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"Enthusiast" undersells for sure, but is still a true statement. The fate of all VR at large defines what his ultimate legacy will be. In this, I think "enthus

"Enthusiast" undersells for sure, but is still a true statement. The fate of all VR at large defines what his ultimate legacy will be. In this, I think "enthusiast" is perhaps a less apt choice than "promoter." What he is doing here is promoting VR. It's probably pretty well deserved. But I remain skeptical VR could get even 25% stake of the computing market (that'd be great!), and Apple certainly seems to have less than zero mass market ambitions. The question remains of what software really works & makes sense here, & we barely have guesses it feels like. The product might be excellent, and Luckey is lucky to have such an excellent company with such cachet shooting so stratospherically high market. Of course he'll promote this. Hopefully we figure out the use cases, some day.

CharlesW 3y ago
> "Enthusiast" undersells for sure, but is still a true statement. It's like calling Steve Jobs "a computing enthusiast" — it's ridiculous by omission (unless Palmer's Wikipedia entry is wrong). Clearly he was designing for the mass market, and in his roles as creator and designer was a proxy for that market.
- rektide 3y ago
  There's the notion of "What hat am I wearing". If you are a CTO or whatever but just want to talk tech with your people, put on the "tech enthusiast" hat & take off the "I run this shit" hat. The roles we assume are fluid & sometimes our most defining aspects are not the best descriptions of our current speaking role, especially if everyone already knows it's Steve Jobs/Palmer Luckey. What hat do you think Palmer was wearing here?
  - CharlesW 3y ago
    > What hat do you think Palmer was wearing here? Product creator and designer, since I believe those are the lenses through which he views potential Oculus killers. What hat do you think he was wearing?
    - rektide 3y ago
      Fair enough! "Promoter" is my sly but real take; he's promoting his own industry & legacy here. "Industry Insider Enthusiast" might be a nicer take, a fittingly general hat to toot from here.
  - zamnos 3y ago
    Hats is an internal motivational thinking device. Publicly, he'll always be the founder of Oculus, and his comments filtered through that lense. For better or worse he doesn't get the luxury of taking that "hat" off so whatever hat he's thinks he's wearing, it's the founder of Oculus hat, with all the acclaim, but also baggage that brings along.
    - rektide 3y ago
      Other people always only being able to interpret your through a single lens is other people's weakness and greatly to their detriment. What real authority they're using is an active question we should, as audiences, be considering. Having it be explicitly swappable in internal use is a huge benefit. But all external communication also implicitly has hats. Whether we are smart enough to perceive that or too blunted to see.

CharlesW 3y ago

> "Enthusiast" undersells for sure, but is still a true statement. It's like calling Steve Jobs "a computing enthusiast" — it's ridiculous by omission (unless Palmer's Wikipedia entry is wrong). Clearly he was designing for the mass market, and in his roles as creator and designer was a proxy for that market.

rektide 3y ago
There's the notion of "What hat am I wearing". If you are a CTO or whatever but just want to talk tech with your people, put on the "tech enthusiast" hat & take off the "I run this shit" hat. The roles we assume are fluid & sometimes our most defining aspects are not the best descriptions of our current speaking role, especially if everyone already knows it's Steve Jobs/Palmer Luckey. What hat do you think Palmer was wearing here?
- CharlesW 3y ago
  > What hat do you think Palmer was wearing here? Product creator and designer, since I believe those are the lenses through which he views potential Oculus killers. What hat do you think he was wearing?
  - rektide 3y ago
    Fair enough! "Promoter" is my sly but real take; he's promoting his own industry & legacy here. "Industry Insider Enthusiast" might be a nicer take, a fittingly general hat to toot from here.
- zamnos 3y ago
  Hats is an internal motivational thinking device. Publicly, he'll always be the founder of Oculus, and his comments filtered through that lense. For better or worse he doesn't get the luxury of taking that "hat" off so whatever hat he's thinks he's wearing, it's the founder of Oculus hat, with all the acclaim, but also baggage that brings along.
  - rektide 3y ago
    Other people always only being able to interpret your through a single lens is other people's weakness and greatly to their detriment. What real authority they're using is an active question we should, as audiences, be considering. Having it be explicitly swappable in internal use is a huge benefit. But all external communication also implicitly has hats. Whether we are smart enough to perceive that or too blunted to see.