[staunch]

> The restaurant industry in SF is very competitive and very non-capitalistic (e.g., very hard way to make money), whereas Google is very capitalistic and has had no serious competition since 2002.

Either situation could change very quickly. A meal delivery restaurant chain could take SF by storm and rake in billions. A startup could launch tomorrow that begins rapidly stealing Google's market share. Nothing prevents this but the lack of people willing and able to do it.

Private individuals are free to upend industries without fear of unreasonable government interference. This is what capitalism is and it's alive and well in most industries.

[jjoonathan]

> Nothing prevents [disrupting google] but the lack of people willing and able to do it.

Nothing prevents people leaping over skyscrapers in a single bound except the lack of people able to do it.

[staunch]

Exactly right. We're just a few years and a new kind of exoskeleton product away from able to leap skyscrapers if we want to. Materials science, computing, and battery technology are getting there. Someone will just have to actually make it. Good example.

[ericd]

And the changes in biology necessary to resist the acceleration required to impart that much kinetic energy on the body in the amount of time that you're in contact with the ground?

[icebraining]

Jumping from airplanes didn't require any changes to biology, even with much greater falls.

[philh]

I believe ericd is talking about the ascent, not the descent.

If you want to jump over a building, you need to depart the ground at the same speed as you'll hit it on the way down (more, because of air resistance). The forces applied to your body are just as lethal in both directions.

(This specifically applies to jumping, where all your acceleration comes at the beginning of the journey. Jetpacks, planes, etc. get around the problem by letting you accelerate while in midair.)

[icebraining]

If you want to jump over a building, you need to depart the ground at the same speed as you'll hit it on the way down

Well, the horizontal speed can be gained more slowly (running before the jump). Only the vertical speed needs immediate acceleration.

[ericd]

Yep, thanks for clarifying, I was talking about the jumping portion.

[raphman]

Possibly relevant recent article:

"Are restaurants like State Bird Provisions, which seems to resist simple economic analysis, the exception or the norm? And if they are the norm, is that because it is somehow self-defeating to raise prices even at booming restaurants? Or are chef proprietors a unique breed in the business world, immune to supply and demand and content to leave money on the table?"

http://priceonomics.com/why-dont-restaurants-charge-for-rese...