5 ms·

Yes, it seems that the antisocial defectors are going to win in the short term and may have more power in the long term. Any suggestions onto how to inject som

Yes, it seems that the antisocial defectors are going to win in the short term and may have more power in the long term. Any suggestions onto how to inject some discipline and long-term thinking into this?

epistasis 4y ago
I am not smart enough to have a full solution, but I think part of it must include some honest examination of all the players here, including the big ones whose mere opposition has a chance of crushing new founders. So a lot of that has to come from other established players in the space. Maybe being a little bit less eager to hop on to rounds led by these folks. Use soft power at a minimum. But what do I know, I'm just a nobody in the space! Others who have more power, wealth, and wisdom will be able to handle this better. (And I should point out that I don't absolve SVB of their errors here either, it's just that I think their errors are more about miscommunication about a bad situation of their own doing that had a clear solution ).
dumpsterlid 4y ago
Having more people with leftwing/progressive politics involved and less libertarians would help.
- hgsgm 4y ago
  Money tends to make people into (faux) libertarians.
- epistasis 4y ago
  There aren't that many libertarians in tech compared to other areas, in my experience. The difference is that some of the libertarians are very noisy about their politics, whereas most people in tech don't make that much public noise about politics. When you combine that dynamic with The NY Times deciding that it has to denigrate tech as an industry and take it down a few pegs (a literal mandate from their editors!), the jerks gain prominence, and tech looks the worse for it. And I would say that the PayPal mafia's sins aren't so much being libertarian as just being awful people that are super easy to hate. For example, musk calling that one guy a pedo, or taking pleasure in firing people. This assholery has now become synonymous with tech, but it is completely counter to my experiences in tech, but maybe I've just been lucky.
epistasis 4y ago
Here's another way: > Silicon Valley law firms are now making lists of individuals who resigned from boards last week, because they didn’t want to get stuck with the liability, and VCs who catalyzed SVB’s bank run, so they can advise clients to never do business with those people/firms again https://twitter.com/nicoleperlroth/status/1635139686229491714?s=46&t=fhlI8O1opViQICOIp8sUtg https://twitter.com/nicoleperlroth/status/163513968622949171...

epistasis 4y ago

I am not smart enough to have a full solution, but I think part of it must include some honest examination of all the players here, including the big ones whose mere opposition has a chance of crushing new founders. So a lot of that has to come from other established players in the space. Maybe being a little bit less eager to hop on to rounds led by these folks. Use soft power at a minimum. But what do I know, I'm just a nobody in the space! Others who have more power, wealth, and wisdom will be able to handle this better. (And I should point out that I don't absolve SVB of their errors here either, it's just that I think their errors are more about miscommunication about a bad situation of their own doing that had a clear solution ).

dumpsterlid 4y ago

Having more people with leftwing/progressive politics involved and less libertarians would help.

hgsgm 4y ago
Money tends to make people into (faux) libertarians.
epistasis 4y ago
There aren't that many libertarians in tech compared to other areas, in my experience. The difference is that some of the libertarians are very noisy about their politics, whereas most people in tech don't make that much public noise about politics. When you combine that dynamic with The NY Times deciding that it has to denigrate tech as an industry and take it down a few pegs (a literal mandate from their editors!), the jerks gain prominence, and tech looks the worse for it. And I would say that the PayPal mafia's sins aren't so much being libertarian as just being awful people that are super easy to hate. For example, musk calling that one guy a pedo, or taking pleasure in firing people. This assholery has now become synonymous with tech, but it is completely counter to my experiences in tech, but maybe I've just been lucky.

epistasis 4y ago

Here's another way: > Silicon Valley law firms are now making lists of individuals who resigned from boards last week, because they didn’t want to get stuck with the liability, and VCs who catalyzed SVB’s bank run, so they can advise clients to never do business with those people/firms again https://twitter.com/nicoleperlroth/status/1635139686229491714?s=46&t=fhlI8O1opViQICOIp8sUtg https://twitter.com/nicoleperlroth/status/163513968622949171...