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

Ross Perot Has Died

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 222 posts

Re: Ross Perot Has Died

#181

Post by KirinDave »

gdubs wrote: post #2

Many remember Perot as the goofy rich guy who ran for president in 92, but what many don’t know is that he funded NeXT computer - Steve Jobs’ post-Apple venture that was later acquired by Apple and transformed computing for the next decade. Interface Builder and the NextStep core libraries were arguably one of the biggest catalysts of the iPhone App ecosystem. In many ways iOS exists because of NeXT. So while it was…

... Wait.

Are we giving investors specific credit for interface builder when their contribution throwing money at the founder of one of the most famous companies in the 20th century?

I have more to do with Interface Builder than Ross Perot does, and I was like 13 at the time I was there doing user testing for it. Shower me with the appropriate praises please.

Re: Ross Perot Has Died

#182

Post by dllthomas »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #58
protomyth wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ranked choice might work for parliaments, but it would just create unwelcome surprises in the US. I cannot help but think what happened in a sport (NASCAR) with its switch from winner take all to a series of rankings would mean if it were something as important as voting. You might find sports is not a serious argument, but this is the US and the reaction shows some tendencies towards other aspects of life.

FPTP is one of the most efficient and fundamental enemies of democracy, plaguing the USA. Everyone agrees partisanship is bad, people looooove a “bipartisan” bill, but FPTP mathematically converges on a two party system, always. It fuels tribalism and us-vs-them mentality like nothing else and perpetuates a political aristocracy through perverse incentives and hamstrung competition. To see this in effect, consider th…

> RCV might not be your first choice

Heh.

Re: Ross Perot Has Died

#183

Post by solveit »

microtherion wrote: post #145
ccozan wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but even so, the (fictional) RoI on the start money is a few orders of magnitude. Which is not quite ordinary.

Sure, but how much was Perot being lucky vs. him being smart? If Apple had gone with acquiring Be instead of NeXT (which I think was a distinct possibility), Perot's investment could quite possibly have ended up a write-off.

I'll take a 50% chance of a X1000.

Less flippantly, it was a smart bet to make at the time even though things could have gone differently, since we (now) know there was a possible world (ours!) in which it went X1000.

Re: Ross Perot Has Died

#184

Post by dragonwriter »

MaconBacon wrote: post #31

It may not have been preventable, but he was absolutely correct on NAFTA.

> It may not have been preventable, but he was absolutely correct on NAFTA.

He was wrong on NAFTA, pushing the nationalist/mercantilist line that it would divert gains from the US to Mexico when the actual problem was that (as is generally the case for neoliberal “free” trade) that it drove gains to the capitalist class in both the US and Mexico (and internationally, as capital is largely globalized) to the relative disadvantage of the working classes on both sides of the border.

Bill Clinton was largely rhetorically correct on NAFTA, at least in outline (noting that it would be an aggregate boon but would require additional work to avoid adverse impacts on workers), but while he did impose a labor side agreement on NAFTA it was insufficient to change the basic problems.

Re: Ross Perot Has Died

#185

Post by Aloha »

OBLIQUE_PILLAR wrote: post #178

Ross Perot advocated for and greatly influenced the eventual passing of draconian drug laws in Texas. http://www.issues2000.org/Celeb/Ross_Perot_Drugs.htm

Not everyone can be right about everything I'd note.

He was a man who made a tremendous influence, mostly good, some bad.

Re: Ross Perot Has Died

#187

Post by brighter2morrow »

canada_dry wrote: post #164
jason_slack wrote: post #53

I was in high school when Perot ran for President and I was a huge fan. I remember liking how he wasn’t a politician and therefor looked at the problems our country had from a different point of view. This was the first time I had ever watched political debates; because I wanted to hear him speak. He was so different. I also was a huge Apple and then Next fan at that time too. I sent him an email asking if he could h…

> he wasn’t a politician and therefor looked at the problems our country had from a different point of view. This is what many had desired when they propelled the current 'billionaire' non-politican to President. Comparing Ross Perot to Trump is like comparing a Neuroscientist to a Snake-Oil Salesman though.

Funny enough, after Ross Perot the reform party's next presidential nominee was Donald Trump, who ran on a Perot-esque platform and was the first major presidential nominee to support gay marriage

Re: Ross Perot Has Died

#188

Post by brighter2morrow »

jeffrallen wrote: post #154
toomuchtodo wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'll add, "Are you willing and able to extract me from a country I'm located in (in the course of our work) while a revolution is actively in progress?" to my list of interview questions.

Then you might like working for Doctors Without Borders, who can actually answer yes to that.

They're a bit controversial, there's plenty of non-controversial groups doing the same work without the baggage.

Re: Ross Perot Has Died

#189

Post by patrickthebold »

nostrademons wrote: post #146
ccozan wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but even so, the (fictional) RoI on the start money is a few orders of magnitude. Which is not quite ordinary.

It's interesting how much of that happened post-acquisition, though. Holding NeXT from 1987 - 1996 = max 3x return. Holding AAPL from 1996-present = 340x return. This return was available to ordinary people on the public stock markets, too - if you were an average Joe who put $60K into Apple in 1996, you would now have Ross Perot's initial $20M investment sitting in your pocket.

I get your point, but let's take a minute to remind ourselves that the average person does not have 60k lying around to invest.
Post reply on HN