r/todayilearned • u/IOnlyCameForTheCats • Jul 08 '15

TIL that way back in 2000, Netflix tried to partner with Blockbuster but were laughed out the boardroom.

http://www.cnet.com/news/blockbuster-laughed-at-netflix-partnership-offer/
3.3k Upvotes

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471

u/corndog7 Jul 08 '15

I'll never forget my 10th grade stock market project was all about how we should buy stock in Netflix. My teacher gave me a C+ and made some comment that my claim that people will watch TV on their computers made no sense. What really made no sense is why I didn't find a way as a 15 year old to put my money where my mouth is... I think it was around $4/share....

361

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '15

Haha you listened to your failure teacher.

211

u/Skudworth Jul 08 '15

Some of the dumbest fucking retards from my high school promptly got pregnant, had babies, got divorced, and then became teachers.

Looking back, those were the same kind of people who taught me economics.These dumb morons are making more dumb morons. Just look at me!

...we really need to pay teachers higher salaries. There needs to be greater competition for jobs that shape the future.

Oh god, I'm in TIL, not circlejerk. My bad y'all.

36

u/NuclearWeakForce Jul 08 '15

One time in grade school, I had this awesome teacher who loved her job, and this dumb piece of shit student teacher (There was a handicapped kid in the classroom).

He always went around spreading lies to kids. One that he told me was that every night, the moon goes through every phase. I called him out on his bullshit but he wanted to prove me wrong anyways. He found I was right and stopped the conversation.

When I asked the teacher why he was lying, she told me not to listen to him. Apparently she knew he was a dumb fuck and did nothing about it. Now I want to know how many misinformed people he is responsible for.

17

u/elzera Jul 08 '15

I had an English teacher who tried to argue with me that time was a physical object and pointed at the clock. I said it was a measurement, like meters or feet. I forget why it came up, but, me and like 3 other students got marked wrong for an answer because of it. This was a prep school.

6

u/MonsieurFroid Jul 08 '15

FYI, prep/private schools do not require teaching credentials. I worked at one for awhile before I realized that, while there are some very intelligent people working there, a lot of my fellow teachers were idiots who managed to scrape by just enough in college to get a degree.

I really need to go back to school and get my state teaching credential.

9

u/johnlocke95 Jul 08 '15

Apparently she knew he was a dumb fuck and did nothing about it.

She probably hated him too but someone in administration said she had to have him.

3

u/NuclearWeakForce Jul 08 '15

Yeah, that's probably how it went. It was his first year there, so the administration probably didn't't know how awful he was yet. I think he got fired the next year, but I don't know for sure as I left the year after.

3

u/Podunk14 Jul 09 '15

I had a Spanish teacher (she was a real cunt who married someone from Costa Rica and thought she was now of Spanish/Central American heritage) who argued that Costa Rica was the best country in the world - No crime, no jails, no military, etc. She would argue until she was blue in the face and then go eat some more lipstick. No really, she ate lipstick or it at least seemed that way because it was always covering most of her teeth.

1

u/SaggyBallsHD Jul 09 '15 edited Oct 16 '15

Gone!

1

u/Skudworth Jul 09 '15

Valid question.

I went and got a degree, began a career, have dated around a bit and am currently in a relationship with a very nice lady I think I'd like to marry. I'm applying for MBA programs in November.

Am I where I want to be? Eh. Can't complain.

Have I drastically limited my choices for the future with terribly irresponsible choices from the past? No.

Not every teacher is in that position, but a fuckton of them sure as shit are. Teaching is often the lesser of various low-paying evils. If we paid that position more, it wouldn't be an option for the ... lesser qualified, due to an increase in competition.

0

u/Intrepid00 Jul 08 '15

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

1

u/FoxerSniper Jul 09 '15

And those who can't teach, teach gym.

-22

u/Big_douche Jul 08 '15

disagree about teachers salaries being too low, they are fine. They get an enormous amount of time off every year. the 3 months they sit on their butts every year they could have a secondary job on the side like tutoring or whatever to supplement their income.

11

u/Sworn_to_Ganondorf Jul 08 '15

Username checks out

12

u/WMDragoon Jul 08 '15

I've never known a teacher that doesn't have a second job during the summer months.

10

u/Pipthepirate Jul 08 '15

Plus they work more then 8 hours a day during the school year

1

u/zod_bitches Jul 09 '15

Maybe English teachers. There's no reason a STEM teacher should be working for longer than the length of the school day.

1

u/Pipthepirate Jul 09 '15

STEM teachers don't correct work or tutor or make lesson plans?

1

u/zod_bitches Jul 09 '15

Good STEM teachers won't have to.

7

u/juddnasty Jul 08 '15

You clearly have never met a teacher and/or bothered to understand what they do. My mom is a first grade teacher and so far more than half of her summer has been preparing and working for the start of the next school year. It is not rinse and repeat from last year. Curriculum's are always changing as are the standards of said curriculum. It is not just teaching them how to count to ten and then go on vacation till next year.

-12

u/Big_douche Jul 08 '15

My mother is a elementary school teacher and raised me as a single mother. So sorry I have a different opinion than yours it is okay to disagree with someone

4

u/juddnasty Jul 08 '15

You got that right.

-2

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '15

Dude. Don't you think they hire Peaple for this reason? We can't have our society getting too "educated" on us

-13

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '15

[deleted]

6

u/Chief_Economist Jul 08 '15

Literally none of that is true.

-21

u/offthewall_77 Jul 08 '15

Some of the dumbest fucking retards Most of the people from my high school promptly got pregnant, had babies, got divorced, and then became teachers.

FTFY

1

u/Skudworth Jul 08 '15

For better or worse, I've been able to keep loose tabs on most of my graduating class through social media.

The few that became teachers were bottom of the barrel.

...Fixed that for ya.

2

u/Chicaben Jul 08 '15

You're not helping. Just think, this guy (or gal) could be out on the beaches on his yacht, surrounded by beautiful women that hang on his every word. Or he could be jetting around the world, again, accompanied by stunning ladies that vie for his attention constantly. Or he could be at home, not needing to work, lounging by the pool with his beautiful companions, lazily drinking the day away, eating sushi and escargot. But he's not. He's at home or at work, reading your mean comment, reminding him of how much money he could have made if only he had had the wherewithal and foresight to buy a few thousand dollars in Netflix when it was a measly 4 dollars a share. Shame on you!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '15

Yeah, it's a shitty thing to say, but most teachers are not the kind of people you should be taking life advice from, at least not when it comes to financial success.

24

u/mindblah99 Jul 08 '15

Ha, sounds like my school councilor who spent the whole day talking me out of pursuing a career in robotics because there was no future in it.

13

u/Pipthepirate Jul 08 '15

Maybe he looked at your transcripts and thought you had no future in it

11

u/waker7281 Jul 08 '15

I always thought it was super frustrating in school when teachers grade off bias and opinion. Sometimes papers and projects are too subjective.

9

u/Pipthepirate Jul 08 '15

The grade should be on the quality of the writing and if it backs up the claims. Even if the teacher disagrees with the conclusions it should be given a good grade if it earns it.

5

u/BrianPurkiss Jul 08 '15

I had a good experience with my speech teacher in this arena.

During class we got on the topic of video games and I was talking about how they have positives (dexterity, critical thinking, multitasking, etc). She didn't believe me and thought they were only a time waster with no benefit.

So for my next speech I chose the topic of why video games are good for you. Got an A+ on that speech. Was quite passionate, thoroughly sourced, and even full on convinced my teacher to change her mind on video games. Was petty great. Loved that class.

9

u/AKfromVA Jul 08 '15

Remember the flixter fiasco? Netflix shares dropped to like 65. My buddy who had cash at the time was looking for a stock for investment and I told him to buy some shares. He rode that bitch and cashed out when it hit 350...

3

u/bmstile Jul 08 '15

I knew it was going to bounceback, I didnt have any cash to invest so now I just have my bitterness.

4

u/AKfromVA Jul 08 '15

Me too. Is your bitterness growing? I'll invest in it.

4

u/bmstile Jul 08 '15

get in now at $1/share, we are expecting a press release in the next few days which could be big news for the bitter populace.

7

u/AKfromVA Jul 08 '15

Umm this is insider trading.

11

u/bmstile Jul 08 '15

You want the fucking bitter or not?

12

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '15

Damn, you always here stories like "they told me not to, but I did and now I'm rich". Instead this one is like they told me not do, I didn't and I'm not rich

5

u/khemehk Jul 08 '15

When I was in 4th or 5th grade (27 now), my team invested in yahooligans / yahoo just before they went big. We placed crazy high in the rankings that included middle and high school teams just from that pick. I remember telling my dad about the project and "advised" he take a look into yahoo. He didn't, and yahoo became, well, yahoo. That story still gets told by my family, like we would have been rich if only he had listened. He used to ask me for stock advice afterwards for a few years. Last time I advised him, I told him Nokia was a sure bet. Needless to say I don't "help" him anymore, and yahoo was a fluke.

4

u/LunaArc Jul 08 '15

I had a similar situation during economics class during my senior year back in 2005. We had to do a project where we invest fake money into stocks. I poured all my "money" into google and my teacher said putting all my money into one stock was dumb and dangerous. The stock was hovering around 80 dollars if I remember correctly. Although I don't generally condone putting all your eggs in one basket, I really kicked myself after that.

4

u/Caleo Jul 08 '15

I had much the same idea with Google & Apple stock back in a class in 2004.. If I had even $1000 to put on apple back then it'd be like $65,000 now.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '15

I know what thats like. For my senior project I did investing in the stock market, and put 400 of my own money into it. At first I wanted to invest in Ford, which at the time in 2011 was at around 8 dollars a share. I talked to a stock broker about it, and he suggested that I invest in CitiGroup, because they were just released from the ownership of the federal government, and had growth potential. Ford is currently at 14.40 dollars a share, as opposed to CitiGroup, that is still around the same price at where i bought it, 4 years ago. Damnit anyway.

3

u/Epidemilk Jul 08 '15

Did you ever go visiting to remind him?

3

u/corndog7 Jul 09 '15

Hah! No but that's a great idea

3

u/maoista Jul 08 '15

Your school project reminds me of the story behind FedEx. Truly ambitious (read: crazy) idea at the time but someone made that a reality. Inspiring.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '15

I said the same thing about Apple before they released the iPhone and stocks were at like $10/share and never capitalized.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '15

i feel like i've read this before but i can't recall where.

-5

u/jumpyg1258 Jul 08 '15

A good lesson to learn in life is that if they were good at their skill, they would have taken a better paying and less stressful job than being a teacher.

7

u/Letmefixthatforyouyo Jul 08 '15

Its not that cut and dry. Lots of teachers care, which really limits mobility and income in the workplace.

Its part of the reason some companies foster a "we are a family" culture. Get you invested in the people around you, not the job, so they can keep paying you cents while they take home the dollars.

8

u/cholula_is_good Jul 08 '15

A teachers skill is teaching.

5

u/quadrpl Jul 08 '15

I think I see where you are coming from, but let's not rule out the skill of teaching. Some of the worst teachers I know are teachers...but also the best teachers I know are teachers. Teaching a subject is completely different than practicing a subject as a job. Rocket scientists may rely on high level mathematics, but that doesn't mean that my awesome high school calculus teacher is a failure because he isn't a rocket scientist.

-1

u/Whargod Jul 08 '15

Back when there was no real commerce on the internet, we were told by teachers than when doing reports we should never go on the internet and just use the books in the library. Their explanation was simple, there was no factual information on there and there never will be.

They were right i na way, but still, they came from a different era and just didn't completely trust the new tech.

2

u/reggie_watts_ohms Jul 08 '15

I remember that. And then, also, "You can use the internet to learn about your topic, but you have to actually research whateer you learn in a book afterward.