Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs • Hacker News Board

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#81

Post by samhw » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:43 PM UTC

JohnTHaller wrote: post #70

samhw wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And there is a disagreement on the solutions too: progressives are generally apprehensive about nuclear. Yeah, this is one of the things I really hate about my side of the aisle. It's stupid, unscientific, and just plain uninformed. Nuclear energy is one of our best, most actually viable ways out of this mess. (File with: GMO crops, 'chemicals', etc.)

I replied to parent. Democrats now poll around 60% in favor of nuclear energy while Republicans poll at 64% in favor. It changed a lot in a few years.

Ah, I hadn't realised that. I'm really glad to hear that. Obviously I hope PV and other green energy sources will take off, but in the interim nuclear is by far the best established and working green source of energy.

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#82

Post by samhw » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 3:52 PM UTC

johnny_b_g wrote: post #71

samhw wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some other things on that todo list ('rape first wife', 'cheat on pregnant third wife with pornstar', 'publicly blame your failed business on a dead man before his funeral had even taken place', 'send deranged tweets to Kim Jong Un while on cough medicine and alprazolam') but you'll get to them ;) But nah, seriously, I don't know how some people can say such absolutely witless stuff, and still see fit to cl…

Exactly. I'm not a Facebook user, mostly because of the vast and repeated privacy violations they've committed in the past (not to mention their monopoly behaviors and political influencing, etc.) - but because I don't run/own/fund any similar monopolistic entity, I'm essentially forbidden from even talking about it?? Another is ClearView AI (oh look, another Thiel-funded thing!) - I oppose the existence of that comp…

Yeah, it's an absurd claim. And of course it never applies to their own hagiographic opinions of these people and these companies - it only invalidates critics. Handy! Who wants to be the one to tell the Holocaust historians?

And yeah, ClearView is absolutely typical. I'm not going to genuflect to some seasteading-obsessed professed libertarian whose entire business career, practically, has been in the realm of surveillance companies targeted at the bloated and despotic American state. Not even if you wrap it in some cod-philosophy blog post that namedrops Bayesian probability and game theory and Taleb.

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#83

Post by JohnTHaller » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:04 PM UTC

finite_jest wrote: post #77

JohnTHaller wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has changed in the last few years: https://ecoamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/nuclear-su...

That was interesting. Surveys are not that reliable though, and the outcome depends on how the question is being asked. I found this 2020 survey by Pew Research which I think paints a more realistic picture [1]. It has a larger sample size [2], and IMO it asks a more objective/specific question. Among "Conservative Republicans", 59% responded that they support expanding nuclear power plants, in contrast with 35% of "…

This survey is still a year and 7 months old now. In my personal observation is that most of the folks I know here in NYC who identify as a Democrat, Progressive, etc are in favor of nuclear power.

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#84

Post by SavantIdiot » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 7:40 PM UTC

halpert wrote: post #53

SavantIdiot wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A) On what basis do you claim that all public companies are not ethical? (You said "any", but by definition that means "all".) B) By that logic, isn't all money tainted? And everyone of us? And every thing? This is the starting point of every person's decisions regarding being ethical. How far back do you need to "follow the money" before you consider it "ethical"? That is up to every person. Theil has actively engag…

I’m not claiming that all public companies are unethical. I’m claiming that all public companies have some unethical investors. That is, the operations of the company directly benefit some unethical actors. This has nothing to do with “money being tainted” in general. Just to be clear, this is what you said that I was responding to: > I think the concern is that they are taking money from someone with highly debatabl…

It's the "Thiel Foundation". It is in his name.

But that is why I said it is up to the individual. Some people could care less, other people at least want to know if the board is ethical.

I would put in the effort to know if any shady people were on the board of the company I'm taking money from. And if new information came to light after the fact, I would cease taking money.

You can't know everything about everything, and not even attempting to be ethical because you don't have all the information without doing any research is, IMHO, cowardly. It's the "if we can't fix this one big thing why bother doing any of these other things" fallacy. But that's just me and my ilk.

It's easy to make fun of someone trying to be ethical or who cares, because you can't know everything. That's what trolls do for fun. But I think it takes courage to try to stand for something you believe in. Again, that's just me and my ilk.

Re: Thiel Foundation announces next Thiel Fellow class: 23 entrepreneurs

#85

Post by laingc » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 8:17 PM UTC

samhw wrote: post #80

laingc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which of my views are you challenging?

Your approval of Thiel. I agreed with your view that your sample was biased.

Your comment didn’t challenge anything about my approval of Thiel. In fact, your comment didn’t add anything substantive whatsoever apart from a tone of disapproval - hence my question about starting flame wars.

Usefully, your comment has demonstrated the exact phenomenon I was referring to.