4 ms·

I don't think the pro-union people in FAANG and the kind of people like Peter Thiel are qualititatively the same people. I could be wrong. Also, I don't think

I don't think the pro-union people in FAANG and the kind of people like Peter Thiel are qualititatively the same people. I could be wrong. Also, I don't think it will be cross-divide. These things always polarize. Sides are picked.

ggm 5y ago
Thats kind-of what I mean. I'm imagining some kind of "lets get out and show how many of us dislike neoliberalism" movement, and it would have a giant crash barrier down the middle like one of those toxic bride-groom disfunctions in a wedding... So the idea this is a giant push against neoliberalism begs the question: its opposed by people of radically opposed views otherwise. How does Thiel negotiate this?
- Gollapalli 5y ago
  He decides it’s time for revenge of the nerds and does whatever it takes to make that happen.
  - ggm 5y ago
    I can't think of anything worse than a government led by nerds. Every agenda would be packed with "here's a new package we can install and try to run the meeting" meta-level disfunction, and it would be very rapidly obvious scrumban didn't work for public policy outcomes. Maybe the revenge of the nerds is a robot, watching re-runs of Buffy because nobody else is around to do it, from the great mobile-phone-sanitation disaster of 2023. "Nerds" here has to contextually mean rich nerds. Thiel doesn't want programmers in charge, he wants people who will do what he asks, for suitable renumeration. He, and his friends, are not "anti democratic" in as much as they don't much care what people vote for, as long as they retain power which is what money is for, after all. I think from the press I read, Thiel is also motivated by revenge. He was disliked at university and has decided to show people how wrong they were about his power and capability. Not surprisingly I think Trump shares this world view. "you'll be sorry you said that" is a remarkably strong driving force for some people.
    - Gollapalli 5y ago
      >I can't think of anything worse than a government led by nerds. LMAO. Truer words have never been written. And yet, I don't think we have a choice in the matter. We're in the middle of a paradigm shift, akin to the managerial revolution. In the managerial revolution, power passed from the people who own companies and businesses, small and large, to the people who managed them. The control of capital (in the technical sense) mattered more than the ownership of it. We're seeing something analogous where the people who manage the complexity of these large managerial institutions have gained more power than the people who officially manage them. The leverage technology provides to the users is only outmatched by the leverage it provides to its implementers. Technological concerns have more power in America than any concern, and in every organization, the implementers and maintainers of technology are more business critical than any individual manager. This is power in real terms. A side effecting consequence of this is the glamorization of the "coder" (mind you, not the hacker, though it is the hacker who has gained in actual wealth, power, and status). You never would have seen glamour shots of coders on instagram 20 years ago (and not just because it didn't exist!). Glamorization is what happens when you gain power and money in real terms, as an individual or as a class. I don't think we have a choice in the matter. The signs of the sea change are all around us. The question is what will the leveragers of technology into the wheels of power have for their values, and what will the consequences of their ascendancy be? Thiel is just the first.

ggm 5y ago

Thats kind-of what I mean. I'm imagining some kind of "lets get out and show how many of us dislike neoliberalism" movement, and it would have a giant crash barrier down the middle like one of those toxic bride-groom disfunctions in a wedding... So the idea this is a giant push against neoliberalism begs the question: its opposed by people of radically opposed views otherwise. How does Thiel negotiate this?

Gollapalli 5y ago
He decides it’s time for revenge of the nerds and does whatever it takes to make that happen.
- ggm 5y ago
  I can't think of anything worse than a government led by nerds. Every agenda would be packed with "here's a new package we can install and try to run the meeting" meta-level disfunction, and it would be very rapidly obvious scrumban didn't work for public policy outcomes. Maybe the revenge of the nerds is a robot, watching re-runs of Buffy because nobody else is around to do it, from the great mobile-phone-sanitation disaster of 2023. "Nerds" here has to contextually mean rich nerds. Thiel doesn't want programmers in charge, he wants people who will do what he asks, for suitable renumeration. He, and his friends, are not "anti democratic" in as much as they don't much care what people vote for, as long as they retain power which is what money is for, after all. I think from the press I read, Thiel is also motivated by revenge. He was disliked at university and has decided to show people how wrong they were about his power and capability. Not surprisingly I think Trump shares this world view. "you'll be sorry you said that" is a remarkably strong driving force for some people.
  - Gollapalli 5y ago
    >I can't think of anything worse than a government led by nerds. LMAO. Truer words have never been written. And yet, I don't think we have a choice in the matter. We're in the middle of a paradigm shift, akin to the managerial revolution. In the managerial revolution, power passed from the people who own companies and businesses, small and large, to the people who managed them. The control of capital (in the technical sense) mattered more than the ownership of it. We're seeing something analogous where the people who manage the complexity of these large managerial institutions have gained more power than the people who officially manage them. The leverage technology provides to the users is only outmatched by the leverage it provides to its implementers. Technological concerns have more power in America than any concern, and in every organization, the implementers and maintainers of technology are more business critical than any individual manager. This is power in real terms. A side effecting consequence of this is the glamorization of the "coder" (mind you, not the hacker, though it is the hacker who has gained in actual wealth, power, and status). You never would have seen glamour shots of coders on instagram 20 years ago (and not just because it didn't exist!). Glamorization is what happens when you gain power and money in real terms, as an individual or as a class. I don't think we have a choice in the matter. The signs of the sea change are all around us. The question is what will the leveragers of technology into the wheels of power have for their values, and what will the consequences of their ascendancy be? Thiel is just the first.