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I'm always somewhat amazed that Chamath Palihapitiya doesn't have a much worse reputation: 1. My understanding is that he was the primary initial architect of
by hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
I'm always somewhat amazed that Chamath Palihapitiya doesn't have a much worse reputation:
1. My understanding is that he was the primary initial architect of "A/B testing for engagement" at Facebook that turned social media into a tribalistic, outrage generating machine (nothing engages like hate), and that the rest of SV essentially copied. I think this trajectory would have happened regardless, but he was first, so to speak.
2. He was the primary booster of selling the shit sandwiches known as SPACs as filet mignon. I'm sure he made out, any downstream investors not so much.
- throwaway4736 3y agoHe was also a huge bully at Facebook —- it’s well known that everyone strongly disliked him personally —- and his behavior at SocialCapital was so bizarre that every other partner in the firm quit.
- nwienert 3y ago[flagged]
- ProAm 3y agoWho else? Im curious
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoYour comment pretty much highlights my point. I've seen Chamath interviewed talking about the evils of Silicon Valley and social media. Meanwhile, I'm like "Queen, please, you were a primary architect of it, and it made you wildly rich!" Why isn't he challenged more often when he talks about the negative impacts of stuff he created?
- majormajor 3y agoBut none of the criticism here is about what he said it's about what he did which is 99.9999% overlapping with standard "fuck you got mine" neocon/liberal SV/Wall Street status quo.
- __loam 3y agoChamath is getting this thread because he's an ass hole, not because he's some martyr for some grand contrarian cause.
- Ozzie_osman 3y agoThe interesting thing is a few years ago (before becoming the "SPAC King") he did a media tour where he criticized Venture Capital as being a "massive Ponzi scheme". [1] Then he went all-in on SPACs... Which ended up being the ultimate Ponzi. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/10/start-up-economy-is-a-ponzi-scheme-says-chamath-palihapitiya.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/10/start-up-economy-is-a-ponzi-...
- bko 3y agoHow are SPACs a ponzi? My understanding is that its a pool of money that gets raised to essentially take a private organization public through a merger with (theoretically) less red tape and cost. You buy into the SPAC without knowing exactly what is being bought but at the time of purchase you have the option to redeem you investment. There are other clauses if the organizer can't find a suitable takeover target. You can criticize the fees or the fact that they are essentially trying to get around regulatory and reporting requirements. They did well a few years ago now they are doing poorly. But how is it a ponzi? Not everything that loses money is a ponzi
- majormajor 3y agoSPACs make it easier to get the next round of money for your Ponzi with less due diligence needed (where Ponzi is used in the loose sense of "there's no long term real business model, just sell it off to the suckers before it blows up"). So, sure, more accurate to say "SPACs make passing laughable-business-plan Ponzi schemes off as real businesses and cashing out to public investors" than "SPACs are ponzis directly" but... I'm not sure this hair needs splitting.
- VirusNewbie 3y agoI’ve listened to him speak, it was amazing. He came across like someone who could barely pass biz school.
- __loam 3y agoAll the All In pod guys are awful people, with the possible exception of Friedberg.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- zitterbewegung 3y agoHe also headed the Facebook Phone and Facebook Beacon where the phone is something no one remembers and Beacon had a public apology from Zuckerberg after many lawsuits. But all of this is on his Wikipedia page… Now he even regrets his impact on social networks due to unintended consequences … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamath_Palihapitiyawprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamath_Palihapitiyawprov=sfti... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Beacon?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Beacon?wprov=sfti1
- DesiLurker 3y agowell, so did Greenspan after he found the 'flaw' in his thinking but the damage is already done. its not like he is taking his FB earnings and using it to do some philanthropy if he really felt that bad. these are mostly billionaire crocodile tears.
- ryanlbrown 3y agoAre you trying to engage us? :) Get rid of engagement optimization and I'd guess that it still turns bad. It is what grabs attention in a low-agency mood.
- paxys 3y agoHaving a billion dollars in your bank account is all the reputation that is needed. He could murder someone in broad daylight and would still have a long line of Twitter simps and "influencers" cheering him on.
- xiphias2 3y agoI don't hate on him because for me those SPACs were obvious money grabbers (I won't invest in an IRC client/server architecture. It can be useful but not _that_ useful. Virgin Galactic was also clearly nothing like SpaceX, especially for needing people inside it for manuevering). I have sent my mom to full body MRI scan partly because of him and other people in her age generally getting cancer. He's interesting when he's not pushing his own investments.
- stock_toaster 3y agoHe was also a _big_ supporter of crypto(currency), as I recall.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> amazed that Chamath Palihapitiya doesn't have a much worse reputation Does he? I thought he was clearly Jim Cramer for VC watchers. The brightest light in the All In listener dorm room. His niche is lucrative. But he isn’t taken seriously, particularly given recent questions around his personal and firm’s solvency.
- hckrnrd 3y agoThere’s a reason he’s known as Scamath Palihapitiya amongst most serious traders. Dude is a joke.
- simonebrunozzi 3y agoHe's smart, he speaks in a way that is very appeasing to news outlet and quite easy to understand and follow, and he seems to understand things really well. This is why he's quite popular. His SPACs made him billions, and costed a few billions more to the average joe who believed in him. I think he should be seen as an evil capitalist, from this point of view. I'm not sure if this is the correct way to depict him or not.
- TacticalCoder 3y ago> I'm always somewhat amazed that Chamath Palihapitiya doesn't have a much worse reputation: One of the thing he did right was to call out the VCs involved in the FTX scam. They all turned a very blind eye to SBF's wrongdoings while any five minutes googling before investing would have led to posts explaining the very scam SBF was running. VCs basically basically participated in the pump and dump of shit tokens by FTX. To me they're complicit in the FTX scam. Not even five minutes. Two minutes of googling was all it took to discover who SBF really was. But I take it maybe the VCs knew but still wanted their share of the scam. Chamath Palihapitiya very clearly talked about this: at best the complete lack of due diligence and amateurism, at worst being complicit in the Alameda/FTX scam. He used the term "our own brethren" to refer to VCs participating and encouraging the FTX ponzi.
- falseAss 3y agoCan someone verify - did he really the architect for A/B test at early Facebook? It’s undoubtedly one of the worst Pandora’s box at internet history, but I do have respect for who created this - it’s probably the largest scale statistic application ever.