Interesting Links for 10-04-2021

[andrewducker]

'Justice League' Screenwriter Chris Terrio Is Super Pissed Off (They really don't seem to understand what they're making)

(tags:movies dc )

Elon Musk's 'Public Transit' in Las Vegas Still Just Humans Driving Cars Slowly in a Tunnel

(tags:ElonMusk transport epicfail )

People are more likely to consider solutions that add features than solutions that remove them, even when removing features is more efficient

(tags:psychology problems )

YouTube's policies block advertising for Black Lives Matter, but not White Lives Matter

(tags:racism Google advertising YouTube )

Death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh - here's how to complain about too much coverage on BBC TV

I mean, seriously, they had exactly the same show on multiple channels earlier. What is the point?
(tags:BBC monarchy UK complaints viaPatrickHadfield )

Please Take A Moment To Sign This Important Pledge Promising You're Not Mad At Me

(tags:mentalhealth rejection )

Taylor Swift, intellectual property law, and due dilligence disasters

(tags:music intellectual_property law )

The Eye Of Sauron is upon Boris Johnson

(tags:BorisJohnson video lotr funny fake )

Twitter are calling for public input on their approach to world leaders

(tags:politics Twitter )

Comments

[cmcmck]

The Beeb is still swamped with D of E stuff again today.

Okay so I'm a republican and may have little patience with this stuff at the best of times, but talk about overkill! I suspect it'd have driven the old boy nuts as he's known to have hated what he termed 'fuss'.

[dewline]

1. I get Terrio's POV on all of this, and it seems reasonable enough to read. I just don't know that I want to watch another version.

2. Yeah, this doesn't look useful, never mind thrilling. Las Vegas is not getting a lot here, are they?

4. That is a double-standard that can't be tolerated.

[danieldwilliam]

Does Elon Musk actually understand transport?

[andrewducker]

I don't actually think so. I think he's done the smart person thing of going "I don't see why this is so hard so it must not be." And not actually looking at the detail rather than just having a high level view of things.

[danieldwilliam]

One should always remember the general lesson of Ronald Coase's Theory of the Firm.

[andrewducker]

I'm not sure he's that good at it in all situations though.

He's bought his way into two places where his drive coincided with profit, but even then came very close to everything folding multiple times. Boring Company and Hyperloop are him trying to disrupt things where the state of the art is already well covered by lots of other companies and he doesn't actually have the expertise to add much.

[danieldwilliam]

Are you familiar with Product Space?

[andrewducker]

As in the phase space of products?

[danieldwilliam]

Ah no, the other product space I think.

Comparison of the different attributes of a product and how they might be valued by consumers in n dimensions.

I think in order to disrupt a market or industry you have to either find significant cost leadership (such that whole new applications become feasible or your cheapness overwhealms competitors' product differentiation) or greatly dominate the product space (such that you are clearly preferred by most consumers), preferably both, with a novel production technology.

The Boring Company might win market share by being cheaper but I don't think it's cheap enough to increase demand for tunnels by an order of magnitude.

The Hyperloop strikes me as being quite a niche offer. Faster and cheaper in some small set of situations but not in lots.

And whatever is going on in Vegas suggests either an early experiment or the output of someone who doesn't understand the desired product attributes of public transport.

[momentsmusicaux]

Elon Musk is just an epic moron.

People are more likely to consider solutions that add features than solutions that remove them, even

[jducoeur]

So very true, and one manifestation of this is a particular bugbear of mine: this is the principle that leads to ever-growing bureaucracies. It leads to people finding it much easier to add rules than to remove them, which inevitably makes bureaucracies grow.

(I suspect that's what they are alluding to as "the increasing expansion of formal organizations".)

Re: People are more likely to consider solutions that add features than solutions that remove them,

[andrewducker]

That does seem to be how it goes. Add more and more complex laws until eventually it gets ridiculous and then throw it away and start over.