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Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

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Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

#161

Post by II2II »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #145
dddbbb wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's still relatively young, and likely realises the near absolute power he holds over one of the largest companies in the world is not something he can get back once he gives it up. Also Gates, to put it in very uncharitable terms, has shown that it doesn't matter if you're seen as a hated, greedy CEO as long as you do enough philanthropy later in life.

What would Bill Gates have to do to finally shed his reputation as a business man? Honestly, Gates seems like a pretty good guy from interviews he’s given and he’s doing something good with his money.

In my youthful days of Microsoft bashing, I learnt that many people couldn't distinguish between the man, the company, and the product. They also seemed to have trouble separating the motivation, the behaviour, and the consequence. In the end, I suspect that the reputation he acquired as a businessman was embellished.

I suspect that Gates will have trouble shedding that reputation since those people will have a hard time distinguishing between his past and present behaviour.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

#162

Post by dotancohen »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #145
dddbbb wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's still relatively young, and likely realises the near absolute power he holds over one of the largest companies in the world is not something he can get back once he gives it up. Also Gates, to put it in very uncharitable terms, has shown that it doesn't matter if you're seen as a hated, greedy CEO as long as you do enough philanthropy later in life.

What would Bill Gates have to do to finally shed his reputation as a business man? Honestly, Gates seems like a pretty good guy from interviews he’s given and he’s doing something good with his money.

To take your question to an unnecessary extreme, what would Adolf Hitler have had to do in early 1945 to shed his reputation?

Once a nail has been hammered in place, even after removing it the hole in the wood is there to stay.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

#163

Post by cutenewt »

jrockway wrote: post #118
disown wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Zuckerberg owns Facebook in a way that no other major company (to my knowledge) is owned. He is a monarch that can override any and all board politics. So can brin/page. They own more than 50% of the voting rights of alphabet. Zuckerburg modeled facebook's IPO and voting share structure after Google's IPO and their share structure.

Maybe he doesn't want that power, though. People start to do weird things to please a supreme leader. Here's a story from my first couple months at Google. When I joined, I worked on payments. We were about to launch a new credit card thing. I honestly don't remember what value this had to anyone, but it seemed like a big deal at the time. Anyway, one morning we all gathered into a conference room to hear "an update"…

That seems to be the case with most corporations: one executive glance or quip -- and thousands of employees scramble.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

#164

Post by netsharc »

ethbr0 wrote: post #100
dagmx wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's depressing knowing how large swaths of people are anti science and have made it part of their political identity to boot

They're not anti-science: they're ignorant. If we had better basic education, presumably people would be able to understand how things work.

I tried arguing with a "Bill Gates wants to kill Africans", and "there's an online furniture store peddling kidnapped teenagers to pedos" girl once, and she thinks I'm the one being brainwashed by MSM and snopes.com (and that they're controlled by the Rotschilds and Rockerfellers), and she thinks she's the one who is enlightened. If I asked for proof, she'd link to some random blog she read and trusts where some lunatic (from my point of view) is asserting some lie. And if I sent her links to MSM sites debunking things, she's claim these are the lies. I posted a link to Snopes and of course she had a link ready showing how Snopes was paid off by someone.

How do you win? In the end I felt like she was just being narcissistic, I couldn't be bothered continuing the discussion, because I knew it would just piss me off...

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

#165

Post by chrisco255 »

maest wrote: post #142
chrisco255 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people still think Trump is a Russian agent, on account of 3 years of conspiracy theories being promoted by the left wing media and their loyalists in the CIA and FBI. That's extremely problematic. QAnon and PizzaGate are fringe at best (and its not entirely clear how consequential they are), but probably half the country still does not realize that the Obama administration (and its loyalists) illegally spied on…

I'm not sure I understand your point?

People like to magnify fringe conspiracies while completely ignoring mainstream ones, when the mainstream ones are actually dangerous for democracy. The police power of government was leveraged against a political rival for explicit political reasons and no one has been punished for it. Extremely dangerous precedent.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

#167

Post by netsharc »

hef19898 wrote: post #144
officemonkey wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget Notch. He took his money and bought a mansion and became a DJ. TBH, if I made a pile, my interests would change dramatically. And running a successful company would not be nearly as validating.

Lately, I thought a lot about an anecdote we used to tell in Germany about business consultants. It goes somewhat like this: A consultant meets an old fisherman at a small port. The fisherman is done fishing and enjoying himself. The consultant asks why the fisherman isn't taking a loan to get a bigger ship and fish more. Because he would make a lot of money to do whatever he wants. The fisherman said that he is alre…

Longer version: https://bemorewithless.com/the-story-of-the-mexican-fisherma...

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

#168

Post by zelias »

hef19898 wrote: post #144
officemonkey wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget Notch. He took his money and bought a mansion and became a DJ. TBH, if I made a pile, my interests would change dramatically. And running a successful company would not be nearly as validating.

Lately, I thought a lot about an anecdote we used to tell in Germany about business consultants. It goes somewhat like this: A consultant meets an old fisherman at a small port. The fisherman is done fishing and enjoying himself. The consultant asks why the fisherman isn't taking a loan to get a bigger ship and fish more. Because he would make a lot of money to do whatever he wants. The fisherman said that he is alre…

How would the fisherman feed himself if he broke his arms? Alternatively, what if he wakes up one day and finds that all the fish near his village have been fished out of the ocean by other, more entrepreneurial fishermen?

If had money saved up, at least he could buy food for him and his family.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

#169

Post by amurthy1 »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #145
dddbbb wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's still relatively young, and likely realises the near absolute power he holds over one of the largest companies in the world is not something he can get back once he gives it up. Also Gates, to put it in very uncharitable terms, has shown that it doesn't matter if you're seen as a hated, greedy CEO as long as you do enough philanthropy later in life.

What would Bill Gates have to do to finally shed his reputation as a business man? Honestly, Gates seems like a pretty good guy from interviews he’s given and he’s doing something good with his money.

If you followed his MS days closely, like many in this community, I doubt you'd change your mind about him. But I imagine large part of the public knows about him mostly from his philanthropy. Heck I bet some people only know of him from whatever that 5G conspiracy was.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?

#170

Post by rurp »

acoard wrote: post #97
mjfl wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "thirst for power" is too much of a normie thing for Mark Zuckerberg to be interested in. I feel like he has this genuine delusion that Facebook serves this higher purpose and wants to see it through until people agree with him. I think he would prefer people to consider him as more innovative than Elon Musk than to have 'power'. Whether or not he will achieve this, well...

Zuckerberg has always been obsessed with power. He was leading all-hands meetings by having the teams shout "Domination!"[0][1] He's always been obsessed with Roman Emperors too, particularly Augustus (though as a Romanophile myself, I relate). Kara Swisher mentions this a lot. Even in his early days he was the "alpha nerd." Dude is obsessed with power and always has been. He explicitly cultivates this image of being…

I never knew about Zuckerberg's interest in Roman Emperors, but it sure fits now that I'm thinking about it. One more parallel would be Augustus dressing in plain outfits, much like Zuckerbergs's jeans and hoodie. I'd guess there's some pretty effective signalling there: making them appear more relatable to the masses, while also letting elites know that they are above their normal formal-wear rituals.
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