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god, this man is spinning so hard, his next venture should be a Beyblade[1] competitor. A digression: In tech, it's really really hard to separate spin from re

god, this man is spinning so hard, his next venture should be a Beyblade[1] competitor. A digression: In tech, it's really really hard to separate spin from reality. I remember reading HN as a high schooler, and then as a college kid, being astounded by personalities like Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs. Now I'm an adult, and I can totally see people like SBF (pre-collapse) and Musk (still!) capturing the imagination of younger coders. If you're a younger reader reading this, please note my words: People like this might (might!) know how to write software, but this is not what makes them exceptional. You could be a brilliant engineer with a world-changing idea and you would never get to the scale these guys are at. Precisely two things make someone like SBF exceptional: 1: Spin. From Crypto, to Effective Altruism, to "I'm so sorry," to this latest pitch, he pivots from concept to concept and tests his theses against the market of journalists. When something resonates, he doubles down and scales, seemingly whipping immense conviction out of nowhere. You can also see this with Musk, whose primary creative contribution to Twitter so far has been to imbue it with the same "we need to work extremely hard to change the world" narrative he has seen succeed at his other companies. Musk is a marketing guy, not an engineer. SBF "never opened the code for FTX." These guys are great at making you think they're hands-on wonks who can relate to you - that is their principal talent. 2: Privilege. Spin is a very powerful tool all on its own, but you're never going to develop that kind of unshatterable confidence if you exaggerate too much as a youngster and get hurt because of it. Growing up with a lot of wealth and/or influence puts you in a situation where you can spin, spin, spin, and never face consequences. In essence, it primes the minds of people who can genuinely believe that they're helping the world while making risky bets with billions in other people's money - FTX only got as big as it did because SBF's initial bets succeeded, and he was only willing to take on that early risk because his upbringing made him feel like he had something to fall back on. Don't try to be like these people if you don't have the same set of skills. Look at your background and your skills, and figure out how you can be maximally effective/influential/happy/whatever based on what YOU bring to the table. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE4xP59fOC8&t=30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE4xP59fOC8&t=30s

rzazueta 4y ago
3. The willingness to egregiously exploit others for personal gain. You touch on this a bit with the privilege answer, but the truth is those who come from privilege often see themselves as "above" others. And they encourage this worldview in everyone, largely to keep themselves above the rest. They pay themselves more even though, as you rightly point out, they only might know how to code or do the actual work that is generating value. Their "special skill" is in using their wealth, privilege, and occasionally charm to convince others to dedicate their lives to them - or at least 40 hours a week, though Musk is a greedy asshole with his bedroom offices and shit - and direct most of the proceeds from their labors toward the folks at the top who, let's be honest here, don't actually do meaningful work. SBF and his team fully exploited the investors who entrusted them with their money. I have a little less sympathy for those folks - well, really, for the folks who make the majority of their money off the backs of someone else's labor and call it "investing" - but it's still rampant exploitation. The entire system is built on it and we keep falling for it. If I want the young folks reading this to take anything away, it's that selling your lives to rich assholes will never free you. Stop competing with each other and start working together cooperatively. Shun the VCs and pool your own resources to build an organization where each member's contribution is equally valued, where decisions are made by consensus, where leaders lead and guide rather than rule and intimidate and make no more than twice the average pay for the extra workload. And any profits generated are partially retained for growth, but otherwise distributed evenly among those who contributed the labor. No need for a revolution, for new laws, for a new system of government or anything like that - stop fighting each other and competing against each other, it only serves the malignant narcissists who keep trying to tell us they are in charge. Work together, share the proceeds, build and support your communities, and focus on finding contentedness and happiness rather than the false promise of wealth and riches.

rzazueta 4y ago

3. The willingness to egregiously exploit others for personal gain. You touch on this a bit with the privilege answer, but the truth is those who come from privilege often see themselves as "above" others. And they encourage this worldview in everyone, largely to keep themselves above the rest. They pay themselves more even though, as you rightly point out, they only might know how to code or do the actual work that is generating value. Their "special skill" is in using their wealth, privilege, and occasionally charm to convince others to dedicate their lives to them - or at least 40 hours a week, though Musk is a greedy asshole with his bedroom offices and shit - and direct most of the proceeds from their labors toward the folks at the top who, let's be honest here, don't actually do meaningful work. SBF and his team fully exploited the investors who entrusted them with their money. I have a little less sympathy for those folks - well, really, for the folks who make the majority of their money off the backs of someone else's labor and call it "investing" - but it's still rampant exploitation. The entire system is built on it and we keep falling for it. If I want the young folks reading this to take anything away, it's that selling your lives to rich assholes will never free you. Stop competing with each other and start working together cooperatively. Shun the VCs and pool your own resources to build an organization where each member's contribution is equally valued, where decisions are made by consensus, where leaders lead and guide rather than rule and intimidate and make no more than twice the average pay for the extra workload. And any profits generated are partially retained for growth, but otherwise distributed evenly among those who contributed the labor. No need for a revolution, for new laws, for a new system of government or anything like that - stop fighting each other and competing against each other, it only serves the malignant narcissists who keep trying to tell us they are in charge. Work together, share the proceeds, build and support your communities, and focus on finding contentedness and happiness rather than the false promise of wealth and riches.