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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

#101

Post by legostormtroopr »

jedberg wrote: post #60
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 billi…

Gawker lost against Hulk Hogan on hubbis alone.

Hogan got an injunction to take down the sex tape and Gawkers response was an article titled "A Judge Told Us to Take Down Our Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Post. We Won't."

They sealed their own fates with their muckraking tabloidism.

[1] http://gawker.com/a-judge-told-us-to-take-down-our-hulk-hoga...

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

#102

Post by dionidium »

tetraca wrote: post #98
dionidium wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's essentially pointless because people get too emotionally involved in ideological arguments on the internet, causing themselves to feel attacked when people disagree with them. When this happens, people shut down, stop thinking critically, only acknowledging what they already agree with. The debate then either devolves as people dig their heels in and begin name-calling, or abruptly stops as one side simply refus…

This argument assumes that the point of person A responding to person B is for person A to convince person B, specifically, at that specific moment in time of the specific details of their specific argument.

1) That's not how persuasion works.

2) It's not how ideas or the stubborn humans who hold them work.

3) The point is not, in fact, to convince that one particular person at that one particular moment in time. If that's your goal, then I might suggest that a phone call would be more appropriate. These are public arguments. Read by the public. They're useful far beyond the participants.

4) Minds change over time, rarely in the moment. If your standard for success is immediate agreement, then you've established an unrealistic (and misguided) goal. You'll never get that. But, again, that's OK, because that's not what you should be shooting for in the first place.

5) Argument is as much for you as it is for the person you're trying to convince. Working through objections is good for you. You impoverish yourself when you take this away.

6) People seem to think it's a really strong argument to point out that people get mad or emotional during debates, but I have no idea why I'm supposed to care. So a faceless, nameless avatar that I'll never meet showed too much emotion in an online debate? I have no idea why anybody thinks that's worth mentioning in any context. It's definitely not a persuasive argument for nuking all debate.

It's no wonder so many people have such a dim view of online argument, if your comment represents the conventional thinking on it (and it does).

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

#103

Post by jedberg »

briandear wrote: post #83
jedberg wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

EFF funds other people’s lawsuits too. Isn’t that the exact same thing you are complaining about?

I don't think that is right. They participate in other people's lawsuits as additional council. The don't just give money to other council.

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

#104

Post by tzar »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #13
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…

Sure, let's not argue. But it's fine to be curious. Sam has said that he won't cut Thiel for political ties. Thiel is cut. Does this represent an internal shift in momentum, or an external shift in appearances? Combine that with some recent news regarding Thiel. I wish I'd paid more attention to it. It was something like, Thiel was making a move against a certain company. So maybe it has nothing to do with politics,…

> Sam has said that he won't cut Thiel for political ties. Thiel is cut.

Curiously, that doesn't follow. The article happens not to contain any evidence that it was YC that "cut" ties, nor indicates when the working relationship ended or for what reason.

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

#105

Post by jedberg »

JonFish85 wrote: post #85
jedberg wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"What he basically did was say, "don't ever print anything negative about a billionaire because they can take down your entire business"" No, he didn't. Gawker died on its own merits; in an alternative world where Gawker continued to flaunt the law because someone couldn't afford to fund a lawsuit, I'm OK with this outcome. Not to mention, Gawker did themselves absolutely no favors, from ignoring a federal judge to f…

I agree, Gawker was awful and deserved to die for many reasons.

But it's important to remember that the judgement was only the death blow -- defending the lawsuit was what gave them a slow death. Even if Gawker was right and won, they still would have died.

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

#106

Post by pen2l »

shadowtree wrote: post #96
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…

He also wrote a libertarian pamphlet where he called women's right to vote a blocker of a truly capitalist democracy. Never backed down that claim. Here is the pamphlet, from 2009: https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/educatio... Quote: "Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — h…

He also funded [1] videos like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlWKm01cauc

Things like these rot our society to the core by creating class and race divisions. I am very proud of YC for having distanced itself from Thiel, I just wish they were more vocal about it and that they'd done it earlier.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel#Support_for_politi...

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

#107

Post by danans »

briandear wrote: post #91
tensor wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's of the opinion that university is a waste of time and has gone so far as paying people to drop out. This isn't for people who are going into trades and might strictly not need a university education, but for people who he thinks should go on to found technical, medical, and engineering startups. I'm of the opinion that university is good for everyone, even people who don't strictly need it for their jobs. Democr…

Were Zuckerberg, Jobs, Gates and any number of drop-out founders uneducated and unable to critically think? Of course not. If anyone thinks a university degree means you are educated, you haven’t been in the world very much. My little company deals with mental health professionals with masters and PhD, yet some of them can barely write a coherent sentence (spend five minutes in our support ticket system and you’d be…

> Education IS important, but college is just a means, not an end.

It's pretty well understood that both Gates' and Zuckerberg's success is owed in part to their parents' means (pun intended) and what it afforded them early in life, including attendance at elite private schools and living in prosperous, stable communities, and attending, though not graduating from, an elite university.

They are hardly examples of poorer people becoming big successes without college.

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

#108

Post by zimpenfish »

ssijak wrote: post #76
neo4sure wrote: post #44

In my opinion, this was long overdue. Anyway, Ycombinator maybe strategically getting ready for a world without trump. Having people who supported this type of a Person won't be a good look in the future.

Sure, lets all think the same. Do you play football with people who dont like to eat what you like?

> Do you play football with people who dont like to eat what you like?

I appreciate that trivialising the issues to score cheap slippery slope points is de rigueur these days but you must surely see the yawning dichotomy between "people who don't like to eat what you like" and "people who believe other people are lesser beings less deserving of rights, money, health, protections"

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

#109

Post by Erwin »

jedberg wrote: post #60
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 billi…

Yes, it was a truly chilling effect on the free speech when a website was held responsible for distributing private sex videos to garner clicks.

If that suit didn't happen, would reddit been as fast to stop the "fappening" exchange on their website?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICloud_leaks_of_celebrity_phot...

At least if you are a celebrity with deep pockets you have a good chance of getting your leaked photos wiped.

You're out of luck however if you are just an ordinary person, and partner uploaded your pictures to some "amateur" website as "revenge porn".

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

#110

Post by Simulacra »

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 think he's hated because he's a formidable challenge against an entrenched belief system. People don't like their beliefs challenged, especially when it's the overwhelming majority, IMO. Thiel does that, without worry or shame, and that upsets some folks...
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