[epistasis]

While I'm somewhat sympathetic to this view, there's another angle here too. The largesse of investment on a vague idea means that lots of other ideas get funding, incidentally.

Every VC pitch is about some ground-breaking tech or unassailable moat that will be built around a massive SAM; in reality early traction is all about solving that annoying and stupid problem your customers hate doing but that you can do for them. The disconnect between the extraordinary pitch and the mundane shipped solution is the core of so much business.

That same disconnect also means that a lot of real and good problems will be solved with money that was meant for AGI but ends up developing other, good technology.

My biggest fear is that we are not investing in the basic, atoms-based tech that we need in the US to not be left behind in the cheap energy future: batteries, solar, and wind is being gutted right now due to chaotic government behavior, the actions of madmen that are incapable of understanding the economy today, much less where tech will take it in 5-10 years. We are also underinvesting in basics like housing, or construction tech. Hopefully some of the AI money goes to fixing those gaping holes in the country's capital allocation.

[nicoburns]

It would be much better if we invested in meaningful things directly. So much time and effort is being put into making things AI shaped for investors.

The elephant in the room is that capital would likely be better directed if it was less concentrated.

[signatoremo]

If a million families each has a $1,000 to invest in new business, how would you envision the money to be invested collectively? what would be the process?

[nicoburns]

The money would distributed mostly as people purchasing things rather than as upfront investment (although it's far from unheard of for startup capital to come from people's local communities where those communities have the resources to enable this). It would be harder to start a business, but easier to maintain a sustainable business model built on actual demand.

[gorpy7]

it’s peculiar because i love to use chat gpt to fill my knowledge gaps as i work through solutions to building and energy problems that i want to solve. i wonder how many people are doing something similar and, although i haven’t* read through all the comments, i doubt much is being said let alone giving credence to that simple but potentially profound idea. learning amplified.

[thaumasiotes]

> Every VC pitch is about some ground-breaking tech or unassailable moat that will be built around a massive SAM

A surface-to-air missile?

As funny as that would be, maybe you should define your terms before you try to use them.

[epistasis]

The reply defining terms from busterarm was flagged, so I'm repeating them here:

> TAM or Total Available Market is the total market demand for a product or service. SAM or Serviceable Available Market is the segment of the TAM targeted by your products and services which is within your geographical reach. SOM or Serviceable Obtainable Market is the portion of SAM that you can capture.