Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

buzzfeed.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 160 posts

Re: Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

#51

Post by racer-v »

owens99 wrote: post #23

This post does not appear to contain any evidence that YC has cut ties with Peter Thiel. They ended the program that he, and many other individuals, were a part of. Just because he is not in this program anymore, does not mean they no longer have any ties to him. There is also no evidence of any connection here to Trump or Thiel's support of him with the ending of the program or Thiel's lack of involvement in a diffe…

The page literally says: Edit: Peter Thiel is no longer affiliated with Y Combinator.

That means they at least cut some ties.

https://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-peter/

Re: Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

#52

Post by dguaraglia »

meritt wrote: post #30
eighthnate wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Paul Graham compared him to Stalin. Both Altman and Graham believe, like I do, that Trump is an existential threat to our democracy." Good god. It's crazy how politically driven people immediately demand nobody talk about politics as soon as they get their way. The guy was ranting and raving about end of democracy. Now that thiel is out, he wants everyone to be silent. Truly an "unhacker" type of mindset which has g…

Any sort of forum that enforces rampant censorship, mods personally scold users for looking into another users post history, and flags/deletes/bans any comments touching taboo topics (politics is the big one here) makes it very difficult to have a decent conversation. Couple that with the anonymity and rampant upvote/downvote based on disagreements (My comments on this thread rapidly oscillate between -5 and +5 -- it…

From past experience talking to people "on the other side" here on Hacker News, I agree with the mods that is better to stifle posts/threads that might become too controversial. There's plenty of places on the internet to have that kind of conversation, HN doesn't need to be everything to everyone.

Re: Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

#53

Post by tensor »

evangelista wrote: post #42

I am still really puzzled over exactly why Peter Thiel so so hated. I believe the level of hatred is completely unwarranted. From my understanding, it boils down to this: - He is remotely associated with Trump - He helped take down Gawker - ....something something something...but he backed Trump! For the Gawker part: Gawker outed him without his permission. Outing a gay man is something the tabloids used to do in the…

I personally don't like him because he's hostile towards education.

Re: Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

#55

Post by majormajor »

evangelista wrote: post #42

I am still really puzzled over exactly why Peter Thiel so so hated. I believe the level of hatred is completely unwarranted. From my understanding, it boils down to this: - He is remotely associated with Trump - He helped take down Gawker - ....something something something...but he backed Trump! For the Gawker part: Gawker outed him without his permission. Outing a gay man is something the tabloids used to do in the…

I have some concerns about his fellowship thing looking like an inviting-but-ultimately-a-trap attempt to use 18 year olds to advance his own political agenda, but wouldn't say that's hateable, as theirs definitely a more positive way to look at it. I just think the implementation is not really set up for success for the individuals compared to the opportunity cost.

I could see people with an even harsher take on his various super-individualistic projects, though.

Re: Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

#56

Post by dionidium »

kenneth wrote: post #26
tptacek wrote: post #10

Can we save ourselves a really long, pointless political argument? They ended the entire part-time-partner program, and transitioned some of the part-timers to advisor roles. Thiel is one of multiple part-timers not to become an advisor. You are not going to get an answer, or more "context", from YC about the political implications of this change. No matter how many times you ask and how carefully you word the questi…

How can you say "can we save ourselves a really long, pointless political argument" and end your post with a divisive political opinion (that you think people with opposing viewpoints should be silenced)? You're literally inviting the debate that you're calling long and pointless. Or perhaps you just want to only share your opinion without others having the same opportunity, so you can have the last word? Personally,…

It's not enough to say your opponents are dumb and wrong, any more. No, they're so dumb and so wrong that a conversation is pointless. Nobody ever changes their mind on anything, anyway, right?

This is a repugnant, defeatist, and just plain wrong view of the world. And it's held almost universally by the thought leaders of this forum.

Re: Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

#57

Post by majormajor »

randyrand wrote: post #18
pault wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would he have to gain from such a war?

A few large silicon valley companies have a large concentration of power. Libertarians like distribution of power among smaller entities.

My impression of Thiel is more the "superman" type approach to libertarianism. Power should be concentrated among the worthy (aka me).

Re: Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

#58

Post by krylon »

SimbaOnSteroids wrote: post #9
pault wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would he have to gain from such a war?

Regulatory lock for both Palantir and Facebook. Regulations can be very good for large businesses as they erect enormous barriers to entry into certain spaces that only established companies can hope to surmount.

I am not willing to believe that on such scarce evidence. I not exactly a fan of Peter Thiel, but I am not convinced he is that ruthless.

However, if it were true, it matches so perfectly the article he wrote for WSJ a few years ago. It was literally titled "Competition is for losers". [1]

I still do not think that he basically wants to bully all the competition away so he can make more money and become more powerful. And I will not even go into how likely it is that could actually succeed with such a move, if he did.

But still - if the rumors should turn out to be true, we cannot say that nobody could have seen that coming, in fact he told us himself what he was going to do. If.

And at that point truth has become indeed stranger than fiction.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-...

Re: Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

#59

Post by owens99 »

racer-v wrote: post #51
owens99 wrote: post #23

This post does not appear to contain any evidence that YC has cut ties with Peter Thiel. They ended the program that he, and many other individuals, were a part of. Just because he is not in this program anymore, does not mean they no longer have any ties to him. There is also no evidence of any connection here to Trump or Thiel's support of him with the ending of the program or Thiel's lack of involvement in a diffe…

The page literally says: Edit: Peter Thiel is no longer affiliated with Y Combinator. That means they at least cut some ties. https://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-peter/

Not necessarily.

Re: Y Combinator Cuts Ties with Peter Thiel After Ending Part-Time Partner Program

#60

Post by jedberg »

evangelista wrote: post #42

I am still really puzzled over exactly why Peter Thiel so so hated. I believe the level of hatred is completely unwarranted. From my understanding, it boils down to this: - He is remotely associated with Trump - He helped take down Gawker - ....something something something...but he backed Trump! For the Gawker part: Gawker outed him without his permission. Outing a gay man is something the tabloids used to do in the…

Theil didn't just hurt a bully. He took it a step further. For one, he financed someone else's lawsuit, because his own was unwinnable (they did in fact print the truth, that he is gay). More importantly, he hurt free speech through the chilling effect of his suit.

What he basically did was say, "don't ever print anything negative about a billionaire because they can take down your entire business". So now if a billionaire really does do something newsworthy and negative, places like the New York Times might think twice about publishing that story, for fear of the cost of defending a billionaire's lawsuit.

That's why people dislike him (other than his Trump support, although to be fair I haven't heard anything about him supporting Trump anymore).

Post reply on HN