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Techno-optimism manifesto written by a multi-billionaire founder of a venture capital. It doesn't get more dystopian than this. Where have the hackers gone?
by sph 3y ago
Techno-optimism manifesto written by a multi-billionaire founder of a venture capital. It doesn't get more dystopian than this.
Where have the hackers gone?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- BobbyJo 3y agoYou can't buy a crappy house for less than 1mil in SV. The hackers are all on corporate payrolls.
- shuckles 3y agoYou sure it isn’t because they just grew up, like the hippies?
- BobbyJo 3y agoBy "grow up" do you mean "coalesce"? If so, that's exactly what I'm saying.
- shuckles 3y agoThe hippies suited up without expensive housing as a forcing factor. We may agree on what happened, but I disagree with you about why.
- davidw 3y agoI'd love to be free to hack on interesting things. If I didn't have to spend so much on housing, I'd have more freedom. Of course, there are also tradeoffs in that, in the sense that I do not want to live in Cyanide Springs, Oklahoma just to have cheap housing...
- shuckles 3y agoIt seems like there is a tendency to become occupied with obligations as you age, regardless of exactly how the discretionary time / money is eaten up.
- davidw 3y agoOh, absolutely, but housing eats up the biggest share of most peoples' paychecks. The higher those costs are, the fewer people can afford to just go do something adventurous, new and interesting. I mean, think about the staggering amounts of VC money in the bay area that pretty much flows straight to landlords.
- shuckles 3y agoI am all for reducing rent seeking, including in this case literally. However, my point is that the hippies became squares in the same way the hackers became squares. It's not clear that housing costs are causal; they might just be incidental.
- davidw 3y agoI think it's one of those things where you'd want to look at it statistically, or 'at the margin'. Many - most - people will grow up and settle down some. But high housing costs kind of force the issue even more, and leave less room for people to have some more freedom to explore.
- shuckles 3y agoIf we are thinking about this as a dynamic system, then: many people who moved to the valley before 2010 got some sort of windfall, whether through home equity or participating in a notable period of wealth creation. Why didn’t that mint a bunch of hackers on the margin, if disposable income is so explanatory?
- mattigames 3y agoHackers would know a "techno-propagandist manifesto" when they see one.
- lazzlazzlazz 3y agoHackers love techno-propaganda.
- NoGravitas 3y agoTrust your technolust?
- jjulius 3y agoYeah, this being written by Andreesen is a non-starter for me. I have no interest in what he has to say at this point - hard pass.
- jaybrendansmith 3y agoC'mon. We dont hate people we hate bad ideas. He's not wrong about that.
- jjulius 3y agoI've seen enough bad/tone deaf takes/perspectives from him over the years to know that, unless he's had some kind of wild change of heart, this isn't going to be any different and likely won't hit home for me. I don't hate Andreesen, but I do hate bad ideas, and he's full of 'em. Judging from the bulk of the comments in here, it doesn't look like I'm wrong.
- sph 3y agoWho's to say that's a good idea? I beg to differ.
- mold_aid 3y agoSounds like he actually hates people, though.