I was just feeling creeped out going to my linkedin page and seeing one of my wife's relatives in the recommendation and wondering how the hell? Then i come and see this in hacker news! Talk about timing.
I think linkedin creeps me out a little more than usual because, with facebook for example i almost expect them to pull off stuff like this. And since linkedin is a professional network, maybe i expected them to be more professional :)
Don't you think people who are genetically pre-disposed to sleep less than avg hours have an advantage? I think it maybe one of single most important advantages you can have, both in life and work.
What i have heard is that you start in a place like Bangalore or Pune where there is already a community and infrastructure around startups. And that it is just way harder to do it in other places (i am assuming this mainly pertains to attracting talent).
Kurzweil has grand ideas, thinks out of the box enough for people to call him crazy. I would guess some of those are the kind of grand / crazy ideas larry and company want to pursue too. So i think it is a good fit. For more information on the man and what motivates him. See the documentary the Transcendent Man, http://www.amazon.com/Transcendent-Man/dp/B0051Y6NQA
Sad that people did not care too much about this post. Living amidst all the tech craziness it is easy to get caught up in the hype. Take some time to introspect about the world we live in, look at the big picture and things that really matter.