YBoris

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 14 Notes Essay

Here is an essay version of my class notes from Class 14 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Credit for good stuff is Peter’s.

Class 14 Notes Essay—Seeing Green

I. Thinking About Energy

Alternative energy and cleantech have attracted an enormous amount of investment capital and attention over the last decade. Almost nothing has worked as well as people expected. The cleantech experience can thus be quite instructive. Asking important questions about what went wrong and what can be done better is a very good way to review and apply many of the things we’ve talked about in class.

A. The Right Framework

How should one think about energy as a sector? What’s an appropriate theoretical framework?

Revisiting the 2x2 matrix of determinate/indeterminate and optimistic/pessimistic futures may be useful. To recap, here are examples of those respective quadrants:

Read More

beanfield:

Michelle de la Vega transformed an old garage into a 250 sq

(Source: vimeo.com)

(Source: beanfield)

(Source: quiet-nymph, via naturama)

planetmoney:

Of each dollar the federal government spends, how much goes to defense? How much goes to Social Security? How much goes to interest on the debt? And how has this sort of thing changed over time?

This graphic answers these questions. It shows the major components of federal spending 50 years ago, 25 years ago, and last year.

Read more here.

(via npr)

theeconomist:

Overfishing, global warming and pollution threaten to transform the ocean—and perhaps life as we know it

(via wnyc)

dvdp:

120515

(Source: theblackworkshop)

(Source: fuckyeahinteriordesigns, via theblackworkshop)