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Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

sam.odio.com

161–170 of 252 posts

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#161
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That'd be way disproportional. And there could be a totally unrelated people who might suffer from the result of that experiment. Just get the money back on the card. As a side effect he can claim the karma points for the entire good deed he described, on his own account. Then his experiment would get a much nicer feel.

No, I really don't think that it is disproportional. Sam Odio hasn't apologized let alone returned the money. In fact, he just tries to justify his actions. I would say it is likely that this is symptomatic of his ethical and moral attitude in general.

I say we hang 'im... then we kill 'im! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKsd8z6scw#t=102

Seriously tho, it seems like this backlash is getting a bit out of hand. There was a silly, whimsical social experiment, and this guy had a silly, whimsical hack on it, now people are calling to destroy his business and run him out of town on a rail. So it wasn't the best decision, so what? Let's keep things in perspective here, friends.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#162
post #154
post #63

Jonathan's Card claimed to be a social experiment, but it was never clear to me exactly what the experiment was supposed to test. As an outsider looking at this experiment, the first question I has was: How would he prevent unintended use of the card's funds? Sam is just part of the experiment. Yes, he's spoiling the good fun of buying coffees for each other, but if it weren't him taking the money, it'd be someone el…

I equate the downvotes as "disliking" this argument, however I still think my question is valid: What exactly was Jonathan setting out to learn (other than that the world is full of untrustworthy people.)

Why don't you ask him?

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robin Hood is all about stealing to the rich to give to the poor and in that respect, I think Sam is right on.

Okay, but I'm not rich and Sam stole from me.

No, you donated to a commons. You expected it to be used in a specific way, but it was used in a different way.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect there's still at least one twist left. rjett [0] and I [1] noticed two more interesting things: 1) Sam commented in the previous thread about buying food for homeless people from the card [2] 2) Sam's brother Daniel was one of the first to mention the possibility of the card being hacked [3]. His startup also funneled close to $600 into the card [4]. The whole thing started as a social experiment. Sam clearl…

Indeed: @Socialize has paid $625 to @Jonathanscard to promote our SDK Speed Challenge. That's enough for an iPad, @sodio! http://besoci.al/q2I0QE http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2878875

That genuinely is great, but whose brothers are going to pay into @Jonathanscard to cover the results of posting the exploitative code used to fund iPads that enables laypeople to do so on their own?

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#165
post #89

God I hate this mentality. Yeah, you can exploit this, but are you doing anything fun or interesting by it? I live in a community that has a lot of cyclists in it. If I'm at home, I tend to spend a lot of time on my front porch working on my bikes with my friends. Most of them know that I keep some tools slightly "hidden" there, and I've told all of my friends that they're welcome to come over and use them if I'm eve…

> but are you doing anything fun or interesting by it? // 140 comments here would imply that it is at least interesting.

Most of the comments here are scolding the person for it. Similarly, if a prominent YC alum broke into our local hackerspace and stole some of our tools, there would probably be a lot of comments scolding them for it.

That doesn't mean the breakin itself is interesting.

(What I meant was that the "hack" wasn't interesting)

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not feeding the poor, he's feeding his ego and acting holier than thou. If he wanted to make a donation to charity, he could do that without subverting an experiment under the guise of "helping people who really matter." I find this entire episode disgusting and if being a "successful entrepreneur" means acting like a douchebag like Sam, may I never be successful. Incidentally, MOST successful entreprenurs I kno…

> They have better things to do than // Better things to do than steal coffees from wealthy Americans in order to feed starving people ... The internet drama is being created by others. I see this as a really interesting, surprising outcome of the experiment, not a "subversion" of it. FWIW people in his sphere of influence appear to have added more money on than the worth he subtracted. Edit: that->than

"Better things to do that steal coffees from wealthy Americans in order to feed starving people ..."

Why stop at coffee? Steal their cars too. Evict them from their homes and set up shelters in them. Kidnap their children and hold them for ransom.

"see this as a really interesting, surprising outcome of the experiment, not a "subversion" of it."

The Stanford Prison Experiment was invalidated by people acting grossly out of what is reasonably expected from people. As a result, the scientific value of the experiment was completely lost. That is what Sam Odio appears to have attempted to cause here. He didn't want to participate, he wanted to destroy the experiment because he found the very notion of such an experiment to be offensive.

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#167
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but are you doing anything fun or interesting by it? // 140 comments here would imply that it is at least interesting.

Most of the comments here are scolding the person for it. Similarly, if a prominent YC alum broke into our local hackerspace and stole some of our tools, there would probably be a lot of comments scolding them for it. That doesn't mean the breakin itself is interesting. (What I meant was that the "hack" wasn't interesting)

Certainly not all. Several address the morality and question it further. I'm sure you'll agree there is a lot of noise from people saying the same thing (aside: this wouldn't be the case under if votes were visibly I think, me toos aren't needed then).

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I really don't think that it is disproportional. Sam Odio hasn't apologized let alone returned the money. In fact, he just tries to justify his actions. I would say it is likely that this is symptomatic of his ethical and moral attitude in general.

I say we hang 'im... then we kill 'im! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKsd8z6scw#t=102 Seriously tho, it seems like this backlash is getting a bit out of hand. There was a silly, whimsical social experiment, and this guy had a silly, whimsical hack on it, now people are calling to destroy his business and run him out of town on a rail. So it wasn't the best decision, so what? Let's keep things in perspective here,…

Excuse me if I don't find statement made after the fact by him such as "is pursuing art (or whatsver) admitting to yourself that you value art more than world hunger? After all, that's how you're allocating your resources." to be "silly" or "whimsical", but rather condescending and pretentious.

Nobody is saying that we should destroy his business. People are saying that we should avoid supporting it.

As for running him out of town on a rail? Well actions like this are not exactly acts of good community building...

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The social experiment revealed that there are in fact people miserable enough in this world to senselessly steal from such a good will fund. In fact, so miserable that they see fit to even brag about it and pretend to themselves their actions were noble. The experiment revealed that the name of one such miserable person is Sam Odio.

yuppies buying each other coffee: a goodwill fund.

Goodwill: something that can only happen when a poor person is involved

(I take it that's what you mean to say?)

Re: Use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but I'm not rich and Sam stole from me.

No, you donated to a commons. You expected it to be used in a specific way, but it was used in a different way.

He donated to a fund that was intended to be used in a very particular way. Sam Odio took money from that fund, used it otherwise, and insulted everyone who placed money into it.

Sam Odio stole from the fund, Sam Odio stole from zacharycohn.

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