5 ms·

Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire. when you’ve lost your own, maybe it’s time to acknowledge you don’t know what you’re doing

by DiNovi 4y ago

zzzeek 4y ago
> Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire. Elon Musk is billionaire reactionary distilled into its purest form. I mean the guy is literally spending 100% of his time reacting to things he doesn't personally like.
- DiNovi 4y ago
  i know the brain poison social media gives us all… it’s wild to see
  - m_fayer 4y ago
    Yep. Along with Musk and Kanye. Those are cases where the poison has fully penetrated. How many of our elites are less noticeably but still significantly impaired though? It's a frightening thought.
    - theGnuMe 4y ago
      Well I mean Trump was the scariest.
    - JamesSwift 4y ago
      Ehh, I mean Kanye has been on this journey for a long time. Talking about how "George Bush doesnt care about black people" in 2005 and grabbing mics to announce that "Beyonce had the best video of all time" in 2009. I was a fan and apologist of his for sometime after these incidents, but he lost me somewhere around his 2011 album with Jayz.
ALittleLight 4y ago
I really wish I could see Twitter's internal dashboards. One thing I have a hard time estimating is, outside of my bubble, how is Twitter doing? Are these things hurting Twitter? Is the controversy helping it? I can't imagine what would motivate the decision to ban Mastodon links. Were they really losing users to Mastodon? That would be a huge problem, but not one that banning links would solve.
- starik36 4y ago
  Wasn’t the only mastodon account banned the one that was posting links to the doxer account?
  - cmrdporcupine 4y ago
    No, all links to a variety of Mastodon servers, plus official Mastodon account, plus hashtags mentioning Mastodon... were banned. No idea if they still are. I don't hang out on Twitter. But sheesh.
  - wardedVibe 4y ago
    It was any server that shared links with the server which hosted that. So mathstodon.xyz, for example, which is where a bunch of math Twitter ran to, and not particularly political, was also hit. Even if you endorse banning links to someone sharing public information, it was an extremely broad brush.
- tayo42 4y ago
  in the short term controversy and events drive traffic up. world cup going on, holidays and seasonal traffic, elon chaos. all probably makes twitter looks like a success at the moment. it would be to hard to separate out the traffic i think.
- sleepybrett 4y ago
  They have lost many of their previous highend brand advertising. I now see almost exclusively advertisting from right wing alt brands like 'black rifle coffee'. One can safely assume that their advertising revenue has taken a huge hit. A few thousand people tossing elon $8 a month isnt going to make up for that.
adastra22 4y ago
Are you confusing Paul Graham with Peter Thiel? PS: You're posting this on pg's site.
- DiNovi 4y ago
  no i’m not confused, and yes i’m aware where i am
- bestcoder69 4y ago
  In a meritocracy, this would be dang's site.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    To all extents and purposes that are relevant it is, or you can treat it as such. I'm not aware of pg overruling dang on anything, though obviously it is property of YC and there are limits to what dang can do when it comes to risking the site (legal risk, for instance).
- tptacek 4y ago
  This isn't pg's site, and hasn't been for a long time.
- theGnuMe 4y ago
  PG used to post here but he left because of the negative comments as I remember. A couple of users got banned as well. Twitter allows you to just post and forget without much blow back except for the weird subtweets where people take you out of context. As such successful tweets tend to overgeneralize to avoid nuance or imply that there is nuance but not discuss it. A lot of YC tweeters do this. The problem is we have to take them at their word. What would be more interesting would be to discuss specific things as evidence for a more general truth. For example there is a huge criticism of the social sciences in this website (and in general) but none of it is specific criticism of specific hypotheses. (Yes, yes I know people will argue that there are no hypotheses in the social science literature and it is not testable etc... but that is a weak argument and not always true).
consumer451 4y ago
> Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire My theory is that humans are just not evolved for billionaire levels of wealth disparity. It's not a criticism, it just appears to be a fact. Honest question: are there any "in touch" billionaires? Maybe Mark Cuban in some ways for example?
- adharmad 4y ago
  Gates or Warren Buffet. Both of them seem pretty grounded for the amount of wealth they possess.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    You - urgently - need to read up on Gates then.
    - adharmad 4y ago
      Any suggested readings/links? I am merely going by his current public persona and whatever the Gates Foundation is doing.
      - jacquesm 4y ago
        Ah ok. Well, after he quit MS as day to day leader there was that bit around his divorce, the Epstein link and more sordidness. Gates didn't really change, he just used his fortune to whitewash his reputation. He's still smart and I would be happy read what he has to say but a nice person he isn't and never was.
      - BiteCode_dev 4y ago
        You have to start reading about Gates before he spent millions to wash his reputation and adopted a disguise of philanthropist to buy a stairway to heaven. Anything before he left Microsoft, with the corruption scandals, the insults, the patent trolling, and so on. It's getting harder and harder to find though. I should have saved offline compiled files.
baxtr 4y ago
Great, now we’re fighting who is the dumber billionaire. We’re doomed.
BiteCode_dev 4y ago
I find quite amazing that expressing such mild opinion as Paul Graham does can yield reactions so strong and labels so intense as "out of touch reactionary x". I have at least half of my friends that express weirder, more dangerous opinions that are in total opposite to mine. Is that what internet is all about now? Taking every people we disagree with and dress them as Hitler so we can shit on them? It used to be were I went to actually meet people with different point of views and new things. On hacker news, I expect people that disagree with Graham to prove him wrong with an argument. Name calling feels more like being with my mom on facebook.
- jdgoesmarching 4y ago
  You finding his opinions “mild” doesn’t make them so, and half of your friends are probably not billionaires with a lot of power and influence in the tech industry. If you want to defend Paul then do so, but most of this comment is just hyperbolically complaining about how he is criticized.

Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire. when you’ve lost your own, maybe it’s time to acknowledge you don’t know what you’re doing

by DiNovi 4y ago

Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire. when you’ve lost your own, maybe it’s time to acknowledge you don’t know what you’re doing

zzzeek 4y ago

> Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire. Elon Musk is billionaire reactionary distilled into its purest form. I mean the guy is literally spending 100% of his time reacting to things he doesn't personally like.

DiNovi 4y ago
i know the brain poison social media gives us all… it’s wild to see
- m_fayer 4y ago
  Yep. Along with Musk and Kanye. Those are cases where the poison has fully penetrated. How many of our elites are less noticeably but still significantly impaired though? It's a frightening thought.
  - theGnuMe 4y ago
    Well I mean Trump was the scariest.
  - JamesSwift 4y ago
    Ehh, I mean Kanye has been on this journey for a long time. Talking about how "George Bush doesnt care about black people" in 2005 and grabbing mics to announce that "Beyonce had the best video of all time" in 2009. I was a fan and apologist of his for sometime after these incidents, but he lost me somewhere around his 2011 album with Jayz.

ALittleLight 4y ago

I really wish I could see Twitter's internal dashboards. One thing I have a hard time estimating is, outside of my bubble, how is Twitter doing? Are these things hurting Twitter? Is the controversy helping it? I can't imagine what would motivate the decision to ban Mastodon links. Were they really losing users to Mastodon? That would be a huge problem, but not one that banning links would solve.

starik36 4y ago
Wasn’t the only mastodon account banned the one that was posting links to the doxer account?
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  No, all links to a variety of Mastodon servers, plus official Mastodon account, plus hashtags mentioning Mastodon... were banned. No idea if they still are. I don't hang out on Twitter. But sheesh.
- wardedVibe 4y ago
  It was any server that shared links with the server which hosted that. So mathstodon.xyz, for example, which is where a bunch of math Twitter ran to, and not particularly political, was also hit. Even if you endorse banning links to someone sharing public information, it was an extremely broad brush.
tayo42 4y ago
in the short term controversy and events drive traffic up. world cup going on, holidays and seasonal traffic, elon chaos. all probably makes twitter looks like a success at the moment. it would be to hard to separate out the traffic i think.
sleepybrett 4y ago
They have lost many of their previous highend brand advertising. I now see almost exclusively advertisting from right wing alt brands like 'black rifle coffee'. One can safely assume that their advertising revenue has taken a huge hit. A few thousand people tossing elon $8 a month isnt going to make up for that.

adastra22 4y ago

Are you confusing Paul Graham with Peter Thiel? PS: You're posting this on pg's site.

DiNovi 4y ago
no i’m not confused, and yes i’m aware where i am
bestcoder69 4y ago
In a meritocracy, this would be dang's site.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  To all extents and purposes that are relevant it is, or you can treat it as such. I'm not aware of pg overruling dang on anything, though obviously it is property of YC and there are limits to what dang can do when it comes to risking the site (legal risk, for instance).
tptacek 4y ago
This isn't pg's site, and hasn't been for a long time.
theGnuMe 4y ago
PG used to post here but he left because of the negative comments as I remember. A couple of users got banned as well. Twitter allows you to just post and forget without much blow back except for the weird subtweets where people take you out of context. As such successful tweets tend to overgeneralize to avoid nuance or imply that there is nuance but not discuss it. A lot of YC tweeters do this. The problem is we have to take them at their word. What would be more interesting would be to discuss specific things as evidence for a more general truth. For example there is a huge criticism of the social sciences in this website (and in general) but none of it is specific criticism of specific hypotheses. (Yes, yes I know people will argue that there are no hypotheses in the social science literature and it is not testable etc... but that is a weak argument and not always true).

consumer451 4y ago

> Paul is an out of touch reactionary billionaire My theory is that humans are just not evolved for billionaire levels of wealth disparity. It's not a criticism, it just appears to be a fact. Honest question: are there any "in touch" billionaires? Maybe Mark Cuban in some ways for example?

adharmad 4y ago
Gates or Warren Buffet. Both of them seem pretty grounded for the amount of wealth they possess.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  You - urgently - need to read up on Gates then.
  - adharmad 4y ago
    Any suggested readings/links? I am merely going by his current public persona and whatever the Gates Foundation is doing.
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      Ah ok. Well, after he quit MS as day to day leader there was that bit around his divorce, the Epstein link and more sordidness. Gates didn't really change, he just used his fortune to whitewash his reputation. He's still smart and I would be happy read what he has to say but a nice person he isn't and never was.
    - BiteCode_dev 4y ago
      You have to start reading about Gates before he spent millions to wash his reputation and adopted a disguise of philanthropist to buy a stairway to heaven. Anything before he left Microsoft, with the corruption scandals, the insults, the patent trolling, and so on. It's getting harder and harder to find though. I should have saved offline compiled files.

baxtr 4y ago

Great, now we’re fighting who is the dumber billionaire. We’re doomed.

BiteCode_dev 4y ago

I find quite amazing that expressing such mild opinion as Paul Graham does can yield reactions so strong and labels so intense as "out of touch reactionary x". I have at least half of my friends that express weirder, more dangerous opinions that are in total opposite to mine. Is that what internet is all about now? Taking every people we disagree with and dress them as Hitler so we can shit on them? It used to be were I went to actually meet people with different point of views and new things. On hacker news, I expect people that disagree with Graham to prove him wrong with an argument. Name calling feels more like being with my mom on facebook.

jdgoesmarching 4y ago
You finding his opinions “mild” doesn’t make them so, and half of your friends are probably not billionaires with a lot of power and influence in the tech industry. If you want to defend Paul then do so, but most of this comment is just hyperbolically complaining about how he is criticized.