Of all the things to work on in blockchain that are more interesting than an IOU coin, the best you could come up with was wallet UX and hardware wallet design?
In the Bitcoin ecosystem and with most of its' offshoots, huge quantities of people are using centralized "wallet" software because the decentralized stuff doesn't scale and is too hard to use.
Hardware wallets are part of that. A cryptocurrency with high TPS could support NFC or similar payments on a HW wallet. Type in your amount, tap the terminal, done.
I think that large custodial companies like Coinbase and Gemini represent existential threats to Bitcoin.
This is cool! I work at MakerDao, we are working on formal verification as well. Congrats on YC (again)-look forward to seeing how this project shapes up.
I am a millenial that makes decent money and lives in manhattan. The following are true of me:
1) I sold my car when I moved here, and I usually walk or take Uber.
2) I sold many of my clothes when I got here (because my closet is small) and now use Rent the Runway Unlimited to have a revolving supply of designer clothes.
3) I do not have a washer or dryer so I use an app called Cleanly to pick up my clothes, wash, and return them.
4) I do not have a dishwasher or a microwave, so I never bought many dishes/utensils, and I order most meals I eat at home from seamless or PostMates.
5) I don't have a vaccum, a broom, a mop, a dustpan, cleaning supplies, etc so I use an app called Handy that sends a cleaner that has these things to my apartment every two weeks.
So, technically I own less things. But only because I can afford to pay to rent them (uber, rent the runway) or pay someone else to make up for not owning them (postmates/cleanly/handy). I imagine that the same is true for many of the people who live the lifestyle the author is describing. So in a way, I can see her point: we're not really minimalist, we're just rich enough to not have to own stuff.
But on the other hand, isn't it cool that technology has created a world where I don't have to own all this stuff to have a convenient, clean, fashionable life? I am not even a minimalist but I do think that the aesthetic idea of minimalism has influenced some of the technological advances that have led to some of the most innovative "shared economy" and peer to peer service companies. And if the people who came up with the ideas for these apps want to live in a white apartment with succulents, who cares?
Hey; honest question for you (don't mean this in the pejorative sense)
How much does that cost you on a month to month basis? I have no point of reference due to living out in the burbs but my knee jerk is "jesus that must cost so much overhead" and I'd like to see if that's a false assumption or not.
For level playing field/full disclosure, my list looks something like:
1. Car costs: ~40$/month for gas (mostly bus), 20k amortized over 10 years of ownership ~160$/month (assuming no major maitanance, given how little I drive)
2. Clothes: ~20$/month (assuming I spend <100$ yearly on clothes which is probably accurate, probably avg. 1 pair of shoes + one full outfit a year, and that's likely a high estimate)
3. Washer/dryer: This one is hard since it's merged with the water/power bill, but as a point of reference I pay about 100$ water and 120$ power monthly for a 3b2b house.
4. See above re: utilities, food probably comes to ~200$ per month buying at costco (two trips monthly of ~150-200 each for the wife and I)
5. Cleaning: "free" (time isn't free yadda yadda)
All together probably between 650-700$ monthly on non-mortgage necessities, the largest portions of which are car+utilities+groceries in relatively even thirds, which is a hard bar to push lower for me so I'm looking for ways to be creative. :)
3. Laundry: ~$40 a month + Dry cleaning (can be the in 100s)
4. Water is payed for by the building, electricity averages $100 a month.
5. Food: This one is tougher. If I order pad thai, I can eat it for two days and its $6 a day. If I order lobster pasta, its $40 and I eat it all right then! According to mint I spend $500 a month on average. But some of what I pay for is in cash so it could be more.
It's definitely not cheaper to live like this but it's much less friction! :)
thanks for the candid answer; I can certainly see the appeal, and the laundry bill is _surprisingly good_ + would add a big convenience factor too, that's one I might have taken up on if I were still in a city.
Food I can definitely see, and if I would splurge this is probably where I'd do it. Those uber costs though, - not having your own car as well seems like a much harder trade.
Ha ha - you remind me of myself back in the day. Almost.
You're not a 'minimalist' - you're 'lazy'. Ha - sorry, I'm kidding. A 'Millenialminimal' ... ha.
You will one day (soon) discover that food is part of life, and you'll enjoy making it, and having it around. Eating and preparing food is as old as time, it's part of what living is for, many cultures revolve around that. I think it's embedded in our nature, so my bet is that you'll feel that pull within a couple of years.
What you're doing is related to - but not quite - 'minimalism' - you should invent a word for it :).
Don't forsee the cooking enjoyment thing, particularly with travel schedule, lack of dishwasher, excess of stairs (5th floor walkup + grocery bags=sad), and the fact that I literally can only make scrambled eggs, but maybe you're right.
I think the lifestyle is definitely related to minimalism--I'm not outsourcing all of these things because I don't have time, but I also wouldn't consider myself a particularly lazy person. I simply like the feeling that my life is a well-oiled machine--everything is handled, no laundry folding necessary. It gives me less things to worry about so I can spend more time working, reading, exercising, writing... (and yes, sometimes, watching netflix).
I think my point was that the concept of minimalism (owning less things, being responsible for less choice, etc) has led to a bevy of innovations that are actively freeing up time for me to use my brain more, if I so choose--and isn't that the dream of technology, in the first place?
Let's see here...Cleanly is $1.5/lb for regular laundry.[1] A random GE top-load washer+dryer pair at Lowes is $900[2], which works out to be 600lbs of laundry to a first approximation.
As it happens, I have a laundry basket and a scale handy, so I'll call one load 10lbs and I do, oh, 3 loads a week. That makes the washer/dryer 20 weeks.
Our current washer and dryer are 8 years old. I'd say that amortizes pretty well.
If an apartment in Manhattan doesn't already have a washer/dryer hookup, it is not getting a washer/dryer hookup, no matter the economics of buying a washer and dryer vs using a laundry service.
They don't appear to have a website. I tried to look them up after the techcrunch event here in NY and it seems that that was the first time anyone had ever heard of them.
That said, I actually disagree with hagbardgroup. If Choi can pull this off, I think it would open up the world of custom makeup to a huge market of people far beyond the "home-brew" makeup hobbyists. The idea of putting on a fall outfit and being able to print out the perfect shade of mauve without getting in my car and going to Walgreens and spending $12 is pretty incredible. I think a lot of women, even those outside the target age bracket, would find this product useful.
Rick Perry always has a lot of brave things to say when the legislature isn't in session. Funny that the only time he has come out in support of an environmentally friendly industry is when he stands to gain a 6500 job windfall at the end of his term...
Theoretically he could still sign a bill relating to Tesla, even in regular session. The next meeting of the Legislature starts on 13 Jan 2015 and his term ends on 20 Jan 2015. Though expecting anything to get past 1st, 2nd, and 3rd reading in both the House and Senate in under 6 days is almost certainly a doomed expectation.
The simplest version of this is to purchase bitcoins on the "cheapest" exchange, and sell them on localbitcoins for MtGox prices. Only problem here is that if you're in the US, it takes 2-5 days to get your coins, so you'd have to have a decent stash/revolving money flow.
I began reading his article hoping to have him talk a little bit more about smartphones in emerging markets, but he barely touched on it. Africa has arguably the fastest growing middle class in the world right now. They're also poised to make a cultural leap far greater than that of China's in the 90s. I read that 60% of Africans will have smartphones in 2019. The continent is already using smart technology in innovative/cost saving ways (i.e. sending funds via sms).
It seems to me that if I am looking to join the smartphone industry, I make myself indispensable to Africa. I think Africans are less likely to care for features like Siri or luxury components. My thought is that developers for devices in that part of the world will have the freedom to think outside the box--what will a smart phone look like on a continent with minimal financial resources, but avid interest in quick data and communication? What do people want from their phone when they don't have necessarily have a computer or strong infrastructure?
I think you've got the tone right. Also... I hope you're right about Neural implants! I've wanted one ever since I read that MT Anderson book in JR high school (minus the dystopian homogeneity and fields of filet mignon).
Maybe Amazon will debut them on 60 Minutes prior to cyber monday 2014!
I'm sorry, but fields of filet mignon sounds great. Make it fields of bacon-wrapped filets and I would call it my own personal utopia (for as long as my heart held out)
I can't decide if this is happy or sad. On the one hand, it's great that a country that was once dominated by a totalitarian regime is a hub of new ideas about freedom of information and what government responsibility really means. On the other hand, it's really sad that one of the countries who fought so hard against that totalitarianism is no longer considered safe for these people.
If we weren't fighting for a world where citizens can speak up about the crimes of their governments, what were we fighting for?
If we weren't fighting for a world where citizens can speak up about the crimes of their governments, what were we fighting for?
The destruction of our enemies, the annihilation of their ideology, the power of our ruling class. Ideals are overwhelmingly window dressing or there would be a hell of a lot more Edward Snowden's. Surely at least one per cent of the people the NSA recruit each year are as close to being raging hippies as you can get while joining the military industrial complex. And Snowden was the second NSA whistle blower, what, ever?
Ideals are window dressing. The Democrats were anti-war, then Obama was elected and the movement evaporated. This is how humans roll. Ideologues mostly get beaten, shot, ignored. A prophet is never hailed in his own land. Look at the vitriol RMS gets when he has been right again and again and again.
I'd go for happy. Concentrating people with ideas like this in a supportive area is a classic incubator for change. London in late 19th Century had all kinds of European trouble makers concentrating (and being spied on by bowler hatted detectives[1]). The ideas they had certainly had impact!
Or the definition of a criminal (and "threat") becomes consistently more expansive and vague. Out of paranoia and a strong financial incentive to do so, even while most empirical statistics say otherwise.
