Quora Answers — 2012
1,699 answers written on Quora between 2010 and 2014, during the peak of the Ribbonfarm era. Questions from others; answers entirely by Venkat. 159 substantive answers are indexed here. For a specific answer, use Search or ask vgr_zirp.
- Choice and Choices: What is the best way to order a list of options for a decision if you are optimizing for the satisfaction of the decider?
If your confidence in your prediction (either predicted #1 preference, or a complete predicted ordering) is low I would suggest a pseudo-randomized list, where the best and worst options are inserted …
- Does the existence of labor barter systems like "hour exchange" suggest that the minimum wage and other barriers to commerce are too high?
The minimum wage is not a barrier to commerce. It is a barrier to certain models of labor organization. Changing the specific number makes that model more or less competitive with respect to other mod…
- Why do we respond so well to the hero's journey structure of storytelling?
The archetypes (except for the Hero) are actually not that important. Archetypes like the Trickster, Threshold Guardian etc. are kinda window dressing on the main idea of a Guy Going Somewhere. The sp…
- Do non-Americans on Quora feel marginalized?
This question is strictly unanswerable on Quora. You have to ask people who've left Quora or took a look and decided not to participate. You can discount the non-American answers here because they've …
- At what point does the work you have built become a bona-fide startup? Where's the tipping point?
When you quit other money-making activities to focus exclusively on said project with an "exit or bust" leap of faith. Until then, you're not burn-bridges committed. This is the industry standard in …
- Is Peter Thiel right when he said in a speech at Harvard Business School that discouraging students from pursuing humanities majors will encourage technological progress? Is this really a solution? Is it feasible?
No. Knowledge is not a zero-sum game. A brain gained by the liberal arts is not a brain drained from engineering. Pursued with honesty and intellectual rigor, the humanities and liberal arts can vastl…
- Why is the Hindu avatar Krishna so popular?
Therein lies a very complex historical tale. A major clue is in this popular verse: ekam sastram devaki-putra-gitameko devo devaki-putra eva eko mantras tasya namani yani karmapy ekam tasya devasya s…
- Why do many people still use Excel as a pseudo "database"?
The premise is misguided. A spreadsheet is not a bad 'pseudo-database' anymore than a database is a bad 'pseudo spreadsheet.' One is a workspace for humans, the other is a store for programmatic mani…
- Was the East India Company an elaborate ruse to further the colonising ambitions of the British Empire?
See Nick Robins' The Corporation that Changed the World. The EIC was more a band of adventurers with broad goals and considerable autonomy to deliver returns to a beast nobody really understood back …
- What are the elements of successful cultures?
A successful culture is not the same as a better culture. American consumerism is a very successful culture. Not even Americans argue that the McDonaldization of the world is a particularly good thing…
- What are the best ways to "evangelize" about math to people who don't like the subject?
Make 'em jealous. Surreptitiously engineer a contest with some serious prizes that look like they could be won by anybody, but contain serious hidden advantages for people with math training. Then mak…
- Is Y Combinator seriously disrupting the VC industry or has it just found itself a niche?
As with all such pipeline relationships, there is a tension between YC and Super Angel world on the one hand and the VC world on the other hand. In business there are rarely outright wars down a verti…
- How difficult is rocket science?
Not very. It's a very mature discipline so most of the difficult stuff is now documented and coded into design software. The action has now shifted to economics, AI, robotics, regulatory crap, materia…
- What will the big trends be after social and mobile?
It will start with the Apple iFab in 2017. It will be a little brushed-aluminum box with a clear hard-glass top that has both a touch display and transparency to see what's beneath. You'll log on to …
- Why are most hipsters so skinny?
This seems to be a surprisingly rich question for logical analysis. Most people are being whimsical or begging the question. The three logically sound answers are (if I may summarize) Jack Lion Heart…
- I am in a fighter jet, and I need to shoot down another fighter jet. How can I calculate how to do this?
The modern theory of fighter combat is based on energy. It's called energy-maneuverability theory and a lot of it has been systematized. The work was done by John Boyd, flight instructor at Nellis, in…
- How does the behavior of consumers in India differ from that of consumers in the US or Europe?
Low brand-consciousness, much higher price sensitivity and much more likely to do a lot of DIY repair and maintenance and keep things working with a lot of patched-up repair. That's the traditional m…
- How does a startup handle enterprise sales?
1. It's slow: the sales cycle can be 12-18 months even if the amounts are not in the millions. Make sure you have cash reserves to stay in the game. 2. It's a shifting situation. Re-orgs and new ass…
- Why are $1 coins not regularly used in the United States?
I think there has been one GAO study on this. There are two main opposed lobbies: I believe: the Coin Coalition, which includes industries like vending machines, which wants the coins, and the Save th…
- What is it like to attend an IITs as an undergraduate student?
IIT Bombay (93-97) was a very idyllic time for me. I haven't really thought about it at all since I left, but reflecting on my time there with the benefit of distance is interesting. I had fun writing…
- What does it feel like to have no friends?
That's not a good definition of 'friend' but if you insist on it, I'd qualify. I have a handful of people I consider friends by my definition, but nobody I'd truly confide in at a non-trivial depth ab…
- For marketing consultants and agencies, what are the most in-demand marketing services right now?
Above low-level and well-defined things, or things that require industrial-style scaling, marketing consulting game is trust/relationship based, not activity based. People seem to figure out who to wo…
- Knowing what you know now, would you still get a PhD if you had the chance to go back and do it over again? Why or why not?
Probably, but it's hard to say without reference to a specific believable alternative reality. The only thing I can think of that I'd have traded it for is an opportunity to make serious money (as in,…
- What are some job opportunities for a math graduate?
Clarify the kind of math. Opportunities differ wildly based on that. In the meantime, here's a quick breadth-first laundry list of possibilities, in no particular order. Statistics and probability: …
- When you learn that in community sometimes up to 25 people live in a house together, what questions come to mind about how they live?
Having lived in a couple, the things that are most relevant that you generally can't read until you actually move in there are: What are the sexual dynamics/politics of the place? They always exist, …
- Should startups be transparent about usage metrics? Why or why not?
No. Usage data is an asset that may be part of your competitive advantage. Like any other cards you hold, you need to think carefully about how you reveal it, to whom, and in return for what. Investo…
- What are some of the most shocking revelations from profound university research projects on human study?
A longer list along the lines of Colin Gerber's answer. My favorite is the Robbers Cave experiment which replicated the conditions of Golding's Lord of the Flies, and validated his literary intuitions…
- Are there domains where academia arguably lags the wider world, instead of leading?
Most of the humanities and liberal arts. Here practicing creatives make the raw material 2-3 decades before academia provides a meaningful account of it. Academics who try to stay on the edge are gene…
- What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear this term: "Social Media"?
Like Stephanie V, the primary connotation is "douchebag" for me. The only people who seem to need a term for the technology set ("social media") is douchebags who are outside it trying to figure out h…
- What are the best words or phrases you've coined or believe you did?
I coin a lot of words/phrases in my writing. It's pretty much my main schtick, and I get a big kick out of it. I've done it enough that I am thinking of putting up a glossary page on my blog. My pers…
- Is capitalism a zero-sum game? Does the rich getting richer somehow mean that the poor get poorer?
Depends on whether the economy is currently in a more mercantilist (or Adam Smithian) mode or Joseph Schumpeterian mode:If there is very little creative destruction going on, it is zero-sum.If not, it…
- How does lobbying work? Does lobbying equate to bribery?
Lobbying is not bribery for exactly the same reason cops or soldiers killing others in the course of their work is not murder. In government by consent, via an implicit social contract, we let the re…
- Are you influenced by any of the "top ten influencers in social media" according to Forbes?
No. Besides Scoble (first-to-market gadget test-drives) I have no idea what the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of any of the others is. The names of Brogan and Vaynerchuck are familiar, but I am onl…
- What is the best way to get clients in the door?
My favorite example of feet-in-the-door tactics is Wall Drugs of South Dakota. It started out as a tiny drugstore in the middle of nowhere, but near a major highway. They put up signs all over the app…
- Should Apple buy Hollywood?
As other Q&A threads on this theme have concluded, this whole "Kill Hollywood" meme doing the rounds in Silicon Valley says a whole lot more about the hubris and complete misunderstanding of film-maki…
- Will the iPhone be viewed as historically important, and if so, to what degree in comparison to other inventions of historical significance?
I think it will be viewed as extremely significant for a non-obvious reason. It is not about touch. It is about the moment when the mainstream finally gave up the hopeless attempt to understand how te…
- What is a sticky name to use for emerging market entrepreneurs?
You can't just pick a name and expect it to stick. A sticky name is one that has a great story attached. In this case, you have a terrible story. "Emerging market" is a negative definition, with res…
- Why are there more comment trolls on TechCrunch/AOL than other related sites?
Because the writers engage each other and writers at competing sites more than the smartest readers. Fishbowls tend to attract both groupies and trolls. The former are prone to celebrity worship and t…
- How can the rights of women be better addressed and defended in Afghanistan?
Re-build and re-open the Silk Road as an 8-lane highway network and a high-speed rail network, connecting Afghanistan to Central Asia, China, the Middle East/Turkey (once the pesky problem with Iran i…
- Why does Venkatesh Rao think the world is going to end?
Wonder what's up with this spate of questions directed personally to me? I suspect a complicated troll. Oh well. I no longer believe the world will end. At least not in a short enough time frame for …
- How can I change someone against his will?
There is no one-size-fits all method for all such situations. The art of manipulation is an art, not an algorithm that works with no data. You have provided precisely zero data. Typically, you need to…
- What is the nicest thing a stranger ever did for you?
In college, back in 96, there was a total solar eclipse in India. On an impulse I took a train to the nearest place where I could watch it. This happened to be a remote desert village in Rajasthan. …
- What are the disadvantages of practicing mindfulness? I use mindfulness to mean, "bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis."
You seem to be talking specifically about the practice of vipassana, not the more general philosophy that many people talk about under the idea of "mindfulness" (which includes everything from Boyd's …
- Where should a college student who has never been out of the coasts travel in the United States for the best perspective?
I'll share my 6000-mile/3 week cross country road trip itinerary from May 2011. I'd recommend it to anybody, even though my reasons for doing the trip and choice of locations probably do not apply to …
- Is there greater value in practical knowledge than in philosophy?
A merchant once challenged the philosopher Thales with this question. Thales said philosophers could be just as good at practical affairs, and proved himself by speculating on olive oil futures and ma…
- Should there be an explicit legal limit to the amount of leverage any entity can engage in, and if so, what should that limit be?
This question only makes sense with respect to corporations, within the scope of limited liability laws and state of play in the game of governance of social cost accounting/externalities. Leveraged …
- Why do some island animals evolve to abnormal sizes?
My guess is that many mainland species are in a dynamic equilibrium with other species along some dimension X, such that too little or too much X is a disadvantage, and the species stabilizes at some …
- How did ancient tribal chiefs lead large armies of tens of thousands of people without running into cohesion problems from exceeding the Dunbar number?
Tribal models of warfare are structured differently and rely on much more lightweight and distributed coordination models that require very little non-local communication. They also tend to be relativ…
- What are some good sources of information for Westerners wishing to understand how democracy in India works?
I would start with the op-ed columnists at the Hindustan Times. Not the Times of India which has gradually degenerated into a tabloid. Of the weeklies, India Today is probably still the best. It was …
- If you were Bill Gates what would you be doing with your life?
Gates is doing his philanthropy in almost exactly the way Rockefeller did. Large top-down programs designed to attack problems that require high startup capital; things that social entrepreneurship (K…
- If self-aware, intelligent, sentient AI turned out to be sociopathic, might it eventually determine humans are a danger to the existence of the planet and of the AI itself?
This does not require self-awareness, intelligence or sentience. All it needs is self-regulation loops with sufficient power. That's the foundation of the Gaia hypothesis and M. Night Shyamalan's The …
- Is it better for a couple/family to be apart a big chunk of the time?
I think you're going to get a lot of answers based on traditional pre-conceptions of what an 'ideal' family or relationship or parenting model 'ought' to be. These aren't bad, but they are design patt…
- Is there anything to replace email?
I've kinda changed my mind about this a few times, but my stable position for a few years is that email is not broken at all. If it looks like it wasn't designed for what it actually does, it is becau…
- Why isn't there a show like The Daily Show that is conservative oriented?
Conservative humor does exist. It needs to be tinged with a bit of sociopath cruelty to work, and as political correctness rises in a culture, it tends to retreat into the privacy of in-groups. To enj…
- Afghanistan: Should the US staff sergeant who murdered 16 Afghan civilians in their sleep on March 11, 2012 be handed over to the Afghan authorities for trial, punishment and execution?
Mark Harrison assumes that jurisdiction is crystal clear (US military law vs. Afghan criminal law), but I am not entirely sure it is. If it turns out it is, then scratch this answer. But if there is…
- What are the most important years of your life? And why? In other words, during what age are the most important life decisions made for the future?
Jeez, why do people have to question the metaphysics of straightforward and legitimate good questions with real, non-trivial answers? This is a question where superior Zen-line pronouncements on lif…
- Do many Quora users misunderstand the proper role of the downvote function?
There is no "proper role." This not a jury system following some sort of due process under the direction of a judge. It isn't even Iron Chef with points for taste, originality and presentation. This i…
- What characterizes cliquey people?
A classic sign (sufficient, not necessary) is that they are extroverted but surprisingly bad at connecting with strangers when alone. In fact introverts do better than them. But with 2-3 clique member…
- Do some people who don't believe in God feel superior? If so, why?
There is some truth to this, but I think most answers are mistaken in thinking it has to do with perceived superiority of the beliefs themselves. Laughlin MacDonald's explanation seems to me the best …
- What's the difference between UI/UX Designer and UI/UX Engineer?
This whole space of professions around UI/UX is ridiculously muddy, and the people within it are the ones to blame. Ironic, since clarity of interfaces between an entity (a segment of the labor market…
- Is Quora in trouble? If so, how should they respond?
Nightclubs come and go as fashions change. Any site that relies primarily on social value is a nightclub. People go there for people and when the people go elsewhere, the nightclub dies. Function is …
- Where can I learn about the origins of Western Individualism? What were the major threads/forces?
Fukuyama has an excellent treatment of the question in The Origins of Political Order. Short version, sometime in the 12th-13th century, the catholic church succeeded in weakening family/kinship struc…
- Do Americans generally expect other people to lie or to tell the truth?
I forget where I read this, but in the nineteenth century, Europeans who did business with Americans came to the conclusion that Americans like to play a very rough game of conversational poker undern…
- Why is the Islamic world currently so backward in science compared to the Western world? Despite the fact that the Islamic world had a head-start in the Middle Ages and was fairly advanced mathematically?
A scientific culture is more than a laundry list of isolated accomplishments, claimed and real. Three critical necessary (but not sufficient) elements are: A tradition of empiricismA tradition of con…
- What will be the consequences of losing our ability to hand-write?
Weakened handwriting strengthens the link between oral and textual cultures I suspect. IMing is practically oral. Email is almost as oral. Handwriting was most used for letter/memo writing, which stro…
- Which locations have tried successfully or otherwise to replicate Silicon Valley and how have they fared in terms of disrupting it?
Yishan Wong's answer really got me thinking about this question a lot more seriously, so I am posting a slightly broader take building on his answer, and my comment on it (http://www.quora.com/Silicon…
- What is the best way to succeed in life if you enjoy coming up with high-tech ideas more than implementing them?
Contrary to poular belief, there IS a way to be credibly involved in the idea economy if you don't like implementation (I include academic basic research and marketing for specific products as a hustl…
- What are the similarities and differences between the current state of technology (2012) and the Dot-Com bubble (1995-2000)?
I caught a teeny piece of the action last time around, and a slightly larger piece this time. Nothing financially significant either time, but enough to get me a good spectator view of the bigger game…
- Who is more intelligent, a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon?
Meaningless comparison. If it weren't for the superficial similarity that both professions are used for rhetorical exaggeration purposes, this would be like asking, "are pianists better musicians than…
- Now that Facebook has acquired Instagram, should Twitter acquire an Instagram competitor?
In a way, they already did: Posterous. Fortunately Posterous is more blogging/photoblogging than photosharing. Sadly that looks like a pure talent acquisition and there are hints that the product will…
- What's a good online resource with a description of all the weight machines at the gym?
I have exactly this problem. As a result, I do far less strength training than i should, on far fewer machines. But the problem goes beyond the lack of good instructional videos. Gyms are in general s…
- What does it feel like to regularly write in a journal or diary?
I wrote a private diary for a couple of years as a teenager. The mind-numbing tedium of the entries made me stop. I wish I'd continued. They'd be fun to read now, years later. J. C. Hewitt is right. T…
- How do you approach a company you want to create a partnership with, if you have no contact person at the company?Do you just contact them through the contact form? Do you try to sell the benefits of the partnership in the initial email?
You do NOT want to sell in the first email. Your first few contact attempts are likely going to be about finding the right person to even talk to. This is a bit of a naive question. There are always a…
- Are there any drawbacks and challenges to Valve's anti-management style mentioned in Michael Abrash's blog post?
The book itself has a section at the end outlining the weaknesses. The section is more than lip-service, and I was impressed by the honesty. But I thought they missed the main one. The biggest weakn…
- What lasting motivation is there for people to contribute free content to websites and index engines if they are not paid for contributing, or able to make a living from it?
This is like asking why you should drive on the streets when the city doesn't pay you to (in fact it charges you to, via taxation) and government civil engineering and maintenance contractors make mon…
- What is the ROI on the average 4-year degree from a US college?
Am adding this link for additional context. http://www.theatlantic.com/busin... Dan Zhang's numbers are for a 30-year ROI. They look believable for the last 30 years, though the spread across majors …
- How do you start a tech startup as a non-technical person?
If you really have serious "capital" (like north of 200k from a trust-fund) become an investor, not a founder. Find a couple of other older people with some experience and their own warchests, form an…
- I'm planning on a 4-day trip to Vegas. What places should I visit?
If you want an unusual itinerary of "anything BUT the Strip" try this out. A look at a) the ongoing attempt at transforming Vegas into a cultural and tech hub b) history and c) random other stuff. Th…
- What jobs will less intelligent, lower skilled people do in the future? What will people on the left side of the bell curve do for work in the future? Will these jobs give dignity? What can be done to ensure this?
You're not paranoid enough. Most of humanity is becoming obsolete and ripe for slaughter. They will start dying faster as healthcare systems start collapsing around the world, lifespans get shorter, …
- How can you increase your productivity on side projects at the end of the day when you're tired from work/college?
Over a period of 4 years at a full-time job, I wrote a book and grew a blog from nothing to 4500 subscribers, typically writing a 2000-4000 word post every week. All my work was over a couple of eveni…
- What are your experiences as a self-published author?
Published http://tempobook.com last year. Paperback via LightningSource, using the short discounting model outlined in Aaron Shepherd's excellent "Aiming at Amazon" (basically a way to sacrifice phys…
- What would you advise your (hypothetical) 22-year old computer science graduate to do with their life?
You seem optimistic about the future, so you are looking to maximize "success" and an "enriching career/life." I believe this is a bad basis for planning a life as a 22-year old college graduate in 20…
- Should Quora implement action links on their Facebook Timeline app?
Hell no, but they may not have a choice. Why no? Joel Spolsky's post on Building Communities with Software has some really good (and controversial) thoughts on the subject. http://www.joelonsoftwar…
- What are some great examples of successfully putting lipstick on a pig?
To get the ball rolling. Nathan Myrhvold's Intellectual Ventures was initially pitched as this amazing high-powered brain trust of brilliant people generating great ideas. Savvy/cynical people seem t…
- Fundraising (non-profit): What would your first steps be as a new Director of Development for an NGO?
I have no direct experience of this particular role (except as an observer), but my general approach to any such external-facing role is to start outside in. If this is the sort of NGO that gets money…
- Why are data transfer speeds usually measured in megabits per second?
Bytes are two levels of abstraction above the physical medium. The level of abstraction you need depends on the typical problems you solve. Communications engineering involves problems bandwidth users…
- Optimism: What is there to be optimistic about right now?
By their very nature, positive things are more obscure/hidden than negative things. So there is a natural human bias towards pessimism/doom-and-gloom. The last 2 decades are interesting precisely bec…
- Why is J.R.R. Tolkien more famous than Isaac Asimov?
Joshua is right, it's because of the movies. If the Foundation series is ever adapted well for the screen, it will probably blow both Star Wars and LOTR out of the water. The literary quality is poor …
- What are some glaring inefficiencies embedded in modern infrastructure?
I think things that cost little or nothing when underutilized are nothing compared to actively wasteful infrastructure. These are all "wasteful now that we have the Internet/cheap computing" examples:…
- Does Mitt Romney's skills from Bain Capital make him the perfect person to fix a broken economy?
It actually makes him a far worse candidate I think. This is not a general comment on corporate executives. I am sure many senior roles in large companies might be good training. But not Bain. Why no…
- Why is enterprise software often so complicated?
Business processes are generally byzantine monstrosities that have evolved to codify fundamentally pathological human power relationships. Enterprise software merely digitizes these for the most part,…
- Why is there such a wealth of artistic talent in the United States of America?
Artistic self-expression belongs in the self-actualization level of the Maslow pyramid. Lots of other, more basic needs have to be widely met in order for a significant portion of the population to tu…
- Should I accept a job offer from Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, or Square, considering pay, work culture, stock options, how challenging the work is, etc.?
If you want to stay a while and grow, pick the one where you'd be reporting to the best immediate manager. Research shows this is the best predictor of your experience at a job, and unhappy employees …
- How can I better project my voice?
You may be speaking from your throat rather than the front of your mouth. It is very hard to get volume and projection from your throat. In fact you'll give yourself a sore throat very quickly if you …
- General Knowledge: What is meant to be a civilized person?
My favorite characterization of the civilized state is due to William James: "The progress from brute to man is characterized by nothing so much as the decrease in the frequency of proper occasions f…
- How seriously should someone with the job title "social media guru" be regarded?
Briefly, you should not take them seriously at all. Except perhaps as a market of suckers to whom you can sell junky products of your own ("Advanced Twitter Strategy Course, open only to people who ar…
- What is Pakistan's problem with drone strikes?
Drones are a weapon with unprecedented leverage. They achieve, with minimal collateral damage, political and military goals that used to take firebombing of entire cities 60 years ago, such as the fir…
- Was Malcolm Gladwell right to say that Steve Jobs will be forgotten in 50 years?
A deeply silly argument that says absolutely nothing about the relative historical importance or lack thereof of the two individuals and the companies they built. And this is without even considering …
- What are the coming revolutions in text analytics?
I see the biggest opportunity/challenge around inferring conceptual metaphors and narrative patterns in a text. There was an earlier DARPA BAA around that sort of thing. Narrative/metaphor is somewher…
- Why do employees leave startups for big brands?
I've worked at one each of both and consulted for a couple of both kinds. All pretty decent, thankfully. But I've seen instances of more toxic examples of both from ringside seats. I'll talk about t…
- What are some recent industry trends in Trade-Funds, specifically, co-marketing?
I should qualify my answer by saying that I've never heard the term "Trade Funds" and know nothing about the operating details of this sort of marketing arrangement with channel partners. I am basing …
- Is Apple facing extinction in the future?
Fascinating and very important current question. I'll provide a broad, general answer and apply it to Apple. "Ever" is a really really long time. The longest-lived business documented was Kongo Gumi,…
- What does a good feature request look like (from a non-technical employee)?
Short answer: users (as opposed to product managers) should not attempt to provide "good" feature requests at all. They should submit feature requests in whatever form feels right to them. Including h…
- Why does the idea that atheism is a religion keep getting repeated?
In the best-case, best-faith version of the argument, there is actually significant merit to it. You picked your points of comparison that show the two are dissimilar. It is possible to pick a differe…
- What are the most common Silicon Valley/Bay Area beliefs and attitudes that are not shared by people outside of this area? What are things that feel and sound normal here but wouldn't elsewhere?
I am trying to find the mother of all SV bubble beliefs and I think it is this one (never explicitly stated -- it is more of a missing belief/blindspot than an active one) "There is no point in plann…
- Can reading some books make a person pessimistic and suicidal?
Pessimistic yes. People often tell me a lot of my own writing depresses them. Suicidal, I doubt it. Outiside of very specific scenarios that target your life with surgical precision (like reading in…
- What does it feel like for a long-time vegetarian to discover they've accidentally consumed meat?
Has happened to me thrice in my 35 odd years (I am absent-minded). Never in an obvious form though. In each case the meat and veggie dishes looked similar. In each case, it was a few bites (1-3... am…
- Is the Quora Credits system an effective or well-designed system / gamification mechanism?
I must be in the minority here. I think credits work very well. Possibly I don't experience the downside since at any given time, I generally have far more credits than I can use. Though I don't publi…
- Do startups view prior military service as a positive or negative when hiring?
In Israel, it is practically a requirement. In the US it's a mixed bag. Stereotyping hugely, I'd represent typical attitudes like so. In the US, the denizens of the California startup scene (compared…
- How do you deal with marketing epiphanies that require you to act fast?
While I applaud your inspiration, thinking of marketing this way is very dangerous. Marketing is not one clever time-sensitive promotional idea after another. This is a terrible way to think about mar…
- What do people in India do very easily which can't be done by people of other nations?
I saw this question a while back, and started writing an answer that I deleted because I was not satisfied that I could do the question justice even with a lot of words, due to subtle contextual thing…
- What laws and policies are impeding economic growth of the U.S. economy?
Hands down, lack of a functional healthcare system. Fix that one problem and nearly every other problem will take care of itself. Including whipping China in the 21st century race for global dominan…
- If you're successful at hackathons, and you're not the programmer, can you get a job as a product manager?
A "career in PM" sounds like you want the big company jobs. If you succeeded in selling your ideas to hackers at hackathons, that's not entirely relevant because most big company work is incremental v…
- Do people make better decisions as stakeholders or as third party reviewers?
You are conflating three things: skill, formal authority and personal incentives. A doctor would operate on herself if possible, if the alternative were a layperson or a much more incompetent doctor f…
- Why do people overpack?
I sympathize. I am a minimalist myself. Some travel of course simply calls for more packing. It's not length of time but how much you are doing. If you are female and are going to a formal business …
- Which field(s) of math would be more beneficial in real life and business ?
Real life (which I interpret as everyday personal life), business life and entrepreneurial life are very different things. For real life, I'd recommend the basic mathematics of finance required for m…
- Instead of "Made in Country X" shouldn't we start listing where parts are made instead?
Basically, yes. Your instincts are correct that our current accounting systems for understanding global trade are way off. Old models no longer make sense. But the situation is more complex than just …
- Which empires have had family feuds for succession?
The Nanda dynasty which ruled the Magadhan empire just before Alexander's invasion reputedly had one ruler, Dhana Nanda, kill 9 brothers on his way to the throne, a level of bloodshed that was not see…
- Why do Republicans and conservatives lie so much about national debt and spending?
I don't know why people are rushing to explain that Democrats lie too, about other things, or that politicians in general lie. The question can be taken at face value: given that we all agree that all…
- How is coffee served in different parts of the world and why?
In America, there is an evolved, complex coffee culture. Coffee is made in vast quantities of either weak and pathetic or strong+burnt+acrid drip brew and served like water in diners and gas stations…
- What strategies do you use when writing and formatting your answers on Quora?
None. I just wing it, stream-of-consciousness style. If I am browsing Quora (generally during an energy low) and some question happens to match my mood (happy, sad, vicious, satirical, whatever), I ju…
- Do countries with Soviet-style sports training systems like China spoil the intended spirit of the Olympic games?
Your premise is completely flawed. How "organic" do you think sports in the US is? It's pretty much all top-down: leagues, sponsors, university athletic programs, YMCA, NCAA...how autonomously do you …
- What are great ways to promote an iOS app?
From what I've heard, one unique/distinguishing feature of app marketing is the effectiveness of doing many apps. Angry Birds was Rovio's 57th game I believe. Many successful app developers seem to f…
- College Sports: What is the best running technique?
I agree with Thomas Valadez: foot-fall technique is key. I don't think you can really train yourself to use a certain technique though, if you are a casual runner. It takes some natural athletic tal…
- What are the best vegan recipes?
Amazing Tofu Pot Pie (credit: Vanessa and Bruce from whom I got it 14 years ago; still a regular for me). Crust: 2 cups flour 1/2 cup margarine 1 tsp. salt 1/2 cu…
- What would have happened if the British never came to India? How developed would India have been? How would the system be in modern India?
Okay, let's actually run through this counterfactual in a realistically detailed way. Two big modeling assumptions (that I was going to justify in 2000 words, but then deleted....) Socially and cult…
- If the US economy is 70% dependent on consumer spending, how can it ever produce more than it spends?
I strongly disagree with Matt Ford's economics-based answer, because this is fundamentally not an economics-based question. I also disagree with User's answer, because austerity is not the answer eith…
- Why does Quora continue to underachieve?
The Techcrunch article itself can be ignored. The opinion is silly. But as a piece of evidence for the thesis: "the PR momentum has plateaued" it is serious, and part of a different problem. PR is a …
- How do I get started listening to Indian classical music?
You can start the same as with any kind of music: sample a few tracks, pick a couple you like, buy those albums, follow the trail of that particular performer, instrument or vocal style, find friends …
- What is wrong with Walras' socialism?
I've heard the name Walras before I think, but I am not familiar with the models beyond the question details. These are pretty radical ideas hidden under innocuous sounding axioms. You'd have to run…
- I need illustrations of fixed pitch propellers blades
There is no good way to do an apples-to-apples comparison, since the flight regimes are so different (most airplanes have a lower speed limit that is higher than the maximum speed of most birds). You …
- How does someone show dominance in a subtle way?
It's honestly not very hard. Dominance is another term for playing high status in all situations. Read Impro by Keith Johnstone for the basics. Some of them are: High status people make slow, measure…
- Is the deeply held notion of individual privacy a recently developed value?
Individualism and individual privacy are not the same thing. I suspect confusing the two is what is motivating the question. Individual privacy has always been part of the species, and is not a parti…
- Which industries and jobs will self-driving cars and trucks disrupt in a positive fashion, a negative fashion or just entirely destroy?
Joshua Engel is right. This goes well beyond disruption. People generally use the term disruption incorrectly. It is most useful for analysis when used in the strict Clayton Christensen sense rather …
- If a 747 can carry a space shuttle, why are airlines so strict with baggage allowances?
The sincere answers are correct (I haven't checked the numbers, but they look right based on almost forgotten aerospace engineering classes), but I don't think they will satisfy the OP because I dont …
- Mythology: Who was the most badass mythical character of all?
Heh, on questions like this, population will tell. With 1 billion plus each, you can be sure that badass candidates from Indian and Chinese mythologies are going to be proposed and dominate. Greek and…
- What are some good hotel names?
You seem to be coming up with names that mean a lot to you and your co-founders rather than to your customer. That's the wrong approach. Of course you shouldn't pick a name that you absolutely hate, b…
- How can one learn to speak in metaphors or pictures?
I am not sure this is really teachable. At least the metaphor part. It is a personality trait. Visual thinking is an independent trait, and a more teachable one, but only the kinds that are based on e…
- Do Americans respect Psy?
Short answer: a strong no. You only have to compare Korean reactions to American teen reactions to immediately get that there is a difference and that "respect" isn't an adjective that naturally spr…
- Given the massive demand for software engineers right now (2012) which is not adequately being met by supply, why haven't salaries increased drastically?
I'll add an executive-level twist based on labor cost strategy to the general ideas about demand and supply at the engineering level. For emerging markets, this may be more unpredictable and a bigger …
- Why does Venkatesh Rao think saving the world is not a worthy mission?
The very idea is ill-posed and "not even wrong." It is a sort of uncritical and naive secularization of the theological idea of "salvation" which is actually a much more well-posed concept. That's abo…
- If there were an "eastern canon" which books would it contain and why?
I don't believe Eastern traditions (except perhaps Islamic) lend themselves to the idea of canons. The idea is a peculiar product of a historicist imagination coupled with religious homogeneity and te…
- 50 people to run the world: Who are they and why?
Note: I am ignoring the "rules" because they make this an impossible problem. I would choose 40 people via random sampling among people above the age of 4, with perhaps some extra weight for the 14+ …
- What are some ways of increasing one's personal return on common-good efforts?
Do things that: Generate both personal and commons returns, and share generously, erring on the side of giving away more than you keep. Make sure that the resultant status difference that results for…
- Why do Indians from India speak English between each other rather than a common national language that they could all learn and use irrespective of the mother tongue in their province / region?
The biggest single factor is probably Macaulay's infamous "Minute on Education" from 1835 which basically created the modern landscape of Indian higher education (and therefore the status of English a…
- U.S. Air Force: What is the difference between an F-16 and F-15?
The "inside" story is in Coram's Boyd: The fighter pilot who changed the art of war. Basically, Boyd developed an approach to fighter design known as E-M (energy maneuverability) based on his experie…
- Is it a bad idea to write a college application essay about how much one hates America?
Don't listen to the positive thinking bores here. Actually, wait, make THEM the target. Blame them for all that's wrong with America. It is actually a seriously strong case. Read Barbara Ehrenreich's …
- How do bonafide change agents differ from wannabe change agents?
Change agents are themselves changed by the process of striving for the change they seek to bring about. They enter and exit as very different people. Practically strangers divided by a rebirth in the…
- Public Policy: Should indian railway come under the privatisation?
Haven't been on an Indian train for a long time, but what I remember growing up was steadily worsening service and performance, which I think has continued. Mainly a result of population increase and …
- In a war between the cognitive and socioeconomic elites, who would win?
First a suggestion: you MUST have "labor bosses/union leadership" in the definition of socioeconomic elites.even if they aren't in the top 1% financially. For all practical purposes, they are part of …
- Why are first generation Indian Americans raised in the USA taller than their parents?
Don't know if this is actually true, but it fits my anecdotal observations, and I wouldn't be surprised if it is empirically true. It also correlates to the much higher incidence of diabetes and heart…
- Why can't we assume that some races of Homo sapiens are, on average, smarter than others?
You absolutely can. You'd even have bits of scientific evidence in specific comparisons like Ashkenazi Jews versus The Rest (even if controversial) that is worth thinking about. Ashkenazi Jewish int…
- What was it like to browse the Web in the nineties?
What's with all this nostalgic romanticization? Especially given that those who are capable of writing answers here aren't even like 50 yet for the most part, and are writing answers that make them so…
- Should I transfer?
Empirically, culture shock takes about 6 months to overcome, leaving home takes 6 months too. So give it a full year. Maybe 14 months, due to compounding. Took me about that long. Moves like transfers…
- When is the zombie apocalypse going to happen?
Those who claim it has already arrived almost have it right, but not quite. A zombie is someone who appears to have no inner mental life to you, but appears merely as a predictable pattern of destruc…
- Can you perform inception on yourself?
Yes, I think it can be done, and without drugs or hypnosis etc. And I think there is not much difference between doing it to yourself as opposed to doing it to others. But not quite the movie version…
- If every state of the USA declared war against each other, which would win?
LOL! Lovely question. I've actually thought a lot about this as part of some idle speculation for a sci-fi near future dystopian story. I think there is no way to imagine a true 50x50 conflict. You'…
- How can I avoid nitpicking others' incorrect use of words? I like to be precise about the way I use language, which often causes arguments with people about the meaning of the words they use. How can I avoid this?
Refocus your attention on accuracy. You'll scratch your itch and add value at the same time. To do this, remind yourself of what SITUATION you are in for all communication. Silently say to yourself be…
- What are some things you can realistically teach yourself in a weekend?
Learning to ride a bicycle as an adult, if done exactly right. Took me several weeks of daily practice to figure it out as a kid, because I was doing it wrong (using my older sister's bike that was to…