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This is what happens when someone gets super rich from a lucky investment, we have to hear their dumb ideas for the next 30 years...

by vcryan 3y ago

marginalia_nu 3y ago
To be fair, this happens to Nobel Prize laureates as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease
toomuchtodo 3y ago
At least the gas station lottery ticket winners don’t dress it up as individual exceptionalism. Not a hot take, not flippant. Enjoy the luck if you have it, but call it what it is. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-role-of-luck-in-life-success-is-far-greater-than-we-realized/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-rol...
- drewcoo 3y ago
  Seriously? Have you never met anyone who thinks they're "lucky?" Whether they are the big lotto winners or "just missed it" you constantly hear from them how "lucky" they are.
  - Turskarama 3y ago
    If you won lotto you _are_ lucky though (though note: descriptive rather than prescriptive). Past performance does not indicate future performance goes several times stronger for luck.
pstuart 3y ago
Many years ago HN had a post about Andreessen giving advice and I drunk posted that "the only reason people listen to him is because he's rich", only to have the honor of our lord and savior pg stating that my comment was "the dumbest thing he's ever heard". Yeah, I was drunk and bitter about a guy who was at the right place and the right time and sold out and is a bazilionaire. But Netscape's success really was only in making him and others rich. Ning failed too. No longer drunk and trying to be less bitter but I remain unimpressed. Thank you for the validation, for what it is ;-)
- hipadev23 3y ago
  [flagged]
- antupis 3y ago
  He has founded three successful companies Netscape, Opsware and A16Z so it’s not luck only.
  - nine_zeros 3y ago
    When you also add all the companies his investments failed at, suddenly it becomes a game of numbers, that only the very wealthy can play.
  - pstuart 3y ago
    Absolutely, skill and effort where required too. But also once you've got your first millions and network of investors, entrepreneurs, and talent then starting a new company is now in a pipeline that was predicated on the element of luck of the first success that started the pipeline. The man pitched NFTs as a worthy investment vehicle, for crying out loud. That is a solid case of him being wrong, ergo, his advice should not be considered indisputable.
- cameldrv 3y ago
  He and Eric Bina also created the first web browser with the IMG tag.
  - pstuart 3y ago
    Of course talent and effort matter and should be recognized, but the only reason we're talking about him is because of his success, in which good fortune played a significant role in that happening.
    - cameldrv 3y ago
      Maybe. I think he’d still be reasonably famous even if the only thing he had done was Mosaic. I don’t agree with everything in his manifesto, but I think he’s achieved more than enough for people to refrain from painting all of his success as pure luck. If you disagree, make a counter argument!
manxman 3y ago
Oh really? I'd suggest it's equally or more true that we live in an age where we have to endure the pseudo-intellectual dross of the perpetually insecure and envious who want to inflict their neocommunist agenda upon the world and have us settle for a universal level of bland instead of permitting those with vision to make the world better. Well if it addressed their fundamental insecurity, it might be an argument with at least some validity. Sadly, I suspect they'll remain insecure irrespective.

This is what happens when someone gets super rich from a lucky investment, we have to hear their dumb ideas for the next 30 years...

by vcryan 3y ago

This is what happens when someone gets super rich from a lucky investment, we have to hear their dumb ideas for the next 30 years...

marginalia_nu 3y ago

To be fair, this happens to Nobel Prize laureates as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease

toomuchtodo 3y ago

At least the gas station lottery ticket winners don’t dress it up as individual exceptionalism. Not a hot take, not flippant. Enjoy the luck if you have it, but call it what it is. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-role-of-luck-in-life-success-is-far-greater-than-we-realized/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-rol...

drewcoo 3y ago
Seriously? Have you never met anyone who thinks they're "lucky?" Whether they are the big lotto winners or "just missed it" you constantly hear from them how "lucky" they are.
- Turskarama 3y ago
  If you won lotto you _are_ lucky though (though note: descriptive rather than prescriptive). Past performance does not indicate future performance goes several times stronger for luck.

pstuart 3y ago

Many years ago HN had a post about Andreessen giving advice and I drunk posted that "the only reason people listen to him is because he's rich", only to have the honor of our lord and savior pg stating that my comment was "the dumbest thing he's ever heard". Yeah, I was drunk and bitter about a guy who was at the right place and the right time and sold out and is a bazilionaire. But Netscape's success really was only in making him and others rich. Ning failed too. No longer drunk and trying to be less bitter but I remain unimpressed. Thank you for the validation, for what it is ;-)

hipadev23 3y ago
[flagged]
antupis 3y ago
He has founded three successful companies Netscape, Opsware and A16Z so it’s not luck only.
- nine_zeros 3y ago
  When you also add all the companies his investments failed at, suddenly it becomes a game of numbers, that only the very wealthy can play.
- pstuart 3y ago
  Absolutely, skill and effort where required too. But also once you've got your first millions and network of investors, entrepreneurs, and talent then starting a new company is now in a pipeline that was predicated on the element of luck of the first success that started the pipeline. The man pitched NFTs as a worthy investment vehicle, for crying out loud. That is a solid case of him being wrong, ergo, his advice should not be considered indisputable.
cameldrv 3y ago
He and Eric Bina also created the first web browser with the IMG tag.
- pstuart 3y ago
  Of course talent and effort matter and should be recognized, but the only reason we're talking about him is because of his success, in which good fortune played a significant role in that happening.
  - cameldrv 3y ago
    Maybe. I think he’d still be reasonably famous even if the only thing he had done was Mosaic. I don’t agree with everything in his manifesto, but I think he’s achieved more than enough for people to refrain from painting all of his success as pure luck. If you disagree, make a counter argument!

manxman 3y ago

Oh really? I'd suggest it's equally or more true that we live in an age where we have to endure the pseudo-intellectual dross of the perpetually insecure and envious who want to inflict their neocommunist agenda upon the world and have us settle for a universal level of bland instead of permitting those with vision to make the world better. Well if it addressed their fundamental insecurity, it might be an argument with at least some validity. Sadly, I suspect they'll remain insecure irrespective.