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Not to judge or sound condescending, but it seems like you’re lacking empathy and a community. I know exactly what I’d do in your situation: help others. I li

• paxys 2y ago
  This guy perfectly represents Silicon Valley as a whole. I have no doubt that 70%+ of techies here would follow a similar path (call coworkers NPCs, break up with GF, live out Elon fantasy, pretend to do important/smart things but give up and move on to the next every few weeks) if given unlimited money.
  • Aeolun 2y ago
    If you have limited contact with coworkers outside of work, aren't they NPCs? For all intents and purposes they might be. You might still like them, but they don't really affect your life aside from giving you quests.
    • binarymax 2y ago
      Referring to anyone as an NPC is really insulting. People are not algorithms in a video game. They are real and they have lives and dreams and hopes and problems. Show some respect.
      • steveBK123 2y ago
        100% this. Calling others NPCs is the same type of psychology as the people you meet who complain about how everyone in their life - parents, spouse, friends, coworkers is a jerk...
        • porknubbins 2y ago
          Then complain that they are lonely. One common trait of I have seen in those with good people skills, even those who use them for bad like pushy salesmen, is that they know how to treat people as if they matter simply because they are people.
          • steveBK123 2y ago
            Yes, and I think the percentage of the population with these abilities is diminishing over time. People are too used to having their interactions intermediated by screens.
        • upghost 2y ago
          I couldn't agree more. Even tho I am in fact an NPC it is quite jarring to hear.
      • khazhoux 2y ago
        Given the context (him not wanting to stay with the acquiring company), I'm pretty sure he was referring to the large number of people at big companies who don't seem to do anything, but get in the way. I think most people who work at Big Co's have their share of meetings where half a dozen people attend regularly, but have never said a word and you have no idea what they actually do. Those are the "NPCs" he's referring to.
        • randmeerkat 2y ago
          > I think most people who work at Big Co's have their share of meetings where half a dozen people attend regularly, but have never said a word and you have no idea what they actually do. Those are the "NPCs" he's referring to. Have you considered that those “NPCs” have no idea what you do..?
          • khazhoux 2y ago
            I wouldn't care if they know what I do, as long as they do something actually productive. You may disagree, but the "NPC" comment comes from the widespread belief that it's easy for low-performers to stick around at big companies, versus at smaller companies that live and die by their burn rate.
            • Aeolun 2y ago
              Especially at Atlassian.
            • randmeerkat 2y ago
              > … widespread belief that it's easy for low-performers… The truth is that most high performers do menial busy work that doesn’t impact real bottom lines either. Everyone sits around doing things knowing that their job doesn’t need to exist and rather than call out the madness of a society focused on busywork for the appearance of “productivity” everyone just rips on each other instead… Society could use a lot more empathy and a lot less fear.
        • ryandrake 2y ago
      • Aeolun 2y ago
        I could say the same thing about the NPCs in a video game and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference, because they wouldn't share any of their lives, hopes and dreams with you at any point. Sure, people (probably) have their own lives; but believing this and being able to actually tell are two completely different things. I dunno, there's something about the way you responded that rubs me entirely the wrong way. You seem to take my comment and then take the worst, instead of most generous interpretation of it. I posed a hypothetical, and it seems like you accuse me of considering every person in the world an NPC.
        • ajmurmann 2y ago
          Calling even a single human being a NPC is completely dehumanizing and disgusting behavior. Think about the implications of the words!
        • sanderjd 2y ago
          Maybe instead of "the way you responded rubs me the wrong way", you could consider thinking "maybe I wrote my comment the wrong way". What you said, both in your original comment and in this follow up, demonstrates a demented way of viewing other people.
      • ajmurmann 2y ago
        I'd go a step further and say that I find it an extremely scary trend to call people NPCs. It's extremely dehumanizing and dehumanization always comes before acts of extreme violence. How many gamers treat actual NPCs in video games only furthers this.
      • Animats 2y ago
        I implement NPCs, and I treat them respectfully. Someday soon, they may be smarter or more powerful than I am. One of my NPCs has a T-shirt that says "Trainee" on the front, and "Someday, we'll be in charge" on the back.
    • miguelspizza 2y ago
      While what you are saying is true, it’s a very unhealthy and inhuman way to view other people. I generally find this outlook is a sign of depression. It was for me at least
      • krainboltgreene 2y ago
        It’s not true at all, why in the world would you capitulate that?
        • Aeolun 2y ago
          Because you can't tell from the outside? You can only choose to believe everyone else is like you based on what you observe.
          • krainboltgreene 2y ago
            That’s an insane way to approach the world. I wish I didn’t know you thought that way.
        • miguelspizza 2y ago
          Truth is subjective and perspective is reality. These views are technically correct when approached from fist principles. the side effect of actually internalizing them is viewing people as NPCs
          • krainboltgreene 2y ago
            First of all that’s not what the original comment said. You’re changing the nature of the statement to be something else, but neither what you said nor what he said is technically correct “when approached from fi[r]st principles.”
    • kaikai 2y ago
      You are not the main character in some narrative. We are all individuals interacting with each other, and if you lose sight of that it’s very easy to make selfish and immoral choices.
    • steveBK123 2y ago
      Calling people NPCs is a self-own and speaks to a persons inability to consider that everyone around them has some inner life, after work interests, etc. You don't need contact with coworkers outside of work to realize this. You just need to be a functioning decent human being able to make small talk.
    • sanderjd 2y ago
      No, they are people, because they are people. I'm sorry, but quite frankly, what in the world are you talking about?
• rokhayakebe 2y ago
  From his bio: i invest in companies and am willing to offer help to founders i vibe with for free and for no allocation
  • insane_dreamer 2y ago
    that doesn't have much to do with either empathy or community it reflects more something like "I will share my pearls of wisdom with those I deem worthy" (ego trip)
    • khazhoux 2y ago
      Where exactly do you see the ego tripping? He's literally saying he'll offer his advice to people who may want it, with nothing expected in return.
      • dclowd9901 2y ago
        What help? He got lucky. Is he going to give someone his rabbit's foot?
• titanomachy 2y ago
  Absolutely. Humans need real connection with other humans. Ending your one good relationship to join forces with a bunch of autistic internet trolls who think they’re smarter than everyone else is not a recipe for happiness.
  • colanderman 2y ago
    Please don't use the word "autistic" as a slur.
    • titanomachy 2y ago
      Ok. I can’t edit the comment now, but I will avoid it in the future. I was echoing the use in TFA, but that doesn’t really make it any better.
  • bdangubic 2y ago
    what colanderman said…
• davesque 2y ago
  Thank you for saying what I didn't have the patience to say. Although I sincerely worry that empathizing with people like this is a trap. I hate that I have to think this way, but nothing is worse than feeling like a sucker. I only hope I'm elevated above all of this in the afterlife.
  • taberiand 2y ago
    Empathy is about understanding people from their perspective. I would think that highly empathic people would be harder to scam, as they would recognise the con artists for what they are.
    • holmesworcester 2y ago
      The trouble is, if you think in abstract terms at all you'll start seeing the patterns in the reasons many people are suffering, and the patterns in your relationship to them. Then you'll have to ratchet up boundaries to address the relational patterns with people who are having a hard time, so that you're not a participant in their suffering. And you'll have to start working on the patterns underneath the problems, which when you get into it starts to look more and more like the kind of megalomaniacal moonshot ("give computers arms and legs" / "fix the government now!") that the author ran out of gas on. I think where you end up if you think about this is just recognizing that a) you probably should try to do some ambitious, high-leverage project to make the world better and b) reflecting about the world and about life in a thorough way is emotionally difficult for most people, so you also have to deal with those emotions. The author's original somewhat manic intentions were probably right, and maybe he needed a bit more of a rest but was plowing forward out of fear that he'd lose his nerve. Now he's getting some rest and will probably figure out something big, important, and hard to work on in the next few years.
      • naming_the_user 2y ago
        The barriers/boundaries thing I think is interesting. I've never really been able to identify with this sort of "make money and then fix the world" stuff because I feel that everyone hugely simplifies every issue and looks only at first or maybe second order effects. You fix malaria/give to the poor/raise the minimum wage/etc. Cool, now we have a wealthier population with more people doing more stuff to modify the environment. We accelerate biosphere collapse and global warming. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. I think that if you're being truly logical about these things you could just as easily come up with a grand solution that's something like drawing a graph of social connections from you, go out a few layers, and then press the button to delete everyone else on the planet and rewild most of it. Or go back in time and don't discover oil (or was the suffering of the pre-industrial era worse? maybe it was, probably it was...!). I don't think I'd be chosen to go to Elysium but I can't really see the logical flaw in the argument either. Why should the super rich care about the rest? Move forward a few years/decades; why should superintelligent AI care about humans? We don't care about mosquitoes. Making a company that makes a prettier table or a faster car or whatever feels like it's directly solving a problem. Making a company that aims to "improve the world" just seems like a fool's errand to me, second law of thermo, that sort of thing. Big waffle.
• fsckboy 2y ago
  to reference/recommend this book, I swiped a blurb from a ddg search: Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion is a 2016 book written by psychologist Paul Bloom. The book draws on the distinctions between empathy, compassion, and moral decision making. Bloom argues that empathy is not the solution to problems that divide people and is a poor guide for decision making.
• toastercat 2y ago
  This person is in a completely different class than 99% of HN readers. It is impossible for him to ever relate to others who are not like him because he is not like them, and not like us, the non-millionaire non-entrepeneurs. Unfortunately, this goes both ways, and is probably why I am not rich. Learning to bridge that human gap is far harder than becoming a multi-millionaire or climbing mountains in the Himalayas or working for DOGE for 4 weeks.