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Let's not forget url of this site is Ycombinator. As far as i know that is very far from “friendly selfless genius inventor engineer”. It's more like “ambitious

by omnimus 9mo ago

Let's not forget url of this site is Ycombinator. As far as i know that is very far from “friendly selfless genius inventor engineer”. It's more like “ambitious finance move fast and break things programmer”.

SkyMarshal 9mo ago
To be fair, Woz wasn't just a “friendly selfless genius inventor engineer”, he was also the co-founder of one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. And YC is, in their own words: "The Y combinator is one of the coolest ideas in computer science. It's also a metaphor for what we do. It's a program that runs programs; we're a company that helps start companies.". They're not entirely unrelated.
- al_borland 9mo ago
  He was a cofounder because of his skill and Jobs talking him into it. Woz would have been perfectly happy as an engineer at HP, that was his plan.
  - leoc 9mo ago
    He wasn't entirely unworldly though. He didn't like BASIC as a language, but he gave the Apple I and II a BASIC capable of running the programs from Ahl's BASIC Computer Games because that's what the market was demanding.
postalcoder 9mo ago
Woz is a primary figure in one of YC’s essential texts. He has always been revered here as a founder and as a human. https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early/dp/1430210788 https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early/...
flomo 9mo ago
"Tech Cofounder" who gets edged out before the next funding round.
chairmansteve 9mo ago
You are right. But the real world is a messy place. Good people do bad things and vice versa. Not many people are entirely good or entirely bad. HN is a very strong net positive IMO. YC could easily monetize it into oblivion. They don't.
- bigDinosaur 9mo ago
  My understanding is that HN is monetized e.g. marketing is explicitly permitted by founders etc. I guess that's not conventional monetisation.
- auggierose 9mo ago
  They arguably do. Just look at the valuation of YC. They are just being smart about it.
- guru4consulting 9mo ago
  They do not monetize but may do probably something worse, infotize or narratize (just invented words). By using an almost neutral, altruistic platform to subtly control/constrain the narratives on certain tech overlords. As much as I love HN, I do not agree with their reasoning to flag some of the posts that are negative to the tech elites.
keeganpoppen 9mo ago
i guess you mean ycombinator and not ycombinator… the combinator, which is very much the kind of hacker ethos this site (and pg’s idealized version of the entity) is supposed to embody.

by omnimus 9mo ago

SkyMarshal 9mo ago

To be fair, Woz wasn't just a “friendly selfless genius inventor engineer”, he was also the co-founder of one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. And YC is, in their own words: "The Y combinator is one of the coolest ideas in computer science. It's also a metaphor for what we do. It's a program that runs programs; we're a company that helps start companies.". They're not entirely unrelated.

al_borland 9mo ago
He was a cofounder because of his skill and Jobs talking him into it. Woz would have been perfectly happy as an engineer at HP, that was his plan.
- leoc 9mo ago
  He wasn't entirely unworldly though. He didn't like BASIC as a language, but he gave the Apple I and II a BASIC capable of running the programs from Ahl's BASIC Computer Games because that's what the market was demanding.

postalcoder 9mo ago

Woz is a primary figure in one of YC’s essential texts. He has always been revered here as a founder and as a human. https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early/dp/1430210788 https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early/...

flomo 9mo ago

"Tech Cofounder" who gets edged out before the next funding round.

chairmansteve 9mo ago

You are right. But the real world is a messy place. Good people do bad things and vice versa. Not many people are entirely good or entirely bad. HN is a very strong net positive IMO. YC could easily monetize it into oblivion. They don't.

bigDinosaur 9mo ago
My understanding is that HN is monetized e.g. marketing is explicitly permitted by founders etc. I guess that's not conventional monetisation.
auggierose 9mo ago
They arguably do. Just look at the valuation of YC. They are just being smart about it.
guru4consulting 9mo ago
They do not monetize but may do probably something worse, infotize or narratize (just invented words). By using an almost neutral, altruistic platform to subtly control/constrain the narratives on certain tech overlords. As much as I love HN, I do not agree with their reasoning to flag some of the posts that are negative to the tech elites.

keeganpoppen 9mo ago

i guess you mean ycombinator and not ycombinator… the combinator, which is very much the kind of hacker ethos this site (and pg’s idealized version of the entity) is supposed to embody.