4 ms·

I just learned this quote now and I love it. Very true. Much of tech mythology, where we are told "started from nothing" actually started from a place of at lea

I just learned this quote now and I love it. Very true. Much of tech mythology, where we are told "started from nothing" actually started from a place of at least some capital and privilege.

tough 2y ago
Look into bill gates mom ;)
- citizenpaul 2y ago
  I mean Bill Gates grandparents were buddies with the Rockerfellers. Even if Gates didn't directly get money from them simply being close to that level of influence and power gives you essentially freedom to print money with very little effort through effortless connections to whatever you need. Oh you need advice from a $10,000 a day law firm for a difficult business situation? My dads friend John works at "prestigious law-firm" I'll get him to get us some feedback on the situation.
  - lostmsu 2y ago
    That particular bit is going to be "equalized" soon by AI
    - tough 2y ago
      You can't generate prestige tho, only the fake outputs. In the case of law at least, it is true you can no side-step the 10k fee for a -consultancy- but lawyers and doctors will remain a human guarded work for long imho, at least in the sign-off phase, even if they use these tools to amplify their work
  - umbra07 2y ago
    My grandmother's best friend was a princess. She still grew up somewhat impoverished (middle-lower class).
- wslh 2y ago
  There's no denying that Bill Gates was highly privileged, but his business acumen and early development achievements were also extraordinary. At least, two great factors combined. We can also include the initial team and cofounder.
  - tough 2y ago
    Of course, there's many priviliged kids, doesn't take away from Bill's achievements, but all the -from the garage- bs is kinda of a bit of gaslighting to the real middle class no?
    - wslh 2y ago
      I agree that a major issue is the false narrative of equal opportunity and resilience. It's one thing to be resilient when you have a strong network and a safety net. It's entirely different when you're facing a free fall with nothing to catch you.
  - shadowgovt 2y ago
    Fortune favors the - brave - prepared - connected to vast sums of easily-accessed loaner money Not necessarily equal measures to all three.
the_snooze 2y ago
Silicon Valley itself came about in no small part due to direct government support: Fairchild Semiconductor selling chips for weapons targeting, ARPANET leading to the Internet, Sergei Brin and Larry Page's PhD's very likely funded by NSF and other federal funders. And now you have Silicon Valley "leaders" looking to tear down the public institutions that seeded the place.
- mpweiher 2y ago
  Pulling up the drawbridge behind them...
- jkaptur 2y ago
  Beyond "very likely", it's right there in the paper: https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/Brin98Anatomy.pdf https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/Brin98Anatom... "The research described here was conducted as part of the Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project, supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement IRI-94 11306. Funding for this cooperative agreement is also provided by DARPA and NASA, and by Interval Research, and the industrial partners of the Stanford Digital Libraries Project."
threatofrain 2y ago
From the immigrant perspective that was true for many, coming from another country where any status in the US is better. They may be privileged from the perspective of others who couldn't make it out, but from the US perspective it's something different.
- shadowgovt 2y ago
  There is a pretty famous story from Saturday Night Live. The characters of the "two Wild and Crazy Guys" were based on an individual Steve Martin met in a bar in New York. He was an immigrant from a country in Eastern Europe and, delightfully inebriated and happy, was crowing about his new life in America. Among the things he mentioned (paraphrasing from memory of Martin describing the anecdote) "In my home country, I am doctor. Now, I sell washing machines. Is much better!"
nonrandomstring 2y ago
...and billions of taxpayer dollars, hundreds of years of European science, standing on the shoulders of giants, thousands of years of Greek, Arabic and Far Eastern mathematics.... The "self-made industrialist" sketch is funny when it's Monty Python, but when I hear whining SV bros claiming they built an empire from a rolled-up-newspaper, it's so avoidantly ungrateful. Like some kid "divorces" their own parents, disowns their lineage and declares themselves a unique and special self-creation. The US would do well to reconnect its Native American culture and have more respect for what got everyone here.
pmichaud 2y ago
I think in conversations like these most people on the successful side underestimate how valuable the starting advantages were, and most people not on the successful side overestimate how valuable the starting advantages were. Meanwhile almost everyone misunderstands what the advantages really are. People will talk about the $300k loan Bezos started with and think "boy golly, with 300 THOUSAND dollars, I could do anything!" meanwhile millions of people with much more than that fritter it away on nothing, even if they are trying not to. It takes something more to be Bezos. Whereas the proverbial Bezos will think about the grit and determination it took to march for decades through treacherous financial and political swamps, and think "would I have let a lack of an initial 300k stop me from even starting? Would I have failed to secure the capital and cooperation without that seed? Given the heroics I've pulled over the years? Hell no, that wouldn't have stopped me." But here's the part that most people misunderstand. The 300k is a small advantage, it might have made a difference, and some cases might make THE difference, but it's only the most concrete, obvious advantage. The real thing is like this: In my earliest memories I was pretty poor, but also in those memories both my parents were going to university, while my dad was packing fiberglass at a factory. Then they graduated and he got a job and we became suburban middle class, my dad staying at his big corporation for the rest of his life, while my mom more or less stayed at home although she went back to school and ended up about half way through a PhD program. I would think about what career I wanted as a child, and what school I might go to, that sort of thing. Fast forward to my first wife who I met when I was 17. She is self described "british ghetto trash," and she emigrated because she couldn't escape her accent, in a phrase. She taught me what I didn't know about privilege, at a time before that was a term anyone was using for this purpose. The reality she knew in the council housing (ie projects) where she grew up was that her dad was a scam artist flake who floated in and out of her life without regard for the many promises he made, and whenever he pulled off a big one he'd show up and splash a little cash around before running off again. He was far from ashamed, he was a "2 types of people in this world!" type scammer. Her mom wasn't much better, basically scamming the government for benefits, working whatever angle she could but never actually "working working." My ex never thought about careers or schools or anything. She thought about what scam she could pull to make it to next month. It was a weird series of events that brought her across the pond, and into university and beyond. That's what Bezos had that my ex didn't have. He thought he belonged inside society, he thought he could do things and that people would let him. He thought that so very much that never even had to think it consciously. The same for her but opposite, the idea of participating in society at all, never mind changing it was utterly foreign to her experience. I think it was crushingly more important than the 300k in terms of pivotal advantages. It sucks to start with bad cards, but it's much tougher to not be in the game in the first place.

I just learned this quote now and I love it. Very true. Much of tech mythology, where we are told "started from nothing" actually started from a place of at least some capital and privilege.

tough 2y ago

Look into bill gates mom ;)

citizenpaul 2y ago
I mean Bill Gates grandparents were buddies with the Rockerfellers. Even if Gates didn't directly get money from them simply being close to that level of influence and power gives you essentially freedom to print money with very little effort through effortless connections to whatever you need. Oh you need advice from a $10,000 a day law firm for a difficult business situation? My dads friend John works at "prestigious law-firm" I'll get him to get us some feedback on the situation.
- lostmsu 2y ago
  That particular bit is going to be "equalized" soon by AI
  - tough 2y ago
    You can't generate prestige tho, only the fake outputs. In the case of law at least, it is true you can no side-step the 10k fee for a -consultancy- but lawyers and doctors will remain a human guarded work for long imho, at least in the sign-off phase, even if they use these tools to amplify their work
- umbra07 2y ago
  My grandmother's best friend was a princess. She still grew up somewhat impoverished (middle-lower class).
wslh 2y ago
There's no denying that Bill Gates was highly privileged, but his business acumen and early development achievements were also extraordinary. At least, two great factors combined. We can also include the initial team and cofounder.
- tough 2y ago
  Of course, there's many priviliged kids, doesn't take away from Bill's achievements, but all the -from the garage- bs is kinda of a bit of gaslighting to the real middle class no?
  - wslh 2y ago
    I agree that a major issue is the false narrative of equal opportunity and resilience. It's one thing to be resilient when you have a strong network and a safety net. It's entirely different when you're facing a free fall with nothing to catch you.
- shadowgovt 2y ago
  Fortune favors the - brave - prepared - connected to vast sums of easily-accessed loaner money Not necessarily equal measures to all three.

the_snooze 2y ago

Silicon Valley itself came about in no small part due to direct government support: Fairchild Semiconductor selling chips for weapons targeting, ARPANET leading to the Internet, Sergei Brin and Larry Page's PhD's very likely funded by NSF and other federal funders. And now you have Silicon Valley "leaders" looking to tear down the public institutions that seeded the place.

mpweiher 2y ago
Pulling up the drawbridge behind them...
jkaptur 2y ago
Beyond "very likely", it's right there in the paper: https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/Brin98Anatomy.pdf https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/Brin98Anatom... "The research described here was conducted as part of the Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project, supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement IRI-94 11306. Funding for this cooperative agreement is also provided by DARPA and NASA, and by Interval Research, and the industrial partners of the Stanford Digital Libraries Project."

threatofrain 2y ago

From the immigrant perspective that was true for many, coming from another country where any status in the US is better. They may be privileged from the perspective of others who couldn't make it out, but from the US perspective it's something different.

shadowgovt 2y ago
There is a pretty famous story from Saturday Night Live. The characters of the "two Wild and Crazy Guys" were based on an individual Steve Martin met in a bar in New York. He was an immigrant from a country in Eastern Europe and, delightfully inebriated and happy, was crowing about his new life in America. Among the things he mentioned (paraphrasing from memory of Martin describing the anecdote) "In my home country, I am doctor. Now, I sell washing machines. Is much better!"

nonrandomstring 2y ago

...and billions of taxpayer dollars, hundreds of years of European science, standing on the shoulders of giants, thousands of years of Greek, Arabic and Far Eastern mathematics.... The "self-made industrialist" sketch is funny when it's Monty Python, but when I hear whining SV bros claiming they built an empire from a rolled-up-newspaper, it's so avoidantly ungrateful. Like some kid "divorces" their own parents, disowns their lineage and declares themselves a unique and special self-creation. The US would do well to reconnect its Native American culture and have more respect for what got everyone here.

pmichaud 2y ago

I think in conversations like these most people on the successful side underestimate how valuable the starting advantages were, and most people not on the successful side overestimate how valuable the starting advantages were. Meanwhile almost everyone misunderstands what the advantages really are. People will talk about the $300k loan Bezos started with and think "boy golly, with 300 THOUSAND dollars, I could do anything!" meanwhile millions of people with much more than that fritter it away on nothing, even if they are trying not to. It takes something more to be Bezos. Whereas the proverbial Bezos will think about the grit and determination it took to march for decades through treacherous financial and political swamps, and think "would I have let a lack of an initial 300k stop me from even starting? Would I have failed to secure the capital and cooperation without that seed? Given the heroics I've pulled over the years? Hell no, that wouldn't have stopped me." But here's the part that most people misunderstand. The 300k is a small advantage, it might have made a difference, and some cases might make THE difference, but it's only the most concrete, obvious advantage. The real thing is like this: In my earliest memories I was pretty poor, but also in those memories both my parents were going to university, while my dad was packing fiberglass at a factory. Then they graduated and he got a job and we became suburban middle class, my dad staying at his big corporation for the rest of his life, while my mom more or less stayed at home although she went back to school and ended up about half way through a PhD program. I would think about what career I wanted as a child, and what school I might go to, that sort of thing. Fast forward to my first wife who I met when I was 17. She is self described "british ghetto trash," and she emigrated because she couldn't escape her accent, in a phrase. She taught me what I didn't know about privilege, at a time before that was a term anyone was using for this purpose. The reality she knew in the council housing (ie projects) where she grew up was that her dad was a scam artist flake who floated in and out of her life without regard for the many promises he made, and whenever he pulled off a big one he'd show up and splash a little cash around before running off again. He was far from ashamed, he was a "2 types of people in this world!" type scammer. Her mom wasn't much better, basically scamming the government for benefits, working whatever angle she could but never actually "working working." My ex never thought about careers or schools or anything. She thought about what scam she could pull to make it to next month. It was a weird series of events that brought her across the pond, and into university and beyond. That's what Bezos had that my ex didn't have. He thought he belonged inside society, he thought he could do things and that people would let him. He thought that so very much that never even had to think it consciously. The same for her but opposite, the idea of participating in society at all, never mind changing it was utterly foreign to her experience. I think it was crushingly more important than the 300k in terms of pivotal advantages. It sucks to start with bad cards, but it's much tougher to not be in the game in the first place.