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Welcome Home, Garry Tan

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Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#81

Post by maram »

stakkur wrote: post #72
LewisVerstappen wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tan worked at Palantir prior to 2007, so if you’re blaming him for Palantir’s work with ICE then… > they out themselves as either evil or stupid

Based only on your comment, I'm guessing you're unaware of Palantir's work with intelligence agencies even when Tan was there. Also, Thiel's mission from the start was this kind of work. I served in the Marine Corps. I've had some exposure to Palantir's 'offerings'. It's a fucking nightmare of a company, morally and ethically, and it always has been.

Not to defend Thiel, but don’t you think that his exist from Facebook (after 17 years) because of the stance they took at the beginning of the pandemic is worthy of some attention?

Specially, that Facebook suffocated voices of Trump’s advisors who opposed the lockdown.

“Social media, particularly Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, was actively suffocating voices, including mine, that dissented from the accepted COVID narrative. By August, Facebook told the Washington Post they had taken down seven million posts “for spreading coronavirus misinformation.” Meanwhile, Wikipedia crafted smears and distortions of my background and then locked it to edits”. —Dr. Scott Atlas, A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#82

Post by vxNsr »

preommr wrote: post #69
maram wrote: post #47

“Garry Tan is a moral canary in a coal mine. When people hate on Garry Tan, they out themselves as either evil or stupid, because in fact Garry is as close to a 100% good guy as you get”. —Paul Graham https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1460931338131890180 ———— Congratulations Garry! Your blogs were my inspirations when I was running my startup. I always remember this line: “The ideal startup team involves really two ma…

> The extreme left in SF politics (which in SF = the Establishment). ??? kind off topic, but I am curious what other people in SF think about this statement. I don't live there, but I find it surprising and dubious that the extreme anything is also "the establishment", not saying it's not possible but seems unlikely to me.

My guess is: the administration controlling North Korea would be considered by many to be extreme (left, right, you pick) but in North Korea they are the establishment.

So too in SF, outside of cali they would be considered extreme (left, right, you pick) but in SF they are the establishment.

Not passing judgment on whether that’s right or wrong just saying that’s what that line could mean.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#83

Post by deepspace »

sneak wrote: post #63

> After earning a degree in computer engineering from Stanford, Garry was an engineer at Palantir and then created one of the earliest and best-designed blogging platforms, Posterous. This is a reminder that Palantir is the firm that sells data mining software to US police and military organizations that then use it to violate human rights. It should be a black mark on anyone’s record.

> It should be a black mark on anyone’s record.

Exactly. I have always maintained that a small but significant way to put pressure on 'evil' companies, like Palantir, is to blacklist any employees who have them on their resume, making it difficult for them to attract talent. Unfortunately, I have found that very people share that view, and I am hard-pressed to figure out why.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#84

Post by systemvoltage »

stakkur wrote: post #72
LewisVerstappen wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tan worked at Palantir prior to 2007, so if you’re blaming him for Palantir’s work with ICE then… > they out themselves as either evil or stupid

Based only on your comment, I'm guessing you're unaware of Palantir's work with intelligence agencies even when Tan was there. Also, Thiel's mission from the start was this kind of work. I served in the Marine Corps. I've had some exposure to Palantir's 'offerings'. It's a fucking nightmare of a company, morally and ethically, and it always has been.

I've studied Thiel, he's just not mainstream left. If you want to listen to him with good faith, I enjoyed this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM9f0W2KD5s

Doesn't come across evil to me unless by evil you mean just not mainstream left, which might be the correct in the valley.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#85

Post by purple_ferret »

garry wrote: post #3

Believe it or not, my journey to Y Combinator started similar to how you may experience YC — through being a regular lurker and reader on Hacker News. I went to Startup School, me and my cofounders applied, we got an interview, and we got in. I was an engineer, designer and PM. I'd built teams and products, but I'd never built a company. YC gave me a shot, a community, knowhow, and the ability to access capital, tale…

Did you cash out of COINBASE yet?

300k to 2.4 billion WOW

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#86

Post by systemvoltage »

maram wrote: post #47

“Garry Tan is a moral canary in a coal mine. When people hate on Garry Tan, they out themselves as either evil or stupid, because in fact Garry is as close to a 100% good guy as you get”. —Paul Graham https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1460931338131890180 ———— Congratulations Garry! Your blogs were my inspirations when I was running my startup. I always remember this line: “The ideal startup team involves really two ma…

Being a good guy probably ranks the least IMO for leading VC. You need to be extremely shrewd and calculative, have a great bullshit detector, need to have solid intuition based on scant data, good general knowledge, well versed in various industries and areas of study, pragmatic and brutally honest. I am probably missing a few more. Speaking generally, nothing against Garry.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#87

Post by purple_ferret »

stakkur wrote: post #60
maram wrote: post #47

“Garry Tan is a moral canary in a coal mine. When people hate on Garry Tan, they out themselves as either evil or stupid, because in fact Garry is as close to a 100% good guy as you get”. —Paul Graham https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1460931338131890180 ———— Congratulations Garry! Your blogs were my inspirations when I was running my startup. I always remember this line: “The ideal startup team involves really two ma…

I have no strong opinion of Tan, but calling a person who happily worked for (and profited from) Palantir a 'moral canary in a coal mine' seems a bit of a stretch.

Yeah but that was before he had the type of money to buy the moral high ground

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#89

Post by ignoramous »

extent-connifer wrote: post #59

(Throwaway because it’s a small world) This is disappointing. YC needs a fresh perspective. Recycling older members is not a positive sign for continued innovation. I wouldn’t point to “HODL diamond hands” crypto hype (suddenly disappeared..) and personal brand-building content creation as the type of leadership YC needs at this stage. Specifically in this, someone who has been running a large VC fund for the past ha…

> YC needs a fresh perspective. Recycling older members is not a positive sign for continued innovation.

That they may need [0], but I wouldn't be as dismissive about their current crop of partners either, given their ridiculous and sustained success.

> Lastly, to balance flood of positive reviews, there have been consistent (if quiet, again, small world) reports of pettiness and using power/influence against personal grudges.

I wouldn't know for sure, but there's two sides to every coin: With great power comes great responsibility" / "With great power comes the absolute certainity that you will turn into a right c*"

[0] In the lieu of other firms doing things differently, including ex-YC Daniel Gross' Pioneer.App, BeOnDeck, Enterpreneur First, Sequoia Arc, a16z Start, and others.

Re: Welcome Home, Garry Tan

#90

Post by garry »

hellomyguys wrote: post #50

I guess everyone Garry has blocked on Twitter will not be applying to YC any time soon :)

Twitter has been a tough one - I got involved in local politics which has been a challenge. Large accounts typically do have to block a lot to make it usable, and in particular I've had problems with folks doxxing my former home address (I had to sell that house and move), and making threats of violence against me.

I'm sorry if I got it wrong, and I am happy to unblock if I did get it wrong.

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