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Nick Pinkston
Pittsburgh, PA
Founder of CloudFab & HackPittsburgh - I'm trying to become a polymath.
Interests: Entrepreneurship, technology, economics, philosophy, politics, travel, reading, cars / motorsports.
Recent Activity
The Hardware Startup Meetups
View Hardware Startup Meetups in a larger map As a total cartophile, I figured I'd make a map of all the Hardware Startups that I know so people can see the movement spreading. It's pretty crazy how fast the Hardware... Continue reading
Posted Jan 14, 2013 at Nick Pinkston
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Some Thoughts on Digital Manufacturing
I updated my blog recently to add an Ideas section that has some position pieces on various topics that I put thought into - here's the one for Digital Manufacturing. What is the "New Industrial Revolution"? We live in revolutionary... Continue reading
Posted Jan 10, 2013 at Nick Pinkston
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Getting to Full Unemployment
David Rushkoff’s article last week, “Are Jobs Obsolete?”, went viral and created quite a stir. He concluded by saying that, “[Jobs] may be a means, but they are not the ends” - which is really the gist here. Rising productivity... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Unemployment: Structure or Demand?
There was a pretty outrageous (not meaning they’re wrong) guest post on Naked Capitalism yesterday called: “Obama Thinks that High Unemployment is Okay” with the overall idea that the wave of people saying that the recession is structural are dead... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Review: Slate: "Will Robots Take Your Job?"
Slate has an interesting series about automation leading to jobs being taken away “Will robots steal your job?” Here are the highlights: - People are going to be permanently unemployed, economist’s answer: (new term for me): Luddite Fallacy - David... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Recent Pro-Abundance Inventions
First, UV Solar Water Disinfection System Very simple idea that seems like it didn’t take Purdue University to actually invent. Basically, they’ve got a reflector that shines onto a transparent surface to concentrate the UV, and then they’re going to... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Measuring Human Capital Allocation
I talked before about Structural Unemployment and measuring the efficiency of labor allocation using the Beveridge Curve metric of unemployment versus job openings. Economists love simple measures like that because, as we all know, they look for their keys under... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Power and Artificial Scarcity
Being a pragmatic guy with an idealist’s dreams, I’m often in a bind as to how best balance my radical ideas with my desire to actually see their implementation. The execution risk of post-scarcity projects is certainly a big one,... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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DocuReview: "Fixing the Future" - PBS
A friend recommended that I watch “Fixing the Future” - a PBS special about new forms of economy. It’s worth the watch, but I have to say that it sets off my alarm bells with the standard applause lights of:... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Collaborative Consumption and Societal Operating Systems
I got some comments on Facebook about my previous review of “Fixing the Future” (bottom of the page) both mentioning collaborative consumption as a model to move forward with. It’s a subject that’s dear to my heart as my startupCloudFab... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Review: "Our Unpaid Extra Shadow Work" - NYT
Once again, the amazing Venkat Rao of the RibbonFarm blog has given me more food for thought about a post-scarcity related topic: The NYTimes article “Our Unpaid Extra Shadow Work” - which talks about how technology in many ways has... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Physics and Economies of Scale
I’m always looking at how we can democratize everything - especially physical things. The problems affecting the post-scarcity of information are generally not technically blocked - but social. Academic journals to the RIAA have put road blocks in order to... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Summary: "The Californian Ideology"
I just read “The Californian Ideology” by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron - written all the way back in 1995. It’s well worth the read though as it could just have been written today. It describes a major mainstream sub-culture... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Architecture and Social Form
After the SF Hardware Startup Meetup, my girlfriend said there was an electronic project someone told her about that was inspired by Bauhaus architecture. My ears perked up because I always want to learn how art and tech inform each... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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The Utopia of Johann Etzler
I chanced across a very interesting man in early US history who seems to have envisioned a post-scarce society all the way back in 1833. His name is J. A. Etzler, and he wrote a book called “The Paradise Within... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Review: "Why We Haven't Met Any Aliens?" (Non SciFi)
I just came across this article: Why We Haven’t Met Any Aliens?, and while it’s title suggested nothing of the sort, I found myself reading what seemed like the thoughts I’m having lately: that consumption may be the biggest threat... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Review: "The Myth of American Productivity"
Just came across this interesting article on manufacturing productivity in the Washington Monthly by Michael Mandel - Chief Economic Strategist of the Progressive Policy Institute. He’s got some other articles on that site that link to his blog - which... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Review: "Making it in America" - The Atlantic
Great article in The Atlantic: “Making it in America” about the current state of manufacturing, and really does cover a lot of the core issues. Very well researched and written. The conclusions are also quite true: the answer isn’t getting... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Review: "The World's Losing its Workers?"
I came across an interesting article in the Globe and Mail called: “The World’s Losing its Workers?”). It talks about the consequences of world aging will be on jobs. There’s a few conclusions that look probable, and have interesting conclusions... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Review: "Peak Stuff"
I bumped into a writer for Fast Company the other day, Michael Coren, and had a great conversation about many of the same topics that I often talk about on here. He told me about an article he wrote that... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Meaning is the New Perk, or How Silicon Valley Needs a Makeover
Anyone could have guessed this, but I’m glad to see that it’s becoming more mainstream, and with good data even, to think that people will trade money for meaning nearly all the time. This “What Programmers Want” research that hit... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Review: "How Computers are Creating a 2nd Economy"
I've been posting a lot about technological unemployment due to the continual boosting of worker productivity across the board, so it’s always nice to see the continued stream of articles that are providing more ammunition to fire at the those... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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OctoPart Blog: Going all OkTrends on us?
It's always cool when companies with a broad view of the market share what they’re seeing. OkTrends is the blog of OkCupid, and as sappy as you might think that could be, it delivers on the data! I dare you... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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Meet the Cloud CAD Startups
The proliferation of maker culture and especially cheap 3D printers has driven the demand for easy content creation tools. The community mostly used either professional CAD (often torrented), or they used Google SketchUp or some form of open source tool... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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The “HardTech” Manifesto
***Originally, this was posted on my HardTe.ch blog, but I've since consolidated all of them here*** Something is rotten in the state of startups… The promise of technology, to further humanity by solving the real problems of our day, is... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2012 at Nick Pinkston
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