9 ms·

"Mr. Neumann would talk eloquently about creating the first “physical social network,” a place where members could talk about jobs, family, love. “It was like,

by neom 7y ago

"Mr. Neumann would talk eloquently about creating the first “physical social network,” a place where members could talk about jobs, family, love. “It was like, wait, you mean life. What you’re talking about is just regular life,” Mr. Weber said. But as Mr. Neumann framed things, it sounded revolutionary. " "And some came to wonder if Mr. Neumann had been wise to share, during a 2017 speech at Baruch College, a story from his first date with Rebekah. “She looked me straight in the eye and she said, ‘You, my friend, are full of” crap, Mr. Neumann recalled. “‘She then said, ‘Every single word that comes out of your mouth is fake.’” mmhmmmm...

onetimemanytime 7y ago
>>‘Every single word that comes out of your mouth is fake.’” But someone with cash will fall for them, and then, Ka-ching! what else can it be?
- fortran77 7y ago
  The Paltrow family is very familiar with snake-oil and how to sell it. See https://goop.com/ https://goop.com/ She may have known every word was fake, but it was a turn on.
lalos 7y ago
That last bit could be some sort of variation of ‘duping delight’.
jerrytsai 7y ago
It feels wholesome and healthy to point to WeWork as a thinly-veiled re-packaging of office space and an illustrative example of what's not a "tech" company. With the collapse of their IPO, people are piling on heaps of schadenfreude. But I can't help but wonder: how much of this is envy? Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor? The choice of which words to use to market your idea, the value of being able to recruit people to fulfill the idea, the ability to persuade people to fund your idea. Isn't there some value provided by inspirational leadership? Neumann may have duped a credulous Son, but he put WeWork in the position where it received Son's consideration. I'm not excusing the grifting and self-enriching. At the same time, I've seen situations where the charisma and the resolute determination of a leader makes a huge difference in how the team executes. WeWork may be a glaring example of what not to do, but it's also an example of the value of politicking-- of agilely positioning your endeavor to receive investment, both monetary and emotional.
- skybrian 7y ago
  I don't know, it sounds pretty stressful? Pile-ons don't imply that other people want to be that person. Shaming feels good.
- imgabe 7y ago
  > Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor? Most people would want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking because they seek to be inspirational and forward-thinking. Sociopaths are more happy to manipulate perception to suit their purposes regardless of reality.
- phillipcarter 7y ago
  You betcha I'm envious of being able to sucker a bank out of a billion bucks. I'd love to pull off a con like that and then spend the rest of my life doing OSS software and traveling the world to do amazing things. But I think it just goes to show how little merit has to do in this kind of economic system.
  - fuzzfactor 7y ago
    Sometimes you sucker the bank, sometimes the bank suckers you, depends on which scale beyond your own resources you can talk them into letting you operate, and where you are on a capitalistic continuum ranging from investors to consumers. Where does it say merit or even sensibility is supposed to be a factor?
- bogomipz 7y ago
  >"Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor?" Sure but how many would want to be be perceived as "inspirational and forward-thinking" in the short term in exchange for being perceived as little more than a greedy charlatan in perpetuity?
- rayiner 7y ago
  > Isn't there some value provided by inspirational leadership? It’s entirely derivative of where that leader is taking people. David Koresh was an inspirational leader. That didn’t create value, it destroyed value. (Arguably the better he was as a leader, the more value was destroyed.)
teambayleaf 7y ago
It feels to me that Mr. Neuman is a kind of person like Louis Bloom in the movie Nightcrawler.
fuzzfactor 7y ago
The more fluff a person in a leadership position is operating with in place of actual productive ability, the more they will need to surround themselves with associates who are willing to accept this type of substitution. Some types of human nature accept this more readily than others so it can easily be allowed to grow out of hand, but almost everyone else notices once the crap level approaches complete fullness. All leaders have gaps that need to be compensated for or filled in by associates both upstream and downstream, but especially subordinates, and this is usually accomplished by shrewd manipulation of resources, which can be either good or evil. If a person in a leadership position can not grow the resources when that is the primary objective, either from investors or customers, that can be a sign that the talent of the so-called leader is more talk than action, sometimes even fantasy versus reality. Sometimes that type of talent works better on investors than customers, sometimes not either one. Both are usually served by action even better than talk, and look how far talk can get you. If this guy was working for Thos. Edison or for Elizabeth Holmes at an early time, their companies might have had faster growth than they did, with Edison's shareholders reaching institutional status earlier & bigger in the long run, and Theranos reaching it's final conclusion sooner as well. If Edison or Holmes were working for this guy it wouldn't have made much difference if they had been below-average Joes & Janes instead. Kind of puts celebrity in perspective.

by neom 7y ago

onetimemanytime 7y ago

>>‘Every single word that comes out of your mouth is fake.’” But someone with cash will fall for them, and then, Ka-ching! what else can it be?

fortran77 7y ago
The Paltrow family is very familiar with snake-oil and how to sell it. See https://goop.com/ https://goop.com/ She may have known every word was fake, but it was a turn on.

lalos 7y ago

That last bit could be some sort of variation of ‘duping delight’.

jerrytsai 7y ago

It feels wholesome and healthy to point to WeWork as a thinly-veiled re-packaging of office space and an illustrative example of what's not a "tech" company. With the collapse of their IPO, people are piling on heaps of schadenfreude. But I can't help but wonder: how much of this is envy? Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor? The choice of which words to use to market your idea, the value of being able to recruit people to fulfill the idea, the ability to persuade people to fund your idea. Isn't there some value provided by inspirational leadership? Neumann may have duped a credulous Son, but he put WeWork in the position where it received Son's consideration. I'm not excusing the grifting and self-enriching. At the same time, I've seen situations where the charisma and the resolute determination of a leader makes a huge difference in how the team executes. WeWork may be a glaring example of what not to do, but it's also an example of the value of politicking-- of agilely positioning your endeavor to receive investment, both monetary and emotional.

skybrian 7y ago
I don't know, it sounds pretty stressful? Pile-ons don't imply that other people want to be that person. Shaming feels good.
imgabe 7y ago
> Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor? Most people would want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking because they seek to be inspirational and forward-thinking. Sociopaths are more happy to manipulate perception to suit their purposes regardless of reality.
phillipcarter 7y ago
You betcha I'm envious of being able to sucker a bank out of a billion bucks. I'd love to pull off a con like that and then spend the rest of my life doing OSS software and traveling the world to do amazing things. But I think it just goes to show how little merit has to do in this kind of economic system.
- fuzzfactor 7y ago
  Sometimes you sucker the bank, sometimes the bank suckers you, depends on which scale beyond your own resources you can talk them into letting you operate, and where you are on a capitalistic continuum ranging from investors to consumers. Where does it say merit or even sensibility is supposed to be a factor?
bogomipz 7y ago
>"Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor?" Sure but how many would want to be be perceived as "inspirational and forward-thinking" in the short term in exchange for being perceived as little more than a greedy charlatan in perpetuity?
rayiner 7y ago
> Isn't there some value provided by inspirational leadership? It’s entirely derivative of where that leader is taking people. David Koresh was an inspirational leader. That didn’t create value, it destroyed value. (Arguably the better he was as a leader, the more value was destroyed.)

teambayleaf 7y ago

It feels to me that Mr. Neuman is a kind of person like Louis Bloom in the movie Nightcrawler.

fuzzfactor 7y ago

The more fluff a person in a leadership position is operating with in place of actual productive ability, the more they will need to surround themselves with associates who are willing to accept this type of substitution. Some types of human nature accept this more readily than others so it can easily be allowed to grow out of hand, but almost everyone else notices once the crap level approaches complete fullness. All leaders have gaps that need to be compensated for or filled in by associates both upstream and downstream, but especially subordinates, and this is usually accomplished by shrewd manipulation of resources, which can be either good or evil. If a person in a leadership position can not grow the resources when that is the primary objective, either from investors or customers, that can be a sign that the talent of the so-called leader is more talk than action, sometimes even fantasy versus reality. Sometimes that type of talent works better on investors than customers, sometimes not either one. Both are usually served by action even better than talk, and look how far talk can get you. If this guy was working for Thos. Edison or for Elizabeth Holmes at an early time, their companies might have had faster growth than they did, with Edison's shareholders reaching institutional status earlier & bigger in the long run, and Theranos reaching it's final conclusion sooner as well. If Edison or Holmes were working for this guy it wouldn't have made much difference if they had been below-average Joes & Janes instead. Kind of puts celebrity in perspective.