the first post was just the video on youtube. the second post was on my own blog combined with an article. as long as it is not possible to delete own posts on hackernews, you shouldn't wonder when people post similar things twice.
please change the headline to its first version, not how it is now after an hackernews admin changed it. thanks.
Everyone who is doing business on the Internet should watch this Interview. See what could be also possible to any other Entrepreneur, if laws like SOPA or ACTA become reality. how can it be possible to shut down a billion dollar company and throwing the founder into jail over night without having even one lawsuit? this is so ridiculous. the main people behind the entertainment industry and lobby eventually should be in jail for behaving like criminals and being corrupt. I'm wondering how something like this can be possible in the U.S... What a shame for the justice system in the U.S.!
maybe it's better to comment below the article that they should show the whole email and not just excerpts. don't think the author of the article will read the comments here ;)
I can confirm that is a ridiculous process in germany to raise money from VC's. It is mostly so complicated and time intensive. even for a small amount of money, less than $1 million, it is the same pain. finally the entrepreneur has many times to pay the lawyer's who are setting next to you and doing more or less nothing than some standard paper work.
foreigners are not welcome in berlin? your investigation about berlin seems to lack many relevant aspects and isn't objective at all. do you care more about the people who complain about tourists than all the other really relevant points that are meaningful for a tech startup (young talented people, universities, cheap rent, infrastructure etc.)? berlin is THE city in germany where most foreigners live. i think this speaks for itself. you have talked to leftists who always in general don't like change in their environment and who would always prefer to live in the past than in the future. Come back to berlin again and talk to people from the districts in zehlendorf, steglitz, charlottenberg, mitte, etc.! i bet you will get the opposite answer there, especially if you mention that you would like to come here to setup a company that will create wealth for the berliner society & environment.
BTW: in nearly every other place on this planet locals who live at tourist places complain about them, e.g.: mallorca, thailand (phuket), italy...
so tylee78: where did you get the information that everybody is leaving berlin? what kind of people you are talking about? it seems you haven't read the article. berlin is booming. every week two new startups are launching. berlin has two airports from where you can get to every other destination on this planet. berlin has several good universities and huge amount of young talented people. even academics from the best universities in germany (whu, ebs, hhl, mannheim etc.) and even from the U.S. (e.g. Research Gate - forunder moved from harvard to berlin) are moving to this city, because it is a perfect environment to create a new company on a low level of costs.
berlin isn't more dirty than hamburg or munich. berlin is just a huge city, where some parts are of course dirty, but it is the same for munich, hamburg, new york and san francisco too. berlin is the place to be in europe, if you want to setup a tech startup. if you care more about other things, you really shouldn't start a tech startup.
firing employees is in germany not really difficult, especially not for startups. every employee must serve a 3-6 months test period until he gets a professional contract. during the test period you will see, if the employee is performing well or not and you can fire the person easily the next day, if you want.
and hiring people in germany is much easier than in the valley or in new york, where you have huge competition from the big ones like google, facebook etc...
would anybody apply a 4 day work week in a new founded startup? i think motivation levels are different for every company. established companies have definitely more space to play around with different motivation scenarios for employees than a new startup.
i would not say it is impossible. predicting the futuere is so difficult and things are changing so fast. i agree with the author "kurzweil" that we will first enter a hybrid phase between machines and humans. later, machines will surpass humans. the progress of tech evolution is getting faster and faster and i can't see right now what should stop this. i'm not a scientist, but what i can read in the article looks very logic and therefore i agree with kurzweil.