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Again this is not remotely worrisome. Tech people, and smart people in general, need to learn how to step out of their own understanding of the world and see t

by jariel 6y ago

Again this is not remotely worrisome. Tech people, and smart people in general, need to learn how to step out of their own understanding of the world and see their own fields as others do. Very few people actually know what HTML really is or how it works, and would be hard pressed to describe it. This quote is an executive mangling the description of some tech that otherwise might make sense. After all, Javascript is part of HTML5 and that could very well be used on various parts of the system, 'linked on the data network, all the same language'. And it is 'a language' that many programmers know how to speak around the world. The bit I can't figure out is 'lets us build our own chips' which is a stretch. This is a guy not really knowing what he is talking about, but with a few word changes, it's mostly rational. The other stuff is far more scary.

DevX101 6y ago
Taken in isolation, the statement isn't catastrophically bad. But it does tell me some things about the speaker's character including: - Has limited understanding of technology - Is prone to overstatement, if not outright lying - Is willing to use technobabble to describe his product Those conclusions, if coming from a normal layman, might just make me roll my eyes, but coming from the CEO of supposedly technology centric company that hasn't yet released a product, it raises massive alarm bells and has me running to sell shares or short the company.
- jariel 6y ago
  So yes, it does add suspicion in context - but of all the 'suspicious things' - it's the least suspicious. Most car execs would struggle with this were they to have to read an unprepared statement.
  - chii 6y ago
    somebody with integrity would just admit they dont know the tech, but point out that he has trusted techies who _do_ know.
    - solarkraft 6y ago
      Do sales people usually have integrity?
- bob33212 6y ago
  Not understanding what is going on under the hood of software systems is a huge risk for a manager. A Demo could look and feel awesome. But the whole thing could be dependent on a npm package maintainer not disabling his account. And you don't understand that until your entire fleet gets bricked overnight.
iNate2000 6y ago
Also, how do we know that the quote is even accurate? If the CEO misstates some technical jargon, what’s the likelihood that the reporter from an unrelated field is going to get the misstatement correct?
vsareto 6y ago
It's a founder saying dumb things about his own product. That's incredibly worrying since he holds all of the access to all of the employees to get his facts straight - it's obvious he just didn't make use of that. He burned his precious few chances to lead a company in the public eye. Most of us armchair CEOs would burn our chances just as easily, but it's still important to not be clueless.
kube-system 6y ago
The concern with his botched technical statement is not one of technology, it is a concern of managerial competence. It is perfectly reasonable for a CEO to not understand technical details. A sloppy statement like this brings into question whether it was made out of arrogance, overconfidence, or incompetence. A good leader will understand their own limits of technical understanding and will defer to subordinates when appropriate.
- jariel 6y ago
  I agree with what you are saying - but this is missing my point. Obviously, it's a dumb thing for him to say - but this statement is not much of a 'red flag' regarding fraud. If you go searching for 'dumb things tech CEO's say about tech' you will find quite a few. My own CEO at one large company I know was actually quite brilliant, and generally knew the tech, but would sometimes mangle some things. Of all the things this fraudster is going on about, this is not on the list of things I would say points to fraud - possibly just another example of how he doesn't really understand his own tech very well. The blatant lying about the completeness of the vehicles, lies about solar capacity, lies about customers, lies about actual technical capability, lies about customer orders and deal flow ... all of that is point blank unforgivable.

by jariel 6y ago

DevX101 6y ago

Taken in isolation, the statement isn't catastrophically bad. But it does tell me some things about the speaker's character including: - Has limited understanding of technology - Is prone to overstatement, if not outright lying - Is willing to use technobabble to describe his product Those conclusions, if coming from a normal layman, might just make me roll my eyes, but coming from the CEO of supposedly technology centric company that hasn't yet released a product, it raises massive alarm bells and has me running to sell shares or short the company.

jariel 6y ago
So yes, it does add suspicion in context - but of all the 'suspicious things' - it's the least suspicious. Most car execs would struggle with this were they to have to read an unprepared statement.
- chii 6y ago
  somebody with integrity would just admit they dont know the tech, but point out that he has trusted techies who _do_ know.
  - solarkraft 6y ago
    Do sales people usually have integrity?
bob33212 6y ago
Not understanding what is going on under the hood of software systems is a huge risk for a manager. A Demo could look and feel awesome. But the whole thing could be dependent on a npm package maintainer not disabling his account. And you don't understand that until your entire fleet gets bricked overnight.

iNate2000 6y ago

Also, how do we know that the quote is even accurate? If the CEO misstates some technical jargon, what’s the likelihood that the reporter from an unrelated field is going to get the misstatement correct?

vsareto 6y ago

It's a founder saying dumb things about his own product. That's incredibly worrying since he holds all of the access to all of the employees to get his facts straight - it's obvious he just didn't make use of that. He burned his precious few chances to lead a company in the public eye. Most of us armchair CEOs would burn our chances just as easily, but it's still important to not be clueless.

kube-system 6y ago

The concern with his botched technical statement is not one of technology, it is a concern of managerial competence. It is perfectly reasonable for a CEO to not understand technical details. A sloppy statement like this brings into question whether it was made out of arrogance, overconfidence, or incompetence. A good leader will understand their own limits of technical understanding and will defer to subordinates when appropriate.

jariel 6y ago
I agree with what you are saying - but this is missing my point. Obviously, it's a dumb thing for him to say - but this statement is not much of a 'red flag' regarding fraud. If you go searching for 'dumb things tech CEO's say about tech' you will find quite a few. My own CEO at one large company I know was actually quite brilliant, and generally knew the tech, but would sometimes mangle some things. Of all the things this fraudster is going on about, this is not on the list of things I would say points to fraud - possibly just another example of how he doesn't really understand his own tech very well. The blatant lying about the completeness of the vehicles, lies about solar capacity, lies about customers, lies about actual technical capability, lies about customer orders and deal flow ... all of that is point blank unforgivable.