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'The Nerd Reich' tracks the 'unmasking of Silicon Valley's true politics'
- throwaway132448 2mo agoComment removed - I regret commenting here.
- andsoitis 2mo agowhere do you plan to go?
- taylorfinley 2mo agoI'm trying to build my own software that maybe someday people will pay for. I've also worked really hard to reduce my family's hard costs (paid off mortgage and car, grow lots of our own food, full solar+battery off-grid setup, biogas digester for cooking gas, etc). I started the NOVC Alliance[0] for people like me that want to build software outside of the mainstream SV/VC culture. Think of it as "BPA Free" for software. [0] https://novc.fyi https://novc.fyi
- shadowgovt 2mo agoIncreasingly, I find myself thinking that the right path is not to build software... It's to be good at software and then find a concrete problem and use the fact that you know software to attack it. ... But I'll admit that what those problems are I can't rightfully say.
- andsoitis 2mo agoVery Cool. I see your NOVC Alliance is all about no VC funding. But what about other investors?
- taylorfinley 2mo agoThe full standard is outlined here [0] Tl;dr: anti-vc, not anti-capital. It's for those building without institutional equity capital structured around venture-scale returns, which is what tends to result in enshittification imo. [0] https://novc.fyi/standard https://novc.fyi/standard
- hunterpayne 2mo ago[flagged]
- cma 2mo agoLot's of this is pretty open on Garry Tan's twitter feed
- throwaway132448 2mo agoComment removed - I regret commenting here.
- 9dev 2mo agoAmong others, Peter Thiel or Elon Musk talk about their disdain for democracy and desire for another form of government very openly; this isn't a secret. If you doubt this, I really recommend researching a bit for yourself.
- shadowgovt 2mo agoIt's not even the first time we've seen this pattern emerge. The Business Plot of the early 20th century is really something that we should be teaching in high school and we just don't. Powerful corporations in American history have already demonstrated a willingness to back fascism when they think their their core interests are fundamentally under threat.
- shadowgovt 2mo agoI believe it and I'll tell you why. Nearly a decade ago I was in in all hands at Google. There was a scandal. I can't remember which one because there were about three of them back to back in a relatively short period of time. And one of the company co-founders, I'm fairly certain it was Larry but it might have been Sergey... Basically responded to a comment from an employee on the scandal with "I want to be focused on creating great things, not on this." ... And the comment put me right back on my heels because, my guy... You are helming a corporation with over 100,000 employees. I don't care what you thought you would be doing at this point in your career. If you are responsible for 100,000 of anyone? You'd best start caring about people problems. ... I think a whole generation of Silicon Valley leadership tripped backwards into becoming partially responsible for / totally enmeshed with other human beings and were utterly unprepared for it. And for all their technical smarts, when it comes to people that grasp for simple solutions. Simple and unworkable.
- latexr 2mo agoText-only version: https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5925350 https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5925350
- rcpt 2mo ago[flagged]
- shadowgovt 2mo agoI think that's why it's a bit of a shock to many to see leadership tilt so hard towards fascism. Personally, I think the gap is between the leadership and the rank and file software engineers - the heady days of the post dotcom boom and bust where there was heavy overlap between those two categories are over, and a lot of Silicon Valley looks like traditional business now - an owner class that is setting the pace and the tone and the direction without much input and an employed class that is doing the work and lacks the raw mobility we saw at the height of the boom and bust (i.e. the perpetual capacity to walk off the job immediately into a new one). Plus, I strongly suspect that some of it is reaction. These companies are based in the US. When the people of the United States have elected Donald Trump twice, one does start to wonder if the correct business decision is to follow the populism. Perhaps skepticism of the efficacy of democracy is justified when this is what democracy has yielded.
- zmgsabst 2mo ago[flagged]
- Daishiman 2mo agoWhat exactly are you talking about?
- rcpt 2mo agoAside from Elon and some crypto weirdos (if crypto even counts as tech) most of leadership went for Kamala in 24. Today of course it's difficult because if you don't give Donnie a gift basket he blows a temper tantrum and hits you with tariffs.
- omnimus 2mo agoSimply not true. There was huge Trump support from VCs before elections and after Trump won he instantly got direct support from most of US tech sector. All the Zuckerbergs and Bezoses were not supporting him before because of optics.
- metabagel 2mo ago> DURAN: In April 2009, Peter Thiel wrote an essay in which he said he no longer believed that freedom and democracy were compatible and suggested that women and other people getting the right to vote marked the end of freedom being a thing you can have with democracy. At least, of course, as we can see for white men, he was talking about. Well, this caused a lot of outcry and criticism of Thiel, who had to go back and say, I didn't mean to say - I'm not saying that women shouldn't have the vote, etc.
- metabagel 2mo ago“How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk...
- kevin_thibedeau 2mo agoGays like him would have been forced to wear pink triangles in his utopia state.
- socalgal2 2mo agothat's a spin. > Peter Thiel wrote an essay in which he said he no longer believed that freedom and democracy were compatible and suggested that women and other people getting the right to vote marked the end of freedom being a thing you can have with democracy. This is true that Peter Thiel wrote ti > At least, of course, as we can see for white men, he was talking about. This is spin. He wasn't talking about white men. He was talking that as long as people are allowed to vote to take things from others to give to themselves they will. And, it can be argued, that in the end that will end up with worse outcomes for everyone. (not saying this is true, I'm saying it can be argued that it's a possibility)
- metabagel 2mo agoIMO, what Thiel wrote is essentially that women and non-whites are beneficiaries of welfare and leaches on society, and that they therefore will vote to transfer wealth from the white men who create it (according to Thiel). https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/ https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio... > The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron. (edited to remove a redundant word)
- irishcoffee 2mo ago[flagged]
- lotsofpulp 2mo agoThe simpler explanation is just that people are too stupid for democracy, and respond well to tribalist policies. Dark skin v light skin, women v men v non binary, any type of us v them rhetoric that can make one feel superior can be latched onto. The trick is to be so vague (or incoherent) that sufficient people across the population feel superior. https://x.com/spencerhakimian/status/2091281795647938812?s=42 https://x.com/spencerhakimian/status/2091281795647938812?s=4...
- irishcoffee 2mo agoMy comment got flagged, which is hilarious. I like to think even the people we think are stupid have a few brain cells rubbing together. Emotion and intelligence are not usually kicking at the same time someone speaks or types.
- ChrisArchitect 2mo agoPreviously on the book (2025): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46066482 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46066482
- elktown 2mo agoVery much applies to this place too. The filtering process that’s been happening here over the years could be studied.
- metabagel 2mo agoI believe this topic was flagged for political reasons, which constitutes an abuse of the system. This is an important topic for the tech industry. Avoiding it won't make it go away.
- metabagel 2mo agoAlternatively, if this topic is too hot for discussion, it should be frozen but allowed to remain on the front page, because this book is newsworthy. I intend to read it.
- watwut 2mo ago41 comments. Hardly "too hot". Flagging is systematically used to remove certain topics. This is just another instance of that.
- Freedom2 2mo agoI believe the go-to response from leadership here is that there's other places to discuss political news, and that if it doesn't encourage curious, thoughtful discussion, it shouldn't exist here. So they probably won't address the flagging system as they truly believe it's working as expected.
- UncleMeat 2mo agoI mean, Garry Tan is precisely the kind of person being criticized here. Rich tech CEOs with illiberal beliefs and limited care for the rights of other people.
- AlecSchueler 2mo ago> there's other places to discuss political news There are, that's why we discuss most political news elsewhere. But there's no more informed place to discuss tech news, that's why we want to discuss crossover topics here. The painful thing is that there's a non tech related political item on the front page at least every other day, so it's very clear that certain topics are just too close to home for some people here.
- whythismatters 2mo agoSee also: "America’s Oligarchic Techno‑Feudal Elite Are Attempting to Build a Twenty‑First‑Century Fascist State" - Article: https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2026/02/16/americas-oligarchic-techno-feudal-elite-are-attempting-to-build-a-twenty-first-century-fascist-state/ https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2026/02/16/amer... - HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47198912 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47198912
- watwut 2mo agoAaand flagged