1/ WaPo title, "Come on, Silicon Valley, you can do better than this" gets at the root of what non-SVers don't get: there's no there there.
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2/ Even if Yo turns out to have been an elaborate long troll dreamed up by stoners and drunk VCs, it is, miraculously, *still* legit. Why?
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3/ Efficient markets are about the right to disagree about what is important. Even if some decide the most imp. use of $1mm is a joke.
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4/ Which is not to say Yo is a joke. But even if it was intended as one, market which made it a viral hit is smarter than those behind it.
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5/ Unless you can predict the *precise* future course of something like Yo, the market knows things you don't.
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6/ Worst case is better than you think: $1mm gets recycled fast, a couple of kids learn marketing, ecosystem gets smarter about virality
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7/ Upside could be much bigger than you think: social dynnamics behind a Twitter-sized one-bit messaging layer gets discovered.
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so Yo is like NASA going to the moon? People can mock the utility of putting foot on moon but byproducts justify it?
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The point is you don't HAVE to justify it. Market-based capital allocation does not have to be justified at macro level.
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I think the "life with a view" reality means it's easy to get frustrated when your cancer-fighting biotech can't find $1mm while Yo can
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yup; you have to trust mechanism anyway, just like you trust principle of free speech even if people say things you don't like.
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"those Sons of Liberty stirring up trouble will never amount to anything!"

