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Why is 'rich billionaire has uninformed or possibly self interested opinions' newsworthy
by nelsontodd 6y ago
Why is 'rich billionaire has uninformed or possibly self interested opinions' newsworthy
- pluc 6y agoBecause this rich tech billionaire brought about humanity-changing innovations so maybe what he says deserves some attention? Why does _your_ opinion matter?
- nelsontodd 6y agoHis status as rich tech billionaire doesn't make a difference unless he is making arguments that are new or interesting. And he isn't. We've all been hearing the environment argument for years now. Plus, there is obviously an argument to be made that he has had a negative overall influence on the world & therefore shouldn't be trusted.
- pluc 6y agoWhat is your argument for Bill Gates having a negative overall influence on the world?
- nelsontodd 6y agoI don't want to hash them out, plenty of arguments from the leftists or linux people for example. Free software, exploitation of workers. Whatever. The argument itself is arbitrary, I'm just saying that he's a controversial figure
- lostgame 6y ago>> Plus, there is obviously an argument to be made that he has had a negative overall influence on the world That is not only not obvious, but - even with his philanthropy efforts alone, the opposite would be obvious.
- nelsontodd 6y agophilanthropy is just trying to make amends for all the bad stuff you did to become a billionaire
- junippor 6y agoCalling Bill Gates uninformed about anything is breathtakingly uninformed.
- nelsontodd 6y agoJust because he's a billionaire doesn't mean he has the time or interest to deep dive into all emerging technologies, or possible tech bubbles
- junippor 6y agoNo, just because he's a billionaire doesn't mean any of those things. It's just that Bill Gates is legendary for the amounts he reads and his recall ability, and his contributions to many topics outside of just managing MS (state of the art algorithms, erradictinc malaria, nuclear energy etc). I thought everyone knew this, but apparently not. So you can see how funny it is when a random guy on HN says "just because he's a billionaire" :D
- nelsontodd 6y agoFair enough. But for every bill gates we can find a mark cuban, michael saylor etc who are extremely excited about bitcoin. So I still think it is uninteresting.
- junippor 6y agoMoving the goal posts. First you said "Just because Bill Gates is a billionaire, doesn't mean he knows what he's talking about" Now that you've learned that most likely he DOES know what he's talking about, you changed your argument to "Other people think other things, so it's uninteresting" (What? WE're not talking about random people here.) Lets just say it: you already arrived at the conclusion you want, now you're grasping for arguments to support it.
- nelsontodd 6y ago