Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley • Hacker News Board

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#101

Post by ivanhoe » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #51

Is Jack Dorsey really "tech's biggest manfluencer"? He didn't invent [ed: start a trend in pop culture] keto, cold showers, intermittent fasting, or meditation. There have been (modern, trend-driven) communities around each of these for 10+ years. And there are loads of people who ALL of these together, just like Jack. I wouldn't be surprised if Dorsey is only 2 degrees removed from Joe Rogan, for example. And in bet…

> He didn't invent keto, cold showers, intermittent fasting, or meditation.

This is the best one-line summary of current buzzwords ever :)))

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#102

Post by smacktoward » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #8

This is really a perfect title. As somebody who grew up in Michigan not far from Battle Creek, I've always been interested the history of wacky self-improvement regimes. (You may remember "The Road to Wellville" as one look at that. [1]) E.g., the inventor of Graham flour believed in all sorts of self-harshness: "Graham created a theology and diet aimed at keeping individuals, families, and society pure and healthy -…

I actually just read The Road to Wellville for the first time a couple weeks ago, and was struck by how much it reminded me of the modern-day startup scene. A profusion of tiny health-food companies, all making extravagant claims and so desperate to raise money that they hawk shares to travelers getting off at the train station. All these companies crowding into tiny Battle Creek, not so much because there was any practical reason for them to be there as because Battle Creek is where health-food companies are supposed to be. A "move fast and break things" attitude that leads to patients getting killed by such "treatments" as bathing in pools of electrified water and prolonged exposure to radium.

The book was written a quarter of a century ago, so it's not like this is a parallel T.C. Boyle explicitly set out to draw. It's just striking how these patterns seem to repeat themselves.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#103

Post by crsv » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #79

Where does Tim Ferriss fit into this culture? Wasn't he a SV god at one point for his 4hr work week and workout books?

Tim hasn't made enough money or amassed enough power to be on the NYT scale of comparison. He's similar in terms of insanity but more niche in his influence. Similar to Joe Rogan (though less entertaining by an order of magnitude, at least imho).

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#104

Post by fsagx » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

Notorious_BLT wrote: post #39

I'm firmly of the opinion that a lot of wellness fads spring up fields like tech because its a field where traditional religious views are rarer. People latch on to these new belief systems that are like religion in most ways beside name. They all have a set of rigid rules to follow and rituals to perform, and they all have some type of self-denial or sacrifice as one of their core values. Fasting, temperance, Whole3…

I've also come to the same conclusion. Many people, if they are not attached to a traditional religion, will similarly attach to something else. The human mind may have a god-shaped or religion-shaped hole in it.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#105

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:19 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#106

Post by echlebek » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:19 PM UTC

pcbro141 wrote: post #38

Never understood the disdain for people for trying wacky sounding self-improvement techniques. Just like I wouldn't make fun of the 17% of Americans who take antidepressant pills to feel happier, I'm definitely not going to make fun of people fasting or using sauna to feel happy.

Fair point! But imagine the reaction if Dorsey was stocking Twitter lunch rooms with anti-depressant pez dispensers. There's a difference between personal choice and advocacy.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#107

Post by XaoDaoCaoCao » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:19 PM UTC

Fasting, cold showers, and meditation? Can't read the full article but remember another article painting Dorsey as "extreme".

But to be honest, it's a reasonable reaction to stimuli that are unique to human history. The 24 hour propoganda news cycle, density with increased stressors, cognitive fragmentatiom due to the number of distractions, and an absolutely horrible dietary culture that will lead us to squandering trillions on treating entirely preventable diseases. Not merely monetarily but literally reducing the cognitive potential of entire populations!

I don't see the quackery in adopting working strategies against these challenges. Note, working strategies. Personally implementing the above 3 along with with weightlifting has been like feeling a cold mountain breeze after living in a swamp.

Nietzsche's remarks, on how the priests of the world have ignored and (gravely) trivialized the 3 things that give arise to daily moral/cognitive judgement: Climate, Diet, and Habit, have been in my mind years after reading them. And their validity seems to flower the more experience life throws.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#108

Post by gojomo » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:19 PM UTC

CharlesColeman wrote: post #42

gojomo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like a delusional person who happens to be an 'engineer', rather than someone who who is 1st & foremost, or archetypally, an engineer.

Its so common for engineers to have excessive confidence in their opinions about subjects far beyond their areas of competence that there's a term for it: engineer's disease (or engineer's syndrome).

I'd need to see some rigorous comparisons to other professions to conclude it's "so common".

The mere act of naming an "engineer's syndrome" could arise from the fact it's peculiarly remarkable against type, or satisfying to resentful observers - rather than actually common. And, once named, such a designation would tend to collect confirmation-bias-feeding anecdotal examples.

I've encountered cranks from every walk of life. I see more engineer cranks, too, but that's simply because professionally, I interact with more engineers than, say, hairstylists or bricklayers or actresses. And have you ever let a taxi/uber driver just expound on their confidently-expressed theories-of-the-world?

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#109

Post by stcredzero » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

As Twitter’s head, he spends his days navigating issues around free speech for white supremacists, online abuse and the spread of terrorist propaganda

The phrasing seems designed to imply that Free Speech is only for bad people and terrorist propaganda.

The reason why Free Speech is a fundamental human right, is that it keeps powerful people and authorities from squashing dissent. We can't just have "Free Speech, so long as we like it and the speaker," precisely because biased parties can then smear their opponents to squash their speech. (Witness the behavior of the SPLC of recent years. Witness the false smearing of Ben Shapiro as a "white supremacist.")

This does mean that we need to let bad people speak as well. No one can be allowed to arbitrate Free Speech. Not only the government, but also powerful people, press conglomerates, and private organizations.

This is precisely why the ACLU in the 20th century often defended the right of (the same) bad people to speak. Because what must be defended is the right of everyone to speak.

Re: Jack Dorsey Is Gwyneth Paltrow for Silicon Valley

#110

Post by gojomo » Thu, May 02, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

jonny_eh wrote: post #52

gojomo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like a delusional person who happens to be an 'engineer', rather than someone who who is 1st & foremost, or archetypally, an engineer.

I've met many "archetypal" engineers that are totally off their rockers when it comes to alternative medicine.

Me too. (Indeed, some would say that about me!)

But without a comparison to the base rate of "off their rockers when it comes to alt medicine" in the general population, that 'many' doesn't mean much. And alternative medicine is very very popular across many populations!