Andy Kessler: “I feel sorry for the youth that do care, do work hard, are productive and help push the boulder of progress up that steep slope, while essentially carrying all the others on their backs. It’s you against the collective, the village, which is always about being supported, pampered, living off someone else’s hard work and then complaining that the handouts aren’t big enough.”
Sanjeev Bikhchandani on the three things he look for in a founder before investing: “We first look at what they are trying to do. Will the customer want it? Evidence that the customer wants it. (Then, the) team. How good are they? Are they likely to win in the space. Will they stay committed? Do they look like they are good on governance? Will they be fair to minority shareholders?”
WSJ: “Over the past two decades, an education revolution swept large parts of the developing world. Colleges popped up, by the thousands, across cities and small towns alike. Farmers, laborers and herders poured their wages into higher education for their children, who nursed dreams of becoming lawyers, engineers and diplomats. The unemployment rate in the developing world for young people with higher-education qualifications is two to three times the rich-world figure, according to an August report by the United Nations International Labor Organization. In low-income and lower-middle-income countries—groupings that include nations across South and Southeast Asia, North Africa and the Middle East—more than a fifth of those under age 30 who have such postsecondary qualifications are unemployed. In these countries, young people who have completed college are more likely to be jobless than those with a basic education.”
Jaspreet Bindra: “How are agents different from apps and why are they creating an AI gold rush? As Bain Capital’s Sarah Hinkfuss elegantly describes it: “We are used to ‘pulling’ information from computers; we need AI to ‘push’ finished work to us instead.” Instead of tapping apps multiple times or asking ChatGPT a series of questions to work out a complex and frustrating travel itinerary, what if, say, a travel-site agent would select a hotel and airline that we usually like, design a daily schedule based on our interests, and go ahead with the requisite bookings, since we have given it the permission and agency to do so. This AI-based system makes decisions and takes actions on its own to achieve our goals on the basis of the travel scenario and what it knows about our holiday history and preferences.”
