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Tom Perkins has died
- mathattack 10y agoVery sad. He's an icon, who helped define VC as it's practiced today.
- limitbreak 10y agoHe's an icon, who helped define VC as it's practiced today. Regardless of whether this is true, it's considered impolite to speak ill of the dead, and "helped define VC as it's practiced today" is vicious. I have no strong opinion of him either way but, man, try not to be so negative on the guy.
- swampthinker 10y agoNot sure if you're being sarcastic, but that was a compliment to Tom.
- mathattack 10y agoIt was fully intended as a compliment.
- balls187 10y agoParent comment was making a joke: venture capitalism as practiced today is bad.
- limitbreak 10y agoSo you do have a talent for self-deprecation.
- anf 10y agoFYI: it was funny when you made the joke, a little lame when you explained it, and super lame when you repeated it :-)
- limitbreak 10y agoYou're right. Of course, it won't matter when the Humorless One comes in, spits out some of Paul Graham's pillow feathers, and bans this account.
- dang 10y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11872787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11872787 and marked it off-topic.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- flyinglizard 10y agoI warmly recommend the book on Tom Perkins' yachting life: https://www.amazon.com/Mines-Bigger-Extraordinary-Greatest-Sailboat/dp/0061374024?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0 https://www.amazon.com/Mines-Bigger-Extraordinary-Greatest-S... It was a fantastic read. Taught me much about the man, early SV life and, of course, yachts.
- akkartik 10y agoI enjoyed Valley Boy: https://www.amazon.com/Valley-Boy-Education-Tom-Perkins/dp/1592404030 https://www.amazon.com/Valley-Boy-Education-Tom-Perkins/dp/1...
- mathattack 10y agoI read this as well. It's great history. He wasn't perfect, and wasn't afraid to share his imperfections.
- hkmurakami 10y agoThe book he wrote that caught my eye was a strange one: "Sex and the Single Zillionaire". (it's fiction) Haven't read it yet but I have a copy on my bookshelf. I suspect it may give me some insight into his deeper, less public psychology. https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Single-Zillionaire-Tom-Perkins/dp/0060859776?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0 https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Single-Zillionaire-Tom-Perkins/dp...
- gladheisdead 10y agoI strongly recommend doing literally anything else with your time, rather than reading that book. Life is too short to spend time thinking about Tom Perkins. Good riddance to that awful, old, self-aggrandizing, hypocritical, and bigoted jerk. His death brings us one step closer to a better world.
- vermontdevil 10y agoSaw this video link on Twitter about Perkins and the early years https://vimeo.com/105745528 https://vimeo.com/105745528
- pcmaffey 10y agoWeird. Read the New Yorker article about HBO's Silicon Valley with this bit about Tom Perkins. Then googled him to find out who he is and learned he'd just died... >In 2014, the Wall Street Journal published a letter by Tom Perkins, a billionaire venture capitalist: “Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its ‘one percent,’ namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the ‘rich.’”
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- augustt 10y agoLooks like this scene in Silicon Valley was based off of him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9D-paXcHU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9D-paXcHU
- secfirstmd 10y agoSV never stops cracking me up!
- yanilkr 10y agoOne of the popular self-help advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to read obituaries and decide for yourself how your's should be. This guy deserves a great one. Nytimes, don't F this up.
- jomamaxx 10y agoHero.
- gavanwoolery 10y agoFirst, I should say I am sorry to hear he has passed away. Without a doubt he played a big role in growing SV. I recall the incident below, and I'd like to reflect on it (in positive light, I refuse to speak ill of the dead). "...he compared the “progressive war on the 1 percent” to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany." There is without a doubt a problem with the growing divide. But still, the wealthy are humans too, many who have struggled to obtain their position. Many wealthy people are trying to fix the problem of the divide. A growing problem I see is desire to persecute the wealthy, or lump them all into one "evil" class. That is really throwing the baby out with the bathwater, because I think the majority of wealthy people are honest and trying to do good, as opposed to the few dishonest and corrupt individuals among them. Edit: A lot of people will see the comparison to Jews as ridiculous, but IMO it is not entirely far-fetched. The Jews were an easy target for persecution because they were successful when most others were not (which many attribute to the Jewish work ethic). See: http://writing.uncc.edu/student-writing/nazi-propaganda-effective-two-ways http://writing.uncc.edu/student-writing/nazi-propaganda-effe... Obviously, I don't think his comparison was referencing genocide, but instead the growing attitude that hates success rather than celebrates it.
- jordanb 10y agoWealthy people are human and they can have persecution complexes just like the rest of us. When the wealthy and powerful believe they're being persecuted by the hoi polloi, that's terrifying because they have the power to do some really crazy stuff "in self defense." Furthermore, the comparison between saying something mean about people in an income bracket and throwing a whole race of people into gas chambers is beyond offensive. If nothing else it trivializes and normalizes genocide.
- gavanwoolery 10y agoAdded in a small edit for clarification, but yes, I don't think he was talking about genocide, which is obviously not happening at this point, but rather the attitude of hatred towards success, which was a large part of the propaganda used against Jews.
- peter303 10y agoHe gave talks at Stanford now and then. He was very energetic and usually on target about current business trends.
- themartorana 10y agoSlightly OT, but I hate it when an article on someone's death shows a fairly recent photo of them healthy and charismatic. It always brings the eventuality of the end of life so close to home. That someone can go from healthy and happy to dead in a few short years is unnerving. RIP.
- paulannesley 10y agoIf my death warranted coverage, I'd rather a fairly recent photo of me healthy and charismatic.
- rhizome 10y agoThat someone can go from healthy and happy to dead in a few short years is unnerving. The shorter that transition the better, I always say.
- sbardle 10y agoBeing aware of your own mortality on a regular basis can spur you on to take more risks and do something positive with your life. In the midst of life we are in death.
- HerpDerpLerp 10y agoetc
- hodwik 10y agoDoes anyone have a link to his "progressive kristallnact coming"?
- gregsadetsky 10y agoGoogle "progressive kristallnacht perkins". The WSJ article can't be linked (access will be restricted), but clicking from Google's search results will allow you to read it.
- secfirstmd 10y agoI only just looked this up about 20 mins ago, after the article on Silicon Valley...
- ci5er 10y agoI promise that this is not intended to be snide. But clicking the top result will allow you to view the WSJ article even w/o a subscription: - https://www.google.com/search?q=progressive+kristallnact+coming&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
- hodwik2 10y agoStrange, when I hit that link before there was a paywall. Must've hit it indirectly or something.
- Jugurtha 10y agoThere's a great 2011 documentary that features the old guard (Gordon Moore, Tom Perkins, Arthur Rock, etc). It's called "Something Ventured". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737747/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737747/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq7JVThjHEA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq7JVThjHEA
- t1amat 10y agoI quite enjoyed this documentary. It was on Netflix for a time, might still be.
- jmspring 10y agoI can't recall the context, but super yachts, of which Tom Perkins is known for, was a big thing in the 90s. James Clark (Netscape founder, alongside the students) was big into his yachts at the time as well.
- ProfChronos 10y agoJust learned about Tom Perkins. Definitely was not perfect but Gosh those guys had some guts to try what they tried at a time when everybody was so big on traditional corporate finance and so fearful on new tech companies. RIP
- gladheisdead 10y agothere was massive government support of their entities. The "gutsy" narrative is a historical rewrite so they can pretend that they're libertarian heroes, when in fact Tom Perkins got started by suckling at the socialist teat. If there is a hell, Tom Perkins is in it Good riddance to bad rubbish.
- michaelbuddy 10y agowouldn't mind seeing "Tom Perkins (description of who he is) " as a headline here. I have no idea who he is.