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Garry Tan, the CEO of YC, accused me of unethical reporting
- nothinkjustai 5mo ago[flagged]
- _345 5mo agoyes just ask claude to add quick-silence-dissension to your project
- asdff 5mo agoAhh yes the [ Removed by Reddit ] function
- yuvadam 5mo agoleave gstack alone!
- tibbydudeza 5mo agoNo problem - if I want a slow poke blog site powered by slop ;).
- BrokenCogs 5mo agoIt's just text files Garry!
- boroboro4 5mo agoThis is what great reporting looks like: well-written, transparent, and rigorous. It’s sad to see how hatred toward progressives can distort people’s judgment.
- rangerelf 5mo ago[flagged]
- arvid-lind 5mo agoIt shouldn't be any big surprise that a guy like Garry Tan is power-hungry and manipulative. He's got his hands in all kinds stuff like influencing elections. https://garrysguide.org/elections https://garrysguide.org/elections
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- baggy_trough 5mo ago[flagged]
- GlacierFox 5mo agoThis Tan guy is a real douche and in full support of the author but... "Usually it's the latter, because, who wouldn't want the needle to move even a little bit in the right direction?" Which direction? The one you think is right or the other one, other people think is right?
- loeg 5mo agoThis isn't great reporting. It's politics.
- Analemma_ 5mo agoCompletely content-free junk statement. The post is purportedly about correcting bad information about a person who held public office, and (if it is in fact misinformation) was spread for political reasons. How are you supposed to do such a correction without it being political?
- vrganj 5mo agoEverything is politics. Which food you eat (are you vegan? carnivore diet? Both have implications in regards to animal welfare, climate change, soil use, identity etc etc), which media you consume (obvious), which job you have (which power structures do you strengthen with it? who benefits from your labor? who do you try to disrupt?). To say one is "apolitical" is just voicing a preference for the status quo. To decry something as political is just voicing one's political opposition to the view expressed.
- rationalist 5mo agoMaybe I just want to eat what tastes good, and not have to worry about how what I chose on the menu is going to support a politician, political party, businessperson, etc. The "everything is politics" meme is old and annoying.
- vrganj 5mo agoSure, you can. But don't pretend that's not a political choice.
- irishcoffee 5mo ago[flagged]
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- burnte 5mo ago> It’s sad to see how hatred toward progressives can distort people’s judgment. The status quo is easy, change is hard, and anyone benefiting from the status quo will do whatever they have to in order to prevent change. Progressive by definition want change, progress. Change is scary. Humans are most easily motivated by fear.
- thrance 5mo agoI think it's a little more than just fear of change. Garry Tan knows where his (material) interests lie, and will do and say anything to fight off those who would build a more equal society, even if it means supporting actual fascists like Trump. The ultra-wealthy are very class conscious.
- tim333 5mo agoRe. hatred towards progressives and the Boudin recall: >Boudin ... alleged... that the campaign was largely a Republican effort to remove him from power. Despite Boudin's claims, the recall campaign was publicly led by Democrats. 83% of donors to the campaign were from Democratic-registered voters or no-party-preference voters, with over 80% of donations coming from local San Franciscans. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesa_Boudin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesa_Boudin) There's quite a lot on the reasons why in the article.
- stickfigure 5mo agoFrom an article linked in the original article: > In the pro-recall camp, big money makes up a much bigger slice of the pie. Over three-quarters of the total money raised ($4.76 million) has come from $50,000-plus donations, and only 4 percent has come from donations smaller than $1,000. This doesn't give me a very charitable view of the recall donors. Democrats or not.
- justin66 5mo agoGiven how many articles he's published in Reason Magazine over the years, Radley Balko might qualify as "libertarian" or perhaps "civil libertarian" rather than "progressive." Not that the labels ought to matter too much. (I posted this article with its actual title a few days ago and it didn't pop at all, which is funny I guess)
- pstuart 5mo agoAn acknowledgement, let alone an apology is highly unlikely.
- SwellJoe 5mo agoI've come to be convinced that having a huge amount of money causes some kind of mental breakage, a need to control other people that is unhealthy for everyone it touches. I don't mind everyone having or expressing an opinion, even opinions I disagree with, but when someone uses their disproportionate wealth and influence to spread misinformation and disrupt and dismantle democratic systems it crosses a line. It takes a lot of nerve to call spreading misinformation and funding recall campaigns based on lies speaking truth to power. And, to attack someone for reporting facts that correct that misinformation? Grotesque.
- throwaway132448 5mo agoYou have it backwards. The person didn’t change, they were always like that, long before money. Our system selects for them and rewards them, and when they attain those rewards they use them to further express themselves as the person they always were.
- bombcar 5mo agoThis is the truth of the matter - everyone else got off the train at millions or a small billion; the only people who ride it all the way to trillions are the pathologies.
- Schiendelman 5mo agoWe used to say the pathologies were the ones who made it to a billion! Times change. :)
- thisisit 5mo agoQuite often money is equated with intelligence and with time people want their opinion on everything under the sun - especially on things outside their area. With time so much smoke has been blown up their ass that they think they are better than everyone and can get away with mistreating people. Money does impact people.
- k__ 5mo ago
- Lionga 5mo agoWhy are there so many stories that are older AND have less points higher on frontpage?
- striking 5mo agoUser flags can weigh stories down. If you'd prefer a different sort, try https://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists ("active" is popular, though not my taste really)
- tomhow 5mo agoThat’s always true of almost any story. There are many signals that influence a story’s rank: votes, flags, vouches, age, site, software penalties, and moderator intervention (usually to override flags and automatic penalties). In this case, there’s no way this story would be considered worthy of front page placement if it wasn’t about a YC exec. We’ve overridden usual moderation policies and signals to keep it on the front page, as per our longstanding policy. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20moderate%20less%20not%20more&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- vrganj 5mo ago[flagged]
- tibbydudeza 5mo agoThe cult of Thiel - is he also the shitty vibe coder ?.
- browningstreet 5mo agoAnd Paul G has defended him on X as a centrist. Weird blind spot.
- jasonmp85 5mo ago"Centrist" in America is just "far-right but doesn't talk about it very loudly"
- boroboro4 5mo agoBut this particular one does?..
- JumpCrisscross 5mo ago> "Centrist" in America is just "far-right but doesn't talk about it very loudly" Centrist in America means institutionalist, i.e. gunning for the status quo. That's going to piss off lefist and right-wing fanatics because both want to blow up the status quo. (They tend to be seen as a spoiler for progressives and conservatives. Think: Joe Manchin or Susan Collins.)
- wallst07 5mo agoI thought centrist stayed in the center, but left or right moves far in one direction. So in relatively speaking, you maybe right, but not absolutely.
- baggy_trough 5mo agoHe's so far right that he endorsed Scott Weiner! That's pretty far, all right!
- v0x 5mo agoWell, to be fair, Garry's article was clearly 100% AI-generated. So perhaps he didn't even really post it; maybe it was just a rogue agent. Or, y'know, an assistant who posted without his authorization. Or perhaps Ambien was involved. Or, it was an Ambien-addled assistant who misconfigured an agent to post the article. Clearly not Garry's fault.
- Atotalnoob 5mo agoThen he shouldn’t be posting under his real name? Or specifically call that out. When people tell you who they are, listen to
- nerdsniper 5mo agoI catch the /s, but honestly - if you sign your name on work product, you own it. Regardless if it was written by AI or ghost-written or whatever.
- tptacek 5mo agoThe Chesa Boudin DA "misrepresentations" document, linked towards the end of this story, is weak, bordering on Trumpian. It highlights as "misrepresentations" cases where Boudin simply disagrees with Lim about a statement of opinion (whether his office was suitable forthcoming, organized, or deflecting). At one point it accuses Lim of "violating HIPAA", which is not a thing† (HIPAA constrains covered entities, not reporters). I think both sides of this conflict (Tan and Radley) are talking past each other and scoring points for their respective sides; Radley is famously an advocate of progressive prosecutors, and Tan (IIRC) worked to remove Boudin. I don't expect a totally accurate and balanced retelling from either side, in the same way that you should not expect a completely neutral report on inner-ring suburban housing policy from me (I'm a housing activist). But I did come away from this with a lower opinion of Boudin's office. (For what it's worth, I was extremely optimistic about the wave of progressive prosecutors led by Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, and while I have some Radley Balko issues, I've been reading John Pfaff on this stuff for a decade. What's happened to my worldview since then is that I feel like I've watched outsider-y progressives get elected into prosecutor roles and then fail their constituencies not because of ideology but over basic competency issues. I'd be foursquare behind a progressive prosecutor in a major city that ran a tight ship; we tried this in Chicago and didn't get that.) † btw: if you're the DA for a jurisdiction that includes a reporter, and you claim the reporter's journalism is unlawful, you sure as shit better have that right.
- xKingfisher 5mo agoHow does it seem that Radley is talking past Gary? All discussion of the 'Misrepresentations' article is responsive to Gary's mention of it in the original article. And at no point does Radley appear to endorse its contents.
- rafram 5mo agoThe main HIPAA claim seems to be that the victim didn’t provide (or consent to the publication of) that X-ray, and neither did their only family member known to possess it. I don’t know who released it, but if it was someone in the medical office, that is a genuine HIPAA violation.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- outside1234 5mo ago[flagged]
- sumeno 5mo agoIt's a requirement to reach the levels they have reached. Someone with empathy would get enough money to take care of their family (maybe even for multiple generations) and then be satisfied and focus on reducing the suffering of others instead of running up the score on net worth
- pixl97 5mo agoI mean, after I racked up a two digit number of milions of dollars I believe I'd find myself thinking "why the fuck do I need more, it's time to go fuck off and do anything else". Musk at one time said something like "I work 80+ hours a week, so the people around me should work that much too". They are completely blind to how sociopathic they are. It's a totally unhealthy amount to work for one, but for two is Musk himself will likely earn billions from those workweeks while the people around him will earn almost nothing except stress and then getting randomly fired by him on a whim. They are not connected to the same world we are.
- protimewaster 5mo ago> Musk at one time said something like "I work 80+ hours a week, so the people around me should work that much too". They are completely blind to how sociopathic they are. It's a totally unhealthy amount to work for one, but for two is Musk himself will likely earn billions from those workweeks while the people around him will earn almost nothing except stress and then getting randomly fired by him on a whim. Beyond that, normal people also have other things besides work that will take up their time. It's a lot easier to work 80 hours a week when you're rich enough that you don't ever have to do laundry, clean the house, cook, take care of your kids, tend to a sick relative, sit in a waiting room for 6 hours, be stuck in traffic for 45 minutes, etc. One of the reasons that working a lot sucks for most of us is that we still have to go home and do the laundry or whatever.
- deleted 5mo ago
- max0077 5mo agowhy is YC worshipping this guy who pretends like he's the only guy who knows how to use cc?
- jrflowers 5mo agoIt is hilarious that Garry Tan is still talking about Chesa Boudin. I thought Tan & co. solved crime in San Francisco with their super PAC four years ago?
- loeg 5mo ago> I thought Tan & co. solved crime in San Francisco with their super PAC four years ago? I mean, kind of? You can definitely point at certain quantified types of crime falling since Boudin left office in 2022: https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/02/san-francisco-2025-crime-stats/ https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/02/san-francisco-2025-crime-s... . (Of course progressives wave their hands and say, it's random, or caused by structural oppression, or whatever.) And Lurie seems to be taking steps in a reasonable direction as well. The Board of Supervisors is still packed with nuts, of course.
- jrflowers 5mo ago> Of course progressives wave their hands and say, it's random, or caused by structural oppression, or whatever. Or part of a nationwide trend that couldn’t possibly be caused by Boudin or Tan https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2024-reported-crimes-in-the-nation-statistics https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2024-re...
- loeg 5mo agoSure, sure. The important part is it isn't falsifiable.
- tqi 5mo agoIn the about page, this author states that they produce "original reporting and commentary on the criminal justice system and civil liberties." I really think it is a mistake to blur that line. These days it feels like you can pretty reliably predict what narrative a journalist will present on any given story based on their individual poltics. How can you reasonably expect to be viewed as an objective reporter of facts if you also are acting as a commentator trying to shape public opinion?
- janalsncm 5mo agoI used to think that it was possible to “objectively report facts” but the reality is we all have biases. Everyone needs to decide for themselves what is worth mentioning. So even if you state only 100% true facts, you can present a skewed lens on reality. This is how most propaganda works: not by spreading false facts but by selectively spreading true ones.
- rtgfhyuj 5mo ago[flagged]
- tqi 5mo ago[flagged]
- DonsDiscountGas 5mo agoIt's really not realistic to expect people to have deep knowledge of a topic and also have no opinions on it.
- rayiner 5mo ago> Lim’s book, called Amplified, was published by Third State Books, a company started by Tan’s wife, Stephanie Lim, to provide a voice for Asian-American authors. How is this even legal? Surely the article means it’s a company focused on stories relating to Asian Americans, regardless of the race of the author.
- OrangeMusic 5mo agoWhy would it not be legal?
- Traster 5mo agoThe person you're replying to is making the argument "Would you object to a book publisher that only signed writers who were white" or "Should a coffee shop be allowed to only hire white barristas". Which is a sound logical argument if you ignore the entire history of racism in the United States.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- rayiner 5mo agoThat principle is not only logical, it’s a core premise of the civil rights laws, as the supreme court reaffirmed 9-0 in a decision recently: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I guess it’s not illegal to have a publishing house that promotes white authors. I’m no expert in that area.
- Traster 5mo agoIt's logic that is incompatible with about 60 years of affirmative action policies that the United States has carried out.
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- shadowtree 5mo agoBalko was a big proponent of police body cams, as they would clearly reveal massive police abuse and brutality. Since the bodycam rollout however, we're inundated with videos of justified police actions, over and over again. Proving that most criminals are indeed retarded, unable to follow simple commands and escalate minor stuff into full violance, necessitating the use of force against them. Balko now of course sees bodycams as propaganda or "copaganda". Utterly biased "reporting", starting with an agenda and then trying to prove the point by any means possible. Go Gary.
- Traster 5mo agoI'm always a bit sad that silicon valley just doesn't get free speech. Or rather, their view of free speech is "I can say what I want". The damning part for Tan here isn't the defence that Balko makes of their work. It's this >The DA’s office, which should have been prosecuting the people attacking Asian Americans, was orchestrating a media hit on the journalist covering those attacks. A reporter being in contact with the prosecutors office and getting their view is a core part of the reporters job. It would be malpractice for them not to be getting that view on this story. To characterise it as the government "orchestrating a media hit" is just flatly wrong. It's just straight up defaming a journalist for doing their job. And this is a consistent trend in silicon valley - that reporting they don't like is actually just corruption. This is a fundamentally anti free speech view and it's toxic and you see it all over silicon valley.
- UncleMeat 5mo agoEverything makes sense when you see it as an expression of hierarchy. Tan is an anti-liberal. He does not believe everybody should have the same rights. So of course "free speech" means different protections for him and his buddies.
- bomewish 5mo agoSo two different parts of the state use favoured journalists as methods to publicise information that they could not make public directly. When they do this they also get to shape the framing. What a rather unpleasant business.