a pneumonia for instance. From being able to wheel in and out elderlies to providing babies with a clean and safe space to grow, to drastically reduce anxiety and stress for people paying bills/rent/mortgages, housing is 80% health to be honest. It’s easy to be healthy in an enjoyable, stress-free environment.
Manufacturing: I don’t know what’s the opportunity here either. We buy and consume too much. We ship everything from everywhere, using boats that are burning 75.6 tons of fuel per day. We have over 50,000 ships that consume that amount of dirty ass gasoline and they run 365/24/7 to ship us a pair of shoes and a damn phone tomorrow. We’re absolutely insane and disgusting. Manufacturing needs to happen locally, providing for local needs. That’s not a huge opportunity per se. The biggest solution is buying less.
To change the world requires two things as of 2019: less consumption. state-of-the-art housing.
*drops mic*