I used to (and still do) run the opposite direction that the crowd is going. Its just that I am choosing my tribe - and my tribe is full of people who also run the opposite direction from the crowd.

So I have to be careful to spot both the larger crowd, the crowd that is now my tribe and when people are dropping FUD scent markers over their desired territory.

In short - robots still look like a hobby that will pay off the same way writing games for the ZX 80 or Atari will pay off.

> In short - robots still look like a hobby that will pay off the same way writing games for the ZX 80 or Atari will pay off.

You realize that that "pay off" is entirely social, right? For people who made careers out of game development, it wasn't because they made an early investment on the Atari. It was because they developed a passion.

If robots take off the way computer games did (and they probably will), the fact that you tinkered on them twenty years ago is not going to be good for anything other than stories over a beer, the same way my dad likes to talk about programming with punch cards. (Spoiler: tmk, my dad hasn't programmed anything in maybe 30 years. Kept up he has not.)

Comparing Robotics to Atari development is like comparing Computers to Atari development. It is the comparison of an idea and the application of an idea. You might be right about trendiness of robotics applications, but to throw the whole idea out with it is foolish.

Hmm, you think noisy drones flying around delivering packages within 30 minutes of ordering is a more concrete vision than a robot walking up to your door from a self-driving car? (last 30 ft problem).

I can easily imagine myself solving this problem in about 2 years if given access to Google street view data. Remember, Google probably has detailed (centimeter resolution) 3D maps of from their street view cars (they use LIDAR, afaik).

The Google plan is much more realistic than Amazon's announcement. IMHO. YMMV. I am not a robotics person etc.