[tehwalrus]

The analogy here annoyed me. If I were running a farm (big 'if', etc) I would never buy a service that involved burning a ton of fuel just to give me some analytics. Something low carbon, like a drone, would be a much happier proposition.

I am aware this isn't the point of the post - but the point is lost if the example "quick hack" involves a three-order-of-magnitude increase in CO2 emissions. This shouldn't be a socially acceptable suggestion to make in this day and age.

[RokStdy]

I think you're misunderstanding. The point was that they would test their thesis quickly and with available means to validate their idea.

The actual product wouldn't involve burning a bunch of fossil fuels.

[tehwalrus]

I did understand that bit, but the principal still annoyed me.

[lukekennedy]

A fair point. I wonder how far the Stanford guys got with the MVP

[JasonFruit]

The analogy was excellent and appropriate. Your objection to it is, like its social acceptability, utterly irrelevant to both the analogy and the rest of the article.