4 ms·

I don't really get this article. It doesn't really say anything new and continually throws out statements designed to get the dear reader on the opposite side.

by doytch 9y ago

I don't really get this article. It doesn't really say anything new and continually throws out statements designed to get the dear reader on the opposite side. "Trump supporter Peter Thiel", complaining about how only Palantir can maintain their systems, tossing around how many millions of license plates it can store, complaining about how it doesn't operate well with other systems...this reads like a hit piece. Yeah, Palantir's ecosystem is a closed ecosystem. But that's kind of becoming de rigeur these days for market leaders. Yeah, it sucks and ideally wouldn't exist, but don't paint it as some novel way for capitalists to fuck you over. That disingenuous approach does more harm than good imo. I'm most definitely not a fan of Palantir ever since digging into them and bailing out of the hiring process ~five years ago bc it made me squeamish, but this article just doesn't really seem to say anything new or even show an even-handed introduction to the company.

wavefunction 9y ago
>only Palantir can maintain their systems, tossing around how many millions of license plates it can store, complaining about how it doesn't operate well with other systems...this reads like a hit piece Those actually sound like completely valid concerns when considering whether Palantir should be offered a concession. Even better is to consider whether this concession should be offered in the first place in a supposedly free country.
shubb 9y ago
It's worth considering that palantir, while big and spooky from a startup perspective, are a new kid on a block with some even spookier bruisers. Palantirs competitors are folks like IBM, Lockheed Martin, and BAE. We know a little about thier technology and what spooky stuff it can be used for because they had to publicly market it, because they have been trying to break into markets. These other guys have comparable products. They have big data and network analysis tools. And more - IBM have some natural language analysis tech and curated data others can't touch for instance, and warehouses full of phds driving it. But they also have better contacts, shady revolving door sales arrangements with budget holders, and moats of unintegratable software already installed. Would you bet your well paid post retirement consultancy job on the continued survival of Palantir or Lockheed? I remember when the cooperation between hb garry and palantir on a tech demo came out in the aftermath of the anonymous hacks. They were scraping Facebook. If Lockheed were doing a demo like that, it would have a million dollar budget paid by darpa and use some secret bulk intercept database from our nightmares, and the demo would be to a high level audience at a military base, not at a tech conference. I don't like palantir, or the kind of things they are doing, but I like to remember they are a shrill little kid and the real scary stuff is behind the curtain. Imagine the most impressive deepmind demo done on a dataset of every email the nsa holds.

by doytch 9y ago

wavefunction 9y ago

>only Palantir can maintain their systems, tossing around how many millions of license plates it can store, complaining about how it doesn't operate well with other systems...this reads like a hit piece Those actually sound like completely valid concerns when considering whether Palantir should be offered a concession. Even better is to consider whether this concession should be offered in the first place in a supposedly free country.

shubb 9y ago

It's worth considering that palantir, while big and spooky from a startup perspective, are a new kid on a block with some even spookier bruisers. Palantirs competitors are folks like IBM, Lockheed Martin, and BAE. We know a little about thier technology and what spooky stuff it can be used for because they had to publicly market it, because they have been trying to break into markets. These other guys have comparable products. They have big data and network analysis tools. And more - IBM have some natural language analysis tech and curated data others can't touch for instance, and warehouses full of phds driving it. But they also have better contacts, shady revolving door sales arrangements with budget holders, and moats of unintegratable software already installed. Would you bet your well paid post retirement consultancy job on the continued survival of Palantir or Lockheed? I remember when the cooperation between hb garry and palantir on a tech demo came out in the aftermath of the anonymous hacks. They were scraping Facebook. If Lockheed were doing a demo like that, it would have a million dollar budget paid by darpa and use some secret bulk intercept database from our nightmares, and the demo would be to a high level audience at a military base, not at a tech conference. I don't like palantir, or the kind of things they are doing, but I like to remember they are a shrill little kid and the real scary stuff is behind the curtain. Imagine the most impressive deepmind demo done on a dataset of every email the nsa holds.