4 ms·

It's absolutely incredible to see someone take the Great Man Theory, something that has been greatly criticized in historical circles, and apply a tech bro bull

by __loam 3y ago

It's absolutely incredible to see someone take the Great Man Theory, something that has been greatly criticized in historical circles, and apply a tech bro bullshit veneer to it to pass it off as some new and amazing thought worth sharing with everyone. Here's my own Great Founder Theory: I don't think founders matter nearly as much as people in Silicon Valley think they do. They're basically there to give VCs a figure head they can point to and claim some new effort to financialize and monopolize another part of our economy is backed by some brilliant ass hole they found somewhere who started this thing in their garage. There have of course been very intelligent and hard working founders, but imo whether your startup succeeds has much more to do with product market fit and timing than it does with the quality of the founder. Just look at what a shitheel uber had at the beginning.

flimsypremise 3y ago
Hah, came here to post basically this. One of the clearest illustrations of what I call Silicon Valley Brain.
gniv 3y ago
> They're basically there to give VCs a figure head they can point to and claim some new effort to financialize and monopolize another part of our economy is backed by some brilliant ass hole they found somewhere who started this thing in their garage. There have of course been very intelligent and hard working founders, but imo whether your startup succeeds has much more to do with product market fit and timing than it does with the quality of the founder. This reads funny to me since unwittingly you seem to agree to the Great Founder Theory. Product market fit is hard to come by but is relatively easy to recognize. This is the role of VCs. You try to argue that founders are interchangeable but I don’t see it. If anything, VCs are more interchangeable.
ac2u 3y ago
>to pass it off as some new and amazing thought worth sharing with everyone The linked page does read like it's passing it off as original thought (whatever that means), but had a quick look at the linked PDF. It doesn't make any attempt to hide the historical and academic context of the Great Man Theory from the reader. Whole thing might be bullshit, but your comment comes across as overly sneering. Whether it's worth sharing with anyone is a judgement left to the reader. I didn't read the whole thing, but had a glance at the last chapter in China and learned a few things to look into that I didn't know about before in regards to history there. If the author self-censored to please you, that wouldn't have happened. Your outrage over someone writing down some thoughts in a structured way and sharing it seems like a waste.
- __loam 3y ago
  Overly sneering. Holy shit. People who write 200 page books with chapters named "How Elon Musk made engineering cool again" deserve ridicule.
  - ac2u 3y ago
    >Overly sneering. Of course it is... if the author said to you in real life, at a party, "I've been working on a book called X and it roughly follows this thesis", a regular person wouldn't immediately take your tone, it's an entirely online persona, and if it's not, then it's not well socially adjusted. Ridicule has it's place, but you're acting like the author is pretending that the Great Man Theory doesn't exist and is trying to hoodwink the reader. >with chapters named "How Elon Musk made engineering cool again" I mean the chapter was about the dual falcon landings and the tesla in space, both cool things that captured mainstream media attention. Not controversial to say so. Hyperbole if it depicted it as a lone wolf Elon Musk effort, but it's a Chapter title, not something to get exited over. >deserve ridicule. Hey if that's how you wanna direct your precious time, go for it. Seems author is a political scientist type figure. I usually take their musings with a heavy pinch of salt, but I don't really go as out of my way as you do to get hot and bothered and treat it like it's a crime against the zeitgeist that it's taking up a few KB of bandwidth.
    - __loam 3y ago
      If I brought this up at a party, everyone I know would be down to dunk on this guy with me because we all understand that the actual anti-social behavior is this insane book where someone spilled 200 pages of ink to beat off founders. It's just another artifact in the self aggrandizing culture that is Silicon Valley.

by __loam 3y ago

flimsypremise 3y ago

Hah, came here to post basically this. One of the clearest illustrations of what I call Silicon Valley Brain.

gniv 3y ago

> They're basically there to give VCs a figure head they can point to and claim some new effort to financialize and monopolize another part of our economy is backed by some brilliant ass hole they found somewhere who started this thing in their garage. There have of course been very intelligent and hard working founders, but imo whether your startup succeeds has much more to do with product market fit and timing than it does with the quality of the founder. This reads funny to me since unwittingly you seem to agree to the Great Founder Theory. Product market fit is hard to come by but is relatively easy to recognize. This is the role of VCs. You try to argue that founders are interchangeable but I don’t see it. If anything, VCs are more interchangeable.

ac2u 3y ago

>to pass it off as some new and amazing thought worth sharing with everyone The linked page does read like it's passing it off as original thought (whatever that means), but had a quick look at the linked PDF. It doesn't make any attempt to hide the historical and academic context of the Great Man Theory from the reader. Whole thing might be bullshit, but your comment comes across as overly sneering. Whether it's worth sharing with anyone is a judgement left to the reader. I didn't read the whole thing, but had a glance at the last chapter in China and learned a few things to look into that I didn't know about before in regards to history there. If the author self-censored to please you, that wouldn't have happened. Your outrage over someone writing down some thoughts in a structured way and sharing it seems like a waste.

__loam 3y ago
Overly sneering. Holy shit. People who write 200 page books with chapters named "How Elon Musk made engineering cool again" deserve ridicule.
- ac2u 3y ago
  >Overly sneering. Of course it is... if the author said to you in real life, at a party, "I've been working on a book called X and it roughly follows this thesis", a regular person wouldn't immediately take your tone, it's an entirely online persona, and if it's not, then it's not well socially adjusted. Ridicule has it's place, but you're acting like the author is pretending that the Great Man Theory doesn't exist and is trying to hoodwink the reader. >with chapters named "How Elon Musk made engineering cool again" I mean the chapter was about the dual falcon landings and the tesla in space, both cool things that captured mainstream media attention. Not controversial to say so. Hyperbole if it depicted it as a lone wolf Elon Musk effort, but it's a Chapter title, not something to get exited over. >deserve ridicule. Hey if that's how you wanna direct your precious time, go for it. Seems author is a political scientist type figure. I usually take their musings with a heavy pinch of salt, but I don't really go as out of my way as you do to get hot and bothered and treat it like it's a crime against the zeitgeist that it's taking up a few KB of bandwidth.
  - __loam 3y ago
    If I brought this up at a party, everyone I know would be down to dunk on this guy with me because we all understand that the actual anti-social behavior is this insane book where someone spilled 200 pages of ink to beat off founders. It's just another artifact in the self aggrandizing culture that is Silicon Valley.