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

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

#61
post #53

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.

I've watched more than a dozen talks from him and the education topic was one of the most interesting points. Care to elaborate what you mean by hostile?

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

#62
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

HN is just as bad on language/technology wars though, and that doesn't get censored. Rampant vote manipulation on comments and story visibility in general leads to very pigeonholed ways of viewing things and leads to echo chambers that effectively shut down any conversation on topics which are viewed competitive to those that happen to be popular (or intentionally manipulated to be made popular) at the moment.

Some examples of over the past decade: MongoDB, NodeJS, Docker, React, Tensorflow, Blockchain

Regardless of the quality of the technologies listed above, anything negative about those topics (during their prime anyway -- it's acceptable to shit on MongoDB once again) would get downvoted/flagged to the point of not existing.

My issue isn't particularly on removal of off-topic threads (e.g. no politics in HN), that's totally acceptable. What I don't agree with is removal (either by mods or by massive swarms of downvoting "users") of unpopular thoughts/ideas.

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

#63

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 mean I hate him because I read Zero to One and noticed his thoughts on monopoly are insane, but sure, you can assume people aren't doing independent thinking and research while in turn not doing independent thinking and research.

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

#64
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.

That's not a great summary of libertarian beliefs, and the exact opposite of Thiel's stated beliefs.

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

#65
post #59
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You don't believe that an affiliation counts as a tie? Or you think YC is lying that Thiel is no longer affiliated?

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

#66
post #30

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…

>it's crazy how enormous the pro-Trump population on HN actually is and how blissfully Silicon Valley pretends they don't exist)

>Yeah it's really fucked up. We need a new discussion forum format, that isn't so easily manipulated like HN and Reddit due to vote manipulation.

Are you sure you aren't just whining because you think more people agree with you than actually do? It's awfully convenient that since people online don't like it that you are dredging up comments from years ago stalking people's accounts and attacking them in support of a horribly unpopular position that is actively destroying things important to tech people, that it's the fault of the format and vote manipulation, and censorship, and mods, and it's all someone else's fault, I'm actually right and everyone is on my side. You conclude it's hard to have a conversation because people don't agree with you, because the conversation isn't going exactly how you want.

It's shocking how people who support him even pick up on his conversational tics; blame anything that you don't like on external enemies, the powers that be, claim everyone actually likes you despite all evidence to the contrary, that your crowd was huge, that it's just the lying liberal elites that control everything out to get you.

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

#67
post #26
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,…

> How can you say "can we save ourselves a really long, pointless political argument" and end your post with a divisive political opinion

Probably because the “divisive” opinion is on a different question than the on tptacek sees as pointless, which he was pretty express about: the pointless argument is about the political meaning of Thiel not being a partner. And he's right, that's not going to get an answer and any argument about it is pointless.

The “divisive” opinion about whether or not it's a good thing that that relationship ended is, at a minimum, not pointless in the same way (it's likely to be fruitless in the way that arguments that rest in clashes of fundamental values are, but that's a different concern.)

> It's really not our place as the internet lynch-mob to interfere with Peter's role in the startup community because of his political views.

You are free to choose to restrain the means in which you apply your free speech and association rights based on this narrow, misguided, elitist view of the role of the hoi polloi, of course.

> Note, @sama said as much when the whole thing went down.

I'm entirely unsurprised that Altman would say no external party of should question YC decisions on political (or, heck, any other) grounds, but I'm not sure why you think noting that he did so adds any weight to your argument.

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

#68
post #60

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 billi…

The sad take-away from Hogan v Gawker isn't that a millionaire can spend money on a whim to exert justice where he so desires, it's that you need that level of money to seek justice in the first place.

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

#69
post #60

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 billi…

He funded someone else's lawsuit, yes. But it's not as if Thiel bribed the judge and jury. The lawsuit won on its own legal merits. Gawker did something they had no right to do, which the law recognized.

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

#70
post #26
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,…

I get the sense from his speeches during the campaign that Thiel believed Trump would act more relaxed and calm down after he won and that it was at the time a lot theatrics of campaigning. If it’s true Thiel’s cooled on him privately that would make sense because his bet didn’t worked out, it’s probably worse for him than losing hundreds of millions on a startup investment because of the social capital lost since people hold their political views so dear.
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