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Its kinda brilliant that people will just post this shit without prompt. The only reason I can see why he would post this drivel is because he’s surrounded by

• foul 3y ago
  The reason I see why he would post this is envy. Envy for Peter Thiel.
• RangerScience 3y ago
  Yep yep. IMHO - balance comes from forces in opposition. If - as you point out - everyone around you is a yesman, you’ve got no opposing forces and cannot be balanced.
• LispSporks22 3y ago
  Almost feel embarrassed for the guy
• atoav 3y ago
  Most people believe they are in the right. And if they know they aren't they most likely will be able to explain to you why they were forced to do the wrong thing. The reason why he "writes that shit without prompt" is because he deep down he feels a friction between the current state of the world, his role in said world and his self-image as a good guy. That post is an attempt to tell himself (and the world) a story in which that friction is reduced. From the outside it is of course completely and utterly ridiculous — I guess even 14 year old me would have been able to figure out that there is no meat on what passes as bones in his story.
  • dathinab 3y ago
    > Most people believe they are in the right. I have found this to be not quite true. In my experience a ton of people in the wrong know very well they are in the wrong. They don't internalize it, but they know anyway. They just prefer to stay in the wrong because they prefer other people suffering over having to change their world view, especially if it would make them look bad.
    • baq 3y ago
      Also ‘I’m wrong but have many friends who are also wrong and I want to keep being friends with them’
      • xboxnolifes 3y ago
        I like: "I'm wrong, but living right leads to poverty".
      • hotpotamus 3y ago
        I'd say I see a lot of "my job is basically evil but my kids enjoy a roof, health insurance, and food, so I guess I'll keep doing it". One more reason I've never been interested in the kid thing.
    • atoav 3y ago
      > In my experience a ton of people in the wrong know very well they are in the wrong. They don't internalize it, but they know anyway. No I meant what I say. My grandfather was an actual Nazi in the Wehrmacht. Did he know that what the Nazis did was wrong in a moral sense? Sure. But he still believed their wrongdoing was something that had to be done, because "this was war" or because of the superiority of the arian race. So in his mind him sacrificing his moral standards was a heroic act to further the "greater good" he believed in. The Nazis believed they were doing the "lesser races" a favour by destroying them. I am convinced that if you talked to any political fanatic they would come up with a similar mental gymnastic to explain the actually evil things they are doing. The point is that everybody does that to explain the suffering in the world. E.g. think about the unspeakable harm capitalism has caused to nature and certain parts of the world. I am pretty sure that 90% of the HN crowd would be able to tell you a story of why it isn't that bad or maybe even good in the grand scheme of things, because if we didn't tell those stories to ourselves we would have to change something. Or we know this is wrong, but then we tell ourselves atories why we cannot change things. Even that guy who "rolls coal" with his purposefully dirty truck think he is right, because all those liberals are in fact hypocrites and he is just exposing that or something. Of course you will also have people who are in such existential dires that they will tell themselves they cannot afford the luxury of being a good person, but deep down they will see themselves as a good person in a pickle or as a good person who has been failed by society.
  • figassis 3y ago
    What is interesting in this story that the article misses is not the delusion. Marc's post has copious amounts of dishonesty and while writing, I'm sure he thought of all the ways his vision could harm/destroy society. But right now, he really needs to inject that extra bit of confidence so the markets can rebound and produce just one more Airbnb because he's a bit short on his net worth goals.
• baq 3y ago
  Also, drug abuse. I wish I was joking but then see FTX.
• strken 3y ago
  I don't think it's completely bullshit. It's pretentious, tone deaf, and he's mostly tilting at windmills. However, most of what he says is correct, though trivial, and of the rest, nearly all the opinions are inoffensive milquetoast ones. The manifesto itself is just a manifesto. The most damning thing about Marc Andreessen is that he doesn't actually live these ideals, as shown when he complained to his local council about their plan to build affordable housing near him. There's nothing more pathetic and cynical than "statism for me but not for thee".
  • dwaltrip 3y ago
    It’s a long manifesto, so I only quickly skimmed it. But I didn’t see any mention of negative externalities and how to best mitigate them. That’s a pretty damning flaw.