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"Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison. You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don't anthropomorphize
by TimTheTinker 2mo ago
"Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison. You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don't anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn - you stick your hand in there and it'll chop it off, the end. You don't think 'oh, the lawnmower hates me' - lawnmower doesn't give a * about you, the lawnmower can't hate you. Don't anthropomorphize the lawnmower. Don't fall into that trap about Oracle." --Bryan Cantrill
- cyanydeez 2mo agomore and more it seems like he's referring to billionaires more or less.
- philipallstar 2mo agoThat's because you've had years of consuming media that blames everything on billionaires.
- Alive-in-2025 2mo agowell, plus the evidence of billionaires pushing for things that aren't that great after all. Maybe good for their bankroll though.
- CursedSilicon 2mo agoAh, yes. The media. Famously the voice of the proletariat and the oppressed Walter Lippmann is spinning in his grave
- hunterpayne 2mo agoFor reference, Walter Lippmann is the guy from the NYT who covered up the Holodomor in Ukraine (1930s) in the west as well as Stalin's gulags and purges. I wouldn't call him the voice of the proletariat in any way. He was the voice of the Stalinist in the west and the term tankie was invented for him and people like him.
- CursedSilicon 2mo agoThat's a strange take. But okay He also wrote the book "Public Opinion" in 1922 [1] which explained how the US mass media apparatus could be used to influence the common man. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_(book)
- Paradigma11 2mo agoFor veracity, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Duranty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Duranty was that guy.
- breezybottom 2mo agoBillionaires own the media. Why would they blame themselves?
- hobo123 2mo agoWhat about a guy with a lawnmower intentionally chopping off your foot? And what about a CEO making decisions on behalf of the corporate entity called Oracle?
- cansofgrease 2mo agoThere is no guy, only the lawnmower, mowing lawns. Sometimes it chops off feet.
- philipov 2mo agoIt doesn't matter if the lawnmower is chopping off feat intentionally or not. If it's presenting a public hazard, it should be stopped. Even though the ocean couldn't care less it doesn't prevent us from building breakwalls. And Larry Ellison isn't unstoppable as the ocean.
- anon73044 2mo agoyou and what army are going to stop him?
- shevy-java 2mo agoThis seems to make Larry more harmless. A lawnmower does not think. Larry thinks, so it seems to white-wash Larry here. It's more like that movie with Stephen King where the cars and other machines turn actively evil. Hilarious movie too, not great but hilarious.
- burnte 2mo agoThe flaw in the analogy is that oracle is made of people. It's not a lawnmower, it's a group of people with human motivations and human thoughts. It's true they don't HATE people, but it's also true they absolutely have no conscience in negotiations and have zero concern about relationships.
- dan_q 2mo ago> It's true they don't HATE people Maybe so, but perhaps the most successful part of the AI marketing pitch has been exploiting management's hatred of labor (and vice versa). A significant motivator for a lot of the nonsensical AI layoffs and initiatives over the last three years has been that it's a great opportunity for management to get ill on their slaves. Tech labor got a little too big for their britches during the hiring spree of 2021, and AI was a great opportunity to take them down a peg, even if it offered little in the way of ROI.
- burnte 2mo agoYep, it's been a huge tool in the control games management likes to play.
- TimTheTinker 2mo agoHow many bureaucracies in history have behaved in deeply misanthropic ways, especially when led by misanthropic leaders? Don't underestimate the power of the desire to keep one's job to cause a large organization to behave towards its own self-perpetuation despite the moral lines that must be crossed by individuals to do so.
- burnte 2mo ago> How many bureaucracies in history have behaved in deeply misanthropic ways, especially when led by misanthropic leaders? Lots! > Don't underestimate the power of the desire to keep one's job to cause a large organization to behave towards its own self-perpetuation despite the moral lines that must be crossed by individuals to do so. I don't. I don't put anything past people.
- skinfaxi 2mo agoWho does this metaphor serve? To me it seems to try to legitimize the actions as a force of nature.
- jauco 2mo agoIt serves you. The lawnmower exists, you might disagree, but it’s not your lawnmower, you can’t uncreate it. But you can and should take care never to put your hand near it.
- skinfaxi 2mo agoWeird, we don't absolve murderers of guilt by saying they are an lawnmower.
- quietsegfault 2mo agoIt’s nonsensical to define the actions of nature as legitimate or illegitimate.
- skinfaxi 2mo agoWhat I meant was that there is no moralizing of natural force, which this metaphor tries to equivocate. Oh, it's just like the wind, don't get in Larry's way!
- quietsegfault 2mo agoTotally understand. Unlike nature, Larry should have some sort of moral compass, though his points to hell.
- pbjerkeseth 2mo agoI read it as a pretty obvious jab at him being inhuman.
- skinfaxi 2mo agoThat's exactly my point. Labelling him as inhuman gives him a pass, like how we don't criticize hurricanes as malevolent.
- AlexErrant 2mo agoThis quote is why I have my Claude Code "done" notification sound be the sound of a lawnmower revving. The lawnmower can't hate you. Don't anthropomorphize the lawnmower, no matter how clever it sounds. (Actually not that hard with Opus5)
- latentsea 2mo agoAn AI powered lawnmower though...