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It's easy to see if they are just jerks or geeks as well: just look at their early life. In 1998, Levandowski entered the University of California, Berkeley, w
by xiphias2 7y ago
It's easy to see if they are just jerks or geeks as well: just look at their early life.
In 1998, Levandowski entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.[12] As a freshman, he launched an intranet service from his basement.[3] In 2004 he and fellow UC Berkeley engineers built an autonomous motorcycle, nicknamed Ghostrider, for the DARPA Grand Challenge.[13] The Ghostrider motorcycle competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004 and 2005 and was the only autonomous two-wheeled vehicle in the competition.[14] The motorcycle now resides in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.[3]
I challenge the author of the article to build this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CYGT97i8qU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CYGT97i8qU
- everly 7y agoWhat bearing does the author's ability to build that have on whether or not Levandowski is a jerk?
- nostrademons 7y agoThat's not the question posed by the headline: it's questioning whether Levandowski is brilliant, not whether he's a jerk. Most people would agree he's a jerk, but it's a pretty big stretch to claim he's not brilliant.
- salawat 7y agoI think that's missing the point so hard as to be a straw man. The real question seems to be whether tolerating and elevating a jerk is an acceptable price to pay for brilliance. Which to me is a fairly good question.
- gtfratteus 7y agoThe parent is replying directly to the article title. It is in no way a straw man argument.
- xiphias2 7y agoSure, not putting people in position of power into prison when they break the law is a huge problem of our society. At the same time I can respect the good things a person achieved in his life and look down on the bad things that he did (and shouldn't have been tolerated). I view the author's view too simplistic: ,,What if “brilliant jerks” are just plain jerks?''
- BurningFrog 7y agoSure. But it's not the question asked in the headline.
- afthonos 7y agoThe headline is misleading about the article, which never seriously questions the brilliance of the jerks in question.
- mlthoughts2018 7y agoIf that’s true about the article, then claiming the headline is misleading is a gigantic understatement. The title would be so egregiously misleading as to seriously call into question the ethics of the author and make me very disinclined to bother reading it (even apart from the fact that writing about SV elites being jerks is hardly interesting, useful or newsworthy).
- afthonos 7y agoHeadlines are rarely written by the author, but I agree with the sentiment.
- mcphage 7y agoNo, it’s just a failure of reading comprehension on your part.
- mlthoughts2018 7y agoOn your part you mean?
- sincarne 7y agoI don’t believe the headline is misleading. I think it does a bad job of conveying the author’s intention. I read it as “who cares how brilliant they are when they are such huge jerks.” I felt they were trying to say “stop putting the emphasis on the brilliant part, and let’s talk about the jerk.
- mcguire 7y agoIt doesn't dispute that he and others are brilliant, but whether that excuses the behavior of a jerk. It doesn't.
- DanBC 7y agoYou should ignore the headlines because they're usually junk.
- RobLach 7y agoNot brilliant enough to realize that being a jerk is a shitty way to live your life and negatively tinges all your work.
- donmcronald 7y agoThat’s got to cost a ton of money to build. Who pays for it?
- hkmurakami 7y agoUsually the school has a budget for this. Manufacturers donate hardware as well. I think our DARPA grand challenge team had a Toyota tundra (or similar) donated to them.
- candiodari 7y agoWell "ton" is not very accurate. University teams (some of them) are legendary in how far they get on how little funds. You'd need a used motorcycle, a garage (which will be donated), time from 4-5 AI PhD students (again donated), test space (supermarket parking on sundays or at night), actuators (bad, recycled or donated ones), time in a metal shop (let's say 2000-3000$), various parts and ... (let's say $1000), travel and ... expenses (let's say $10k), ... It doesn't have to cost much more than $20k or so. Budgets went into $x00k range for the first Darpa challenge (x < 3 or so). Who paid for it ? DARPA. Also known as the US military. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihXE1Iu5E3o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihXE1Iu5E3o
- rrss 7y agoHolmes seems like a pretty good counterexample. PS when you copy and paste wikipedia you should say so.
- KaiserPro 7y agoMmmmHmm. So long as you're a "geek" its ok to be a monstrous shit? Is that what you're arguing here?
- CapitalistCartr 7y agoNo, the headline doesn't question that he's a jerk, merely his being brilliant. xiphias2 demonstrates his brilliance.
- KaiserPro 7y agoaaahhh, its ok to be a monstrous shit if you have some skill? gotcha