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People in the security industry have told me that this sort of thing often comes down to ego and self-importance. In Intelligence, people have been caught sell
by illustriousbear 6y ago
People in the security industry have told me that this sort of thing often comes down to ego and self-importance.
In Intelligence, people have been caught selling state secrets for 10-20k a pop. The kind of secrets that can land you decades in jail. It makes no sense from a monetary standpoint.
- ahmedalsudani 6y agoOne contrast I can think of between people in intelligence and Levandowski is tens of millions of dollars in pay... which actually causes me to agree with you. It seems mostly guided by an overinflated ego and a sense of invincibility. Gotta remember not to drink your own Kool-Aid ;)
- bduerst 6y agoIt's likely Levandowski has narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), as is evident by his founding The Way of The Future, which is his own church to worship artificial intelligence.
- trsohmers 6y agoWhich I have to believe is a joke based on the end of "The Aviator"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Pbx9mvWPY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Pbx9mvWPY
- jonas21 6y agoMore like The Way of Shielding Assets From Creditors
- bduerst 6y agoMaybe. I took the liberty to look up their 990 form [1] and it looks like it's an empty non-profit (no assets or activity). Interestingly enough, Lior Ron (Otto co-founder) was appointed CEO of the church. 1 - https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/814/814753507/814753507_201612_990PF.pdf https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/814/8147...
- momokoko 6y agoYou cannot seriously believe “narcissistic personality disorder” is a real thing, right? This has to be the most “it came from social media” I’ve read on HN in a while. Every personality trait you don’t like or is difficult to deal with is not a “disorder”
- awnird 6y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_dis... It’s been recognized as a “real thing” for decades.
- rorykoehler 6y agoThe narcissistic personality was first described by the psychoanalyst Robert Waelder, in 1925; furthermore, the term narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) was coined by Heinz Kohut in 1968. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disor...
- steve_adams_86 6y agoYou should do some reading about it. I don't mean that like "go educate yourself", more like you might be surprised how fascinating is. I thought for as long as I can remember that it was a term excusing people being awful. Labels for everything. After reading some books about it I was left feeling... A lot of things. It's a little unnerving, extremely nuanced, complicated, and fascinating. I've come to see it more as a description for a mode of being that's actually very important to understand to some extent and to figure into how you understand the world. A label like NPD does it no justice, like any other label for the way a human might behave. I highly recommend giving the idea a chance and thinking about how it might fit into your life. I think it's important not to sensationalize it. In fact, it's probably far more typical and mundane in most instances. I've come to believe it's widespread but generally only acknowledged or recognized in extreme cases. A typical case of the topology only revealing the mountains from among the rolling hills.
- itronitron 6y agoActually, one could make the point that social media came from NPD.
- CaptainZapp 6y agoIn all seriousness: You shouldn't remote diagnose mental illnesses for anybody. It's totally frowned upon by psychiatrists and psychologists, who are experts in the field, because it's actually impossible and can do a lot of damage. This has nothing to do with Levandowski not being a full blown greedy asshole and now a criminal too. But the problem is really that doing that can potentially hurt people with mental issues.
- krn 6y ago> In all seriousness: You shouldn't remote diagnose mental illnesses for anybody. As a counterargument: I am extremely annoyed by the people who publicly criticize the personal traits of others without even considering that they might be affected by a mental disorder.
- JohnBooty 6y agoThose two things aren't necessarily in opposition. For example we can choose to have sympathy and empathy for Kanye West during his public struggles. (Or not. I'm not telling anybody what to do. I don't have strong feelings about the guy myself.) We can recognize that yes, clearly, the man is struggling with something. We can also simultaneously refrain from hamfistedly trying to figure out what, specifically, he's struggling with.
- bilbo0s 6y agoSo in your view noting that someone has some issues that they need help with is not the same as remote diagnosis?
- JohnBooty 6y agoIn your view, are those merely different degrees of the same thing? I mean, yeah, I guess. I suppose "that guy is struggling" is something of a diagnosis in and of itself. For me, the clear differentiator is that "that guy is struggling" is a "diagnosis" I think just about anybody would be qualified to make. We have all struggled. And people generally don't go on Twitter posting sprees of alternating jumbled, grandiose, and vaguely worrisome thoughts when they're doing well. Nor do they make tearful public appearances, etc. And his wife confirms he's struggling. So assuming he's not putting on an elaborate ruse - I think your average layperson is qualified to say he's struggling. Being more specific than that would require a level of training and direct contact with him that, obviously, a layperson doesn't have. And mental diagnoses are rather uh, fuzzy even when handed out by qualified professionals under ideal circumstances. It's like the difference between me saying, "my car won't start" (a thing I'm qualified to say!) and "the fuel injector controller is faulty; Honda screwed up the design and Nissan's version of the same thing is much more robust." (a thing I just made up, and am not remotely qualified to say)
- dang 6y agoPlease don't do Internet Psychiatric Diagnosis (IPD) on HN. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22internet%20psychiatric%20diagnosis%22&sort=byDate&type=comment&dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22internet%20psychiatric%20di...
- devonkim 6y agoIntelligence screening essentially tries to select for more financially conservative people and in the cases so far people only go that far due to extenuating situations like divorce, addictions, etc. rather than standard American Greed motive. Until relatively recently people didn’t make $500k+ / year as individual contractors or founding random boutique firms. As such, one of the oddities of the US IC demographics is that a really high number of them are Mormon. It helps explain the Salt Lake City presence and investment when most other sectors of technology are relatively lukewarm there.
- droopyEyelids 6y agoThat reads like a total 'just so story' Once decision makers are Mormon, of course they're going to hire more and more Mormons. They don't even have to be doing it corruptly, thats just how networks of humans work.
- paulie_a 6y agoThe Mormon thing was started in the FBI and goes back to Hoover
- ashtonkem 6y agoYou should probably provide some evidence for those assertions.
- walrus01 6y agoMICE or RASCLS Never underestimate the power of the ego trip... https://www.google.com/search?q=mice+rascls&oq=mice+rascls&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2.2095j0j1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=mice+rascls&oq=mice+rascls&a...
- sn41 6y agoThis phenomenon has been known from ancient times. A slighted ego is a powerful incentive to turn to the other side. For example, in the ancient Indian work on statecraft, the Arthashastra, Chanakya lists the kind of personalities who can become spies: See Chapter XIV of the Arthashastra: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Arthashastra/Book_I https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Arthashastra/Book_I