The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea. Head to https://brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-da...

The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea.

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Sensible employers would go, holy shit, this guy delivered a moonshot and wants to keep going. Maybe let’s give him a teensy fraction of the money he made us, to encourage more of that from him and others.

    That too is capitalism. That would be plain self-interested greed, and also reward the guy who did all the work. It was stupid business to spend millions of dollars to not employ that guy.

    The real issue is that when someone in power is a complete idiot asshole, there’s fuck-all people can do to fix that. That systemic issue is honestly more of a problem than the money itself or the power itself.

    • Avid AmoebaEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      The systemic problem you recognize is a fundamental feature of capitalism.

      • mindbleach@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        Again: this was a bad decision, even from the perspective of raw greed. Paying the guy enough to keep him at the company is also capitalism. So it’s not useful or relevant to just say ‘that’s capitalism’ when a business makes a fucking stupid decision that loses them money.

        Nor is petit autocracy unique to capitalism.