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Comment by nbzso | Hacker News Reader

Too much VC money into a gazillion startups without proper management. What can go wrong? This is the result of tech cultism and lack of proper production standards. Design Thinking is like some form of forbidden knowledge today.

So much “disruption” with no clear product use case. AI is the new dotcom boom. 190 percent hype. 10 percent actual implementation.

The startups have expectation to capitalize on testing with early adopters and naive consumers. The big companies fake their demos for likes and stock prices.

What a conundrum. We need people with real skills and clear vision. We need Skunk Works team quality to achieve something of substance.

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Building a physical product, launching, getting feedback. They’re in the arena and regardless of how bad the initial offering is it’s more than sitting on the sidelines demanding Skunk Works from others.

So in your world the idea is to launch alpha quality products as early as possible.

Ovens that leak gas, cars where the wheel comes off, games where you only get 10 minutes in etc.

Personally, I prefer how the world actually works where you have user testing sessions, beta programs, quality management etc.

Nobody’s going to die if their Rabbit can’t connect to Spotify on the first try. It’s a nice early release that was very clear about being an early release.

Consumer software is the farthest thing from the regulation of the products you just mentioned. Is there a gun to your head to buy a Rabbit?

Jerk knee reactions. Typical for HN from 2015 onwards.

There was a time when here knowledge and experience did not hinder the new ideas at all. My entire career was a result of this process in early 2008.

Today we live in inflated VC realm of promises, big statements and low delivery. It is not about demanding on a side lines.

Some of us still produce quality by following the proven methodology from the past. To push to market R&D projects and demand applause is pathetic. And no. There is no place for PC in this. It is about time to wake up from the AI Utopia. And the cleansing process is going on as we speak. Corporations reached the limitation of participation trophies and DEI agenda.

I don't think it's improper management, I think management knows exactly what product they were putting out.

The problem is marketing and severely exaggerating what these devices are and can do thanks to all of the noise about "AI" recently.

This is a clear miscommunication (or intentional miscommunication) internally about what this thing actually is.

> We need Skunk Works team quality

You mean the kind where plane literally leaks fuel mid flight? I think they're already there

Maybe you should read about that again, because you obviously don't know what you're talking about ;-)

The A-12/SR-71 was leaking fuel while it was sitting on the apron/ramp, because due to the insane heating that occurs at Mach 3 you have to compensate the heat contraction of your tanks and everything else. So while they do leak on the ground, as soon as they start getting anywhere close to operating speed and the structure thus heats up, everything seals shut. No leaking midflight. The Skunk Works director Ben Rich (who took over after the original director Kelly Johnson stepped down) wrote a book called "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed", it's a good read.

1. That makes it even worse/more dangerous 2. Still leaks fuel midflight during large portions of the flight 3. Its not like it’s some ingenious design tradeoff - wasn’t supposed to do that (which is my point)

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