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> I have come to the conclusion that people in tech are as largely ignorant of finance as people in finance are of tech. Well I'm you can certainly speak for y

> I have come to the conclusion that people in tech are as largely ignorant of finance as people in finance are of tech. Well I'm you can certainly speak for yourself, but that doesn't mean the rest of us are, so maybe keep your opinions to yourself. I was responding to the premise that people hate on PE because of negativity bias - there is a negativity bias toward Private Equity, and it is entirely on the fault of the industry for their mendacity and lack of empathy. The fact is, there are more than enough examples of this bad behavior (recently, Chuck E Cheese and Toys'R'Us come to mind). There are also plenty of examples of PE "improving management" by crushing labor, degradation of product quality and screwing customers, so that is is the reputation for the entire industry. I'm not even specifically criticizing the industry - they have a role to play in the economy. What I am saying is don't go crying about the public perception - if they want the big money, they get to own that reputation and be the bad guy. No one likes a parasite.

mattmaroon 2y ago
That’s logically equivalent to saying average black people get a bad reputation because of the few who are criminals. It may be true but there’s nothing they can do about it and the fault really lies with the person who lumps them all together. PE is a giant thing. There is a lot of it. The ones who don’t run companies out of business have no control over the ones who do. You’re using “they” to refer to thousands of people as if they’re a monolith. And I don’t disagree that the bias you mention is accurate, I was pointing out that it’s because the people who think that way simply don’t understand finance. And judging by the comments here every time it comes up, the bias you mention is very popular. Keeping opinions to ourselves would make these comments sections pretty sparse. Why is mine not ok but yours is? I was largely agreeing with you and expounding anyway.
- arrosenberg 2y ago
  You think it's valuable to call people ignorant and to compare negative bias against PE funds (of all things!) to racism? I think the comments section would be better without that. Maybe I should keep that to myself, I don't know. You can certainly keep spouting them off, but I'm going to point out how absurd those types of comments are. > You’re using “they” to refer to thousands of people as if they’re a monolith. This is the same thing the cops whine about. The PE industry has a ton of money - if 90% of them are good actors, they could easily organize and lobby for rules to stop the bad actors. That they don't tells me that the incumbents like the rules where they get to do whatever they want. > I was pointing out that it’s because the people who think that way simply don’t understand finance I think you are wrong. They understand the impacts that financiers have had on themselves, their families and their communities. There is a reason private equity (and its' older equivalents) have been loathed by common people for over a hundred years in this country :)
  - mattmaroon 2y ago
    It's valuable to let people know that they may not know as much as they think they do. The tech industry has always suffered heavily from thinking they are smart and everyone else isn't. None of your comments had any more value than that. Which is fine, they don't have to, it's a comment section. It's a strong indicator of a second-class mind and surface level thinking when they say "you compared X and Y!?!?". Comparisons don't mean anything. "Abraham Lincoln and Hitler were both men" is logically equivalent to what I said, and just as true. I didn't equate the societal effects of the two, I was merely pointing out that people who don't understand groups tend to lump them all together and suffer from observational bias. Human irrationality repeats itself in clear, obvious ways. Sometimes it leads to something terrible (centuries of opression), sometimes it leads to something innocuous (people saying something stupid in a comment thread) but it's the exact same mechanism. Think deeper before saying things that dumb, you're hard to take seriously. People absolutely do not understand the impacts financiers have had on themselves. They do not understand economics, at all. This is a country (and, in most cases, it's the same everywhere, just swap the title) where most people think the President is a major factor in things like inflation, gas prices, etc. They have no more idea why the economic things they observe happen than they do why they universe exists, and so in the exact same way they jump to the conclusion they understand. Skydaddy made us, rich guys ruined everything for their gain. (There you go, I just compared poor economics knowledge to religion, have fun.) If a lot of people think something, it is not because it is correct. (Sometimes it is correct by happenstance.) It is because they are exposed to a lot of propaganda to that effect and they don't know enough to have a more nuanced explanation.

mattmaroon 2y ago

That’s logically equivalent to saying average black people get a bad reputation because of the few who are criminals. It may be true but there’s nothing they can do about it and the fault really lies with the person who lumps them all together. PE is a giant thing. There is a lot of it. The ones who don’t run companies out of business have no control over the ones who do. You’re using “they” to refer to thousands of people as if they’re a monolith. And I don’t disagree that the bias you mention is accurate, I was pointing out that it’s because the people who think that way simply don’t understand finance. And judging by the comments here every time it comes up, the bias you mention is very popular. Keeping opinions to ourselves would make these comments sections pretty sparse. Why is mine not ok but yours is? I was largely agreeing with you and expounding anyway.

arrosenberg 2y ago
You think it's valuable to call people ignorant and to compare negative bias against PE funds (of all things!) to racism? I think the comments section would be better without that. Maybe I should keep that to myself, I don't know. You can certainly keep spouting them off, but I'm going to point out how absurd those types of comments are. > You’re using “they” to refer to thousands of people as if they’re a monolith. This is the same thing the cops whine about. The PE industry has a ton of money - if 90% of them are good actors, they could easily organize and lobby for rules to stop the bad actors. That they don't tells me that the incumbents like the rules where they get to do whatever they want. > I was pointing out that it’s because the people who think that way simply don’t understand finance I think you are wrong. They understand the impacts that financiers have had on themselves, their families and their communities. There is a reason private equity (and its' older equivalents) have been loathed by common people for over a hundred years in this country :)
- mattmaroon 2y ago
  It's valuable to let people know that they may not know as much as they think they do. The tech industry has always suffered heavily from thinking they are smart and everyone else isn't. None of your comments had any more value than that. Which is fine, they don't have to, it's a comment section. It's a strong indicator of a second-class mind and surface level thinking when they say "you compared X and Y!?!?". Comparisons don't mean anything. "Abraham Lincoln and Hitler were both men" is logically equivalent to what I said, and just as true. I didn't equate the societal effects of the two, I was merely pointing out that people who don't understand groups tend to lump them all together and suffer from observational bias. Human irrationality repeats itself in clear, obvious ways. Sometimes it leads to something terrible (centuries of opression), sometimes it leads to something innocuous (people saying something stupid in a comment thread) but it's the exact same mechanism. Think deeper before saying things that dumb, you're hard to take seriously. People absolutely do not understand the impacts financiers have had on themselves. They do not understand economics, at all. This is a country (and, in most cases, it's the same everywhere, just swap the title) where most people think the President is a major factor in things like inflation, gas prices, etc. They have no more idea why the economic things they observe happen than they do why they universe exists, and so in the exact same way they jump to the conclusion they understand. Skydaddy made us, rich guys ruined everything for their gain. (There you go, I just compared poor economics knowledge to religion, have fun.) If a lot of people think something, it is not because it is correct. (Sometimes it is correct by happenstance.) It is because they are exposed to a lot of propaganda to that effect and they don't know enough to have a more nuanced explanation.